Focus on Country Victoria

State of Change: Regional & rural stories of 2020 is a State Library Victoria photo exhibition documenting the year that was 2020 in regional Victoria through a local lens.

What are the unique issues facing our communities? What do our communities hope for and how will recent events shape the future?

The events of 2020 had a huge impact on Victorians. A devastating bushfire season was preceded by years of drought and followed by the arrival of the COVID-19 global pandemic and its far-reaching effects.

Here, in a photography project proposed by award-winning photographer John Rodsted, State Library Victoria worked with regional and rural photographers to document people’s stories and lives. This selection of work by Tiffany Garvie, Fabiana Guerreiro, Aldona Kmieć and James Wiltshire is part of a larger collection of over 350 images gathered from communities throughout Victoria with selected photographs touring libraries across the state.

These images and oral histories are a part of an ongoing State Library Victoria photography commission called Focus on country Victoria.

This project received a Highly Commended for the AMaGA Victoria Award for large museums/galleries in the 2021 Victorian Museums and Galleries Awards.

See this touring exhibition at:

Colac Library | 4 July – 29 August 2022
Bright Library | 11 July – 10 October 2022
Geelong Library | 29 August – 29 September 2022