Michel Lawrence has done us all a great service: his book belongs in every home to inspire us.
Mark Rubbo Readings Books
This captivating collection of portraits and personal stories proves that good things can come from bad!
Rosemarie Milsom Sydney Sun Herald
The 250 piece collection … is arresting and fascinating.
Lily Bragge The Saturday Age
The idea for this project was very simple. It was to graphically illustrate the amazing cultural diversity in Australia today.
The candidates must have been born overseas, preferably in their country of origin. But this proved difficult in many instances just because of the circumstances of war and the displacement of millions of people in so many countries around the world. They did not need to have been naturalised, although this proved to be a uniquely common thread: almost everyone who was photographed for All of Us could count to the day when they would get Australian citizenship- if they didn’t already have it! They just needed to have chosen to make Australia their home.
The outcome of the project was an installation on the walls of the Crossbar building at Federation Square on Australia Day 2008. There was also a smaller show of selected works at Australian Galleries- Works on Paper- on the corner of Smith Street and Derby St Collingwood, and of course a large format book containing the photographs along with short descriptive captions. The exhibition subsequently toured India in 2009 and a follow up exhibition Indian Aussies began its tour of India in 2010 and is still in India today.
The photographs were subsequently included in TV commercials, radio ads, press advertising and outdoor advertising, all directed and produced by The Egg. Following the success of the original website The Egg also designed and built a further site for the Victorian Multicultural Commission to showcase Australia’s cultural diversity.
All of Us was funded by the Australian and Victorian State Governments along with a number of private companies, organizations and benefactors.
Click this link to View the ABC’s 7.30 Report on All of Us
All of Us, by Michel Lawrence. Published by Scribe. (Now out of print)