During the 1960s and 1970s, surf culture began to develop, gaining significant traction in Australia, and John Witzig was the man behind the lens documenting it.

After a visit to a market, friends visited a farmhouse outside Byron Bay Source: ABC

50 of John’s classic images of surf culture from this era will be exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra from August 14.

John co-founded the ‘surfers bible’, Tracks Magazine, but don’t expect the exhibition to feature too many photographs of surfing – a larger focus is lent to the community of individuals living an alternative lifestyle.

‘There’s no surf in a lot of the photographs of mine… standing on the beach with a big lens – it’s a really boring thing to do, so I got sick of that pretty early,’ he told the ABC.

‘When you were editing a magazine and you were writing stories about something, you needed to paint a wider picture than surfing photographs – well I needed to.’

The National Portrait Gallery describes ‘Arcadia: Sound of the Sea’, as ‘imbued with a romantic conception of the awesome and spiritually restorative force of the sea, it expresses the free-spirited, revolutionary character of a group of young and perfectly-formed Australian surfers in the early 1970s.

Revolutionary surfer, Wayne Lynch, at Possum Creek near Byron Bay in 1969 Source: ABC

The 69-year old, who still lives on the North Coast of New South Wales, photographed many coastlines that would barely resemble today’s environment.

‘In terms of exploration of the Australian coastline…we were sort of the first ones doing it,’ he said. ‘So it was adventurous, it was really fun – you could live really simply and quite cheaply.’

John holding a self-portrait of himself at the NPG.

‘You could surf for days on a major Australian surf break in say 1966 without seeing anybody – which is quite extraordinary.’

The exhibition entitled ‘Arcadia: Sound of the Sea’ will be curated by Sarah Engledow and John’s work will be alongside ink drawings by Nicholas Harding and psychedelic film footage from Alby Falzon (Morning of the Earth)

Arcadia: Sounds of the Sea will open on August 14 at National Portrait Gallery, King Edward Terrace, Parkes, ACT 2600