About Vincent Rommelaere

The Project

Australia has over 10,000 beaches and more than 50,000km of coastline. Hundreds of rock pools, hidden coves, and landscapes.

Australia Unseen is my ongoing project to explore and photograph this country, one trip at a time. Every image in the store is a real photograph from a real place I've travelled to. No AI, no stock, no studio setups. Just me, a camera, a drone, and a lot of sunscreen and early mornings.

How it started

I'm Vincent. I'm French, I moved to Sydney in 2005, and somewhere along the way I fell in love with the Australian coastline and its lifestyle.

A few years ago, when I was living in Surry Hills, I found myself spending too much time indoors, behind a screen, stuck in my own head. I needed a reason to get outside. Photography became that reason. Having a project, a place to be, a sunrise to chase, it gave me a purpose to get out the door at 5am when staying in bed would have been easier. That hasn't changed. If anything, it gets a little easier to wake up early once you're past 40. Not much else does, but that part works out. This is still what gets me up and moving. It's good for my head, and I think most people feel the same way when they spend time near the ocean or out in nature. It's grounding. It feels good.

The evolution

In 2013, I bought my first drone. A DJI Phantom 1 with about 12 minutes of flight time and no screen with a live view. You'd send it up, point it roughly where you hoped the shot was, and hope for the best. It was basic, but seeing Sydney from above for the first time changed everything. I wanted to photograph every corner of this place.

The project started as Sydney Unseen. A few months later, I went to Byron Bay and realised Sydney wasn't enough. So I changed the name to Australia Unseen. Then came the feedback I needed to hear: "You're called Australia Unseen but it's all Sydney." They were right. So I started going on little photo trips. Then came the books, and more trips.

I drove the Great Ocean Road. I photographed Uluru at sunrise. I explored the cliffs of South Australia and the turquoise water of Western Australia. The collection now covers six states, over 600 photographs, and more locations than I can list. But the project isn't finished. It's a work in progress.

Alongside Australia Unseen, I work as a photographer and filmmaker for brands, tourism and councils. See that work at rommelaere.com

The prints

I work with professional photo labs in Australia, the US, and the UK. Your print gets produced and framed locally, close to where you live, rather than shipped halfway around the world.

The paper is museum-grade, the inks are archival, and the frames are handmade. I've spent a long time finding the right people to work with on this, because a photograph you're going to see on your wall every day has to feel right. I wouldn't sell something I wouldn't hang in my own home.

Shop prints

What's next

I've got a growing list of places I haven't made it to yet. Tasmania, the Kimberley, more of regional Victoria, and a lot of coastline in between. A lot. Every trip adds to the collection, and I share new prints as soon as they're ready.

If there's a place in Australia you'd love to see photographed, let me know. I can't promise I'll get there next week, but it goes on the list.