Bill Henson is one of Australia’s most enduring contemporary artists with a career spanning more than 40 years. His photographs range from portraits of adolescents to emotive landscapes, providing viewers with the opportunity to contemplate the ambiguous and transcendent qualities of his works.

In some respects Henson is a very traditional artist. His interest in the sublime dimensions of life, and the emotional intensity of the individual, situates him in a romantic tradition dating back to the 18th century. His emphasis on the aesthetic experience of the artwork also points to this particular tradition of art-making. He nonetheless brings a late 20th-century perspective to this romantic vision, using the medium of photography to engage contemporary sensibilities with the emotional intensity of the human experience.