01 Feb The development of Australia: A Photo Imaging Story of Australian Infrastructure

Population growth in Australia has been a constant over the past 200 years. The pressure of population growth, combined with our relative wealth as a nation, has seen a steady stream of infrastructure development.

Today, Australia’s top 12 infrastructure projects have a combined investment plan of $86.29B. The Federal FY 22 Budget committed $15.2B to infrastructure projects. Also, in 2019, an Infrastructure Australia report forecast the need for at least $40B annual spending on infrastructure, totalling $600B over the next 15 years to 2035.

The visual records of significant infrastructure construction projects form a substantial part of our story as a constantly developing nation. We can all think of iconic images of major civic construction projects such as the Snowy Mountains Hydro Scheme, Sydney’s Harbour Bridge and Opera House, and Melbourne’s Federation Square.

Documenting Australian Infrastructure has been a career-defining expedition for Images for Business’ founder and director, Chris Shain. It continues with contributions from the Images for Business team every day.

Chris explains: “We try not to take ourselves too seriously, but we very much believe in the importance of documenting the construction of our built environments. Today, images are such a big part of the marketing and communications of development projects. But what’s interesting is that these pictures become more valuable and interesting over time. Nothing tells a story like pictures do”.

Today, imaging is a multi-discipline field, with most projects now commissioning a mix of still, video, time-lapse and aerial drone images. The diversification of media has created a ravenous appetite for images for web, mobile, social media, and traditional visual media channels.

With the advancement of imaging, the Images for Business team has remained at the forefront of imaging techniques and technology.

“We were one of the pioneers of construction time-lapse photography in Australia, Chris continued. We’ve made substantial investments in time-lapse control devices and cameras along with video editing and post-production equipment and operator skills”.

“We love what we do and gain great satisfaction from working with government and private sector businesses on large infrastructure projects. The fantastic thing is the legacy these pictures leave for the future generations who will take an interest in Australia’s history”.