Sydney Icons > Robert Billington

Born in England, Robert Billington moved to Australia from the U.K. at the age of 18. After backpacking around Australia, New Guinea and Africa he settled down to run a corner store in the Perth suburb of Maylands for 2 years. At the age of 24 Robert bought a camera and started to practice his craft. This was to be the start of an impressive career as a fine art photographer, portrait maker and a Master of Photography. With his young family he moved to Arcadia, North of Sydney in 1988. Robert started shooting images for his first book, 'Rustic Paradise'. These shots captured a unique part of Australia. Arcadia was then a community largely untouched by the hustle and bustle of city life, and the images Robert created were humorous, emotional, quirky and very Australian. Max Dupain hailed the book 'a classic'. The images were soon collected by the Australian National Gallery, The Art Gallery of NSW and the Queensland Art Gallery. Most recently Robert won the title of 'Australian Editorial Photographer of the Year' for the second year running. In 1994, he was also named Australian Photographer of the Year by the Australian Institute of Professional Photographers (AIPP). Roberts list of publications has now grown to include 4 books including Playground, Balmoral, and the award winning 'The Bridge'.