John Gollings holds a Master’s degree in Architecture from RMIT University and an Honorary Fellowship of the Australian Institute of Architects. He is Adjunct Professor, School of Media and Communications, RMIT. He works in the Asia-Pacific region as an architectural photographer, much of the work involving long-term cultural projects, especially in India, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Libya, and New Guinea. He specialises in the documentation of cities, old and new, a lot of it from the air. He has had a particular interest in the cyclic fires and floods that characterise the Australian landscape. He was co-creative director of the Venice Architectural Biennale 2010.
Books include two volumes of New Australia Style published by T&H; City of Victory, Aperture; and Kashgar, Oasis City on the Silk Road, Francis Lincoln. In 2012, Thames and Hudson published Beautiful Ugly, a monograph of his contemporary architectural photography .
His work are held by the Asia Society, New York; Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montreal; Australian National Gallery; National Gallery of Victoria; The National Portrait Gallery: the Monash Gallery of Art; the State Library of Queensland; The Janet Holmes á Court Collection; Gold Coast Gallery, Rockhampton Art Gallery; and the National Library of Australia. The Kaladham Museum in Karnataka, India, was built by the Jindal Steel Company to house his life’s work at the Hampi Ruins.
Recent exhibitions include the Australian Centre for Photography, Gold Coast Gallery; The Immigration Museum, Victoria; Fremantle Arts Centre and the National Gallery of Australia. In 2013, The McClelland Gallery showed Aftermath, the bushfire series from Black Saturday.
He has twice received the Australian Institute of Architects President’s Award and in 2013 was awarded the inaugural William J. Mitchell International Committee Prize by the Australian Institute of Architects.
John Gollings AM is on the judging panel for Australasia's Top Emerging Photographers 2019.