Seeing Our Creative Community

Sightlines 26 brings together the work of eight emerging photographers from Kiama, Shellharbour and the Shoalhaven who have spent the past ten months developing their practice through the Sightlines Collective mentoring program.

Sightlines Collective, 2026

Photography here is more than a technical skill — it is a way of looking, connecting and participating. Through mentorship, experimentation and plenty of trial and error, each photographer has been developing their own visual language while learning to respond to the creative life unfolding across the South Coast.

As members of the Sightlines Collective, the photographers have gained real-world experience documenting exhibitions, performances, festivals, gigs and the people who make our creative communities what they are.

Their photographs capture artists in moments of concentration, performance, connection and celebration, as well as the quieter exchanges that happen around creative activity.

Together, these images form a collective portrait of the South Coast’s creative life: an evolving archive of people, places and moments that might otherwise pass unseen.

For many of the photographers represented here, this is their first exhibition. Sightlines 26 is therefore not only a celebration of photography, but of confidence, creative growth and the possibilities that emerge when people are given the opportunity to learn, experiment and share their work.

Sightlines 26 celebrates eight new photographic voices and the creative communities that inspired them.

Sightlines is made possible thanks to the support of Photomart (Shellharbour)