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Private, even intimate, images of ordinary Australians represent one of the strengths of the Library’s Collection. They serve to communicate, with great immediacy, the larger picture of Australian life.
But photographers have also taken arresting images of events that form part of our broader collective memory. Some of these events are quite local, but nonetheless significant in the history of a particular town or community. Others unfold on a national scale, such as major protests and political rallies, big sporting events, catastrophic natural disasters or the current COVID-19 pandemic.