One of Australia’s Great Surf Photographers to
Display at Surf World

“…incisive, controversial, self-indulgent, perceptive, outrageous, brash and articulate…” Jim Kempton, Surfer Magazine “Some say art is best when it honours where it come from. The John Witzig palette draws on poetry, mood and tone. There is something different about John Witzig’s surfing photography. You can really sense something extra. Sure it’s driven by his deep appreciation of surfing’s historical and cultural footprint, but equally so is its whispering literate quality.” Mark Cherry

“John Witzig’s photographs from the 1960s and ‘70s are layered relief of surfing when it was a still a subculture. His classis line-ups, candid portraits and busted boards are a socio-historical record, lyrical and alive, full of memories and dreams.” Mark Cherry
 
John Witzig got lucky when some of his friends got famous. He was hanging around surfing in Australia with the right people at the right time.
He miss-spent his youth involved with surfing magazines – writing, taking photographs, editing and designing – until it dawned on him that he's better get a real job.
John contributed his first piece to Surfing World in 1963 and later worked full-time for the magazine. In 1966 he produced the pivotal ‘New Era’ issue that documented for the first time the rapid changes in performance and equipment taking place in surfing… and being lead by the Australians. After Nat Young’s win at the World Championships in San Diego in 1966 he wrote ‘We’re Tops Now’ for the American publication Surfer… an article later described as “splendidly inflammatory”.
He went on to edit Surf International for Gareth Powell; found Tracks in 1970 with Albe Falzon and David Elfick; Sea Notes in 1977, and contribute occasionally to the American magazines. He works mainly in mainstream publishing and continues to take photographs for fun.

The pictures in this up coming exhibition cover the decade from 1966. They chronicle a period of astonishing creativity – the short board revolution that had its genesis in the combined talents of Bob McTavish, George Greenough and Nat Young. It was a time when Australian surfing swept all before it and enjoyed a period of influence that will, almost certainly, never be repeated.

Copyright © 1993-2007 Surf World Museum