Titans of a Generation

The Wilderness barbecue 1969 The Wilderness surfboard factory was in the sugar cane fields (and swamp) inland from Angourie. This was dinner one night. Photo: John Witzig

Christmas Day, Hay 1970 My friend Nigel Coates and I were on our way across the country, heading to Margaret River in Western Australia. I liked the adventures just as much as the surfing. Photo: John Witzig

Mark Campbell at Spooky 1973 I’d been shooting with the little Nikonos waterproof camera for a while, and if you got really close, you could get some good pictures with it. Photo: John Witzig

Paul and Ramy, Cactus c. 1974 My brother, his wife Marianne, and their young son spent a few years living in the spectacular desert landscape of Point Sinclair on the Great Australian Bight. I wouldn’t have wanted to live there, but it was a great place to visit. Photo: John Witzig

A wave at Matakana Island, New Zealand 1975 I was staying with my friend Rodney Dahlberg and we went out to Matakana in a boat. It really wasn’t that good, but on this not-especially-wonderful day, there was this one, beautiful, just-about-perfect wave. Photo: John Witzig

Buzzy Kerbox at Haleiwa 1976 In many ways, this picture marks the end of my time as a ‘surf photographer’ (had I ever seen myself as one). I would’ve been holding the Nikonos out in my right hand as far away as possible to avoid being run over. I love the weird composition. No editor has ever seen what I do in this picture – not that I’m still bearing a grudge about that 38 years later. Photo: John Witzig

Nat at Collaroy c. 1961. I’d borrowed a camera and telephoto lens from my friend Ron Perrott who was one of the pre-eminent Australian surf photographers of the day. We happened to be at Collaroy in Sydney, and a gangly kid nicknamed Gnat happened to be in the water. Not a bad subject for your first surfing pictures. Photo: John Witzig

Toes on the nose c. 1962 A bunch of us were at Duranbah, just across the northern NSW border in Queensland. This was a picture taken for fun amongst friends – Nat’s big feet on Midget’s big nose. The ‘friends’ bit didn’t last. Photo: John Witzig

Midget Farrelly at Palm Beach c. 1964 Midget was the first great hero of Australian surfing. If his influences were Californian (the Phil Edwards multi-stringered boards and the Peter Van Dyke drop-knee cutback), he put the whole package together with a great individual style. Photo: John Witzig

Bob McTavish, Noosa nose ride c. 1966 Just before the start of what would become the shortboard revolution, McTavish with his take on the nose ride – so cool, so stylish, so 1960s. Photo: John Witzig

Headless McTavish 1966 The first picture of mine that got itself a name. Shot at Point Cartwright on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, it came to symbolise what McTavish and Nat called the ‘involvement’ school. Photo: John Witzig

Nat, bottom turn, Honolua 1967 I got lucky and was the only stills photographer at Honolua Bay in December 1967 when the Australians (and an expatriate American mat-rider named George Greenough) announced to the world that things were happening Down Under. Photo: John Witzig

Wayne Lynch at Bells 1970 Wayne was very unhappy about the World Championships being held in Victoria in 1970, and the exposure it gave to a coastline he loved and was protective of. He seems cheerful in this picture – probably because he was abusing the photographer. Photo: John Witzig

Country soul 1969 My pictures are mostly of the friends I surfed and hung around with. Even if you worked for surfing magazines (as I did from the mid-1960s), paid trips were absolutely the exception. Your own world became your subject. Photo: John Witzig

Arcadia 1969 I was trying to take pictures that said something about the times. This is Wayne Lynch and Bob McTavish at the beautifully-named Possum Creek in the hills behind Byron Bay. Photo: John Witzig