John Witzig: These Are (Mostly) Pictures You've Never Seen

Engaging readers and students in art sometimes involves making the story relevant to their lives. In These Are (Mostly) Pictures You've Never Seen, Australian fine art photographer John Witzig takes us into the world of surfing from the mid-1960s to the late 1970s. 

"Viewed simply as a representation of an alternative culture of the 1970s, Witzig’s photographs were valid and intriguing even back then. But viewed with today’s eyes, they seem almost impossibly innocent and idealistic, like looking at a remote tribe of wild-haired boys just discovered by anthropologists for the  National Geographic."

The images in this book capture an intimate spirit of those times and a sense that they are irrevocably gone. Growing up on the coast, Witzig has since exhibited widely and his photographs are held in national collections. He contributed his first piece to Surfing World in 1963 and later worked full-time for the magazine. In 1966 he produced the pivotal 'New Era' issue that documented for the first time the rapid changes in performance and equipment taking place in surfing and being lead by the Australians. After Nat Young's win at the World Championships in San Diego in 1967 he wrote "We're Tops" which the American publication Surfer later described as inflammatory.

Witzig went on to edit Surf International and founded Tracks in 1970 with Albe Falzon and David Elfick. He started Sea Notes in 1977, and contributed to American magazines.

John Witzig took defining Australian images of our mid-century surf culture with an artful eye where the sport at large was still emerging.

This is a great library resource for photography, social history, culture, sport and art.