Rosebud by Matthew Sleeth

Matthew Sleeth’s candid images in his Rosebud series were captured when he visited Rosebud on the Mornington Peninsula from 2002–2006, usually during the first week of January when the popularity of the foreshore was at its peak. Shot on a medium format camera, the photographs provide a rich documentation of a quintessential Australian experience: summer holidays spent camping by the beach. The photographs are bathed in the strong sunlight of Australian summers and evoke deep nostalgia for long, slow days and hot, sticky nights.

‘Rosebud was the town where my family spent our summer holidays," Sleeth said. "We camped on the same site every year with the same neighbours until I was about 13, and like many things lost from childhood, the memories are still vividly clear. But the thing that always stayed with me was the light. The late afternoon light on the beach, through the trees felt endless.’