Trent Mitchell — Australian Lustre
13 March — 19 April, 2026
Trent Mitchell, Australian Lustre
Hillvale presents Australian Lustre by photographer Trent Mitchell; a collection of vibrant landscapes and sunburnt vignettes, drawn from a 15-year photographic journey across Australia. Drawing links with the idyllic holidays of his childhood, contemplating the notions of time and memory, and exploring where we belong in this, at times, strange place we call home. Building on the success of his stellar 320-page photobook Australian Lustre first published in 2024, now in it’s second edition (2025), Mitchell’s photographs are both playful and contemplative and invite the viewer’s to reflect on evolving realities and layered contradictions of the contemporary Australian landscape.
Trent Mitchell, Australian Lustre
Over the years, we grew to love our little slice of regional Australia — the people, the slang, the rituals, the beaches, the colours and the atmosphere. During these never-ending holidays, our family existed in a quintessentially Australian world, and the experiences were etched deep into the corners of my subconscious, truly informing the curiosity and passion that I carry with me on the road now.
Today, I find myself pointing a camera towards the past, holding onto those cherished slices of time in hope to infuse the reflections and feelings into pictures. Sometimes, I retrace and redocument places and things over the years. Is this collection a study of time and place? It is in some respects, but it’s more than that. In the same way I’m drawn back to my childhood experiences, these pictures delve into a deeper family past — that of my colonial ancestors who arrived here as part of the First Fleet.
Thinking about the darker undertones and, at times, ridiculousness and contradictions of the culture we have created here, feels deeply unsettling. I might not have realised it as a twelve-year-old, but I’ve always questioned where we stand in this strange and compelling land. Raising a lens to things I do and don’t like, Australian Lustre is a fifteen-year voyage based on a true story at the crossroads between yesterday and today, memories and dreams. An experiment with time and a process of reckoning with identity.
— Trent Mitchell
Trent Mitchell (b.1979) has been photographing professionally for two decades through a narrative approach focusing on the environment in the broadest possible sense. He has also gained a reputation for his wry yet sensitive take on the manmade world, zeroing in on its various idiosyncrasies and contradictions. On both personal and assigned projects, his work is identified by an ability to not only compose his subject but distill the sensibility of the location and give a true connection to place.
Working across digital and film, in both black and white and colour, this Australian photographer, who has a background in art direction, design and publishing, has received wide recognition internationally. He won the Moran Contemporary Photographic Prize in 2015, and has been a finalist for the award over a number of years. He has also been featured in, among others, the International Photography Awards, Sony World Photography Awards, Head On and Australian Life Photographic Prize. His work has been acquired for many public and private collections, including the National Library of Australia. In 2025, ‘Australian Lustre’ was presented in a solo exhibition at the Australian Embassy in Paris.