Sophie Howarth during a 30 years career in photography has specialised in social documentary and commercial photography. Drawing on her social documentary photography Sophie’s current focus is as an exhibiting artist. The key theme that runs through her work is reverence, found in cultural environments, music festivals, far-off lands and the everyday. 

A graduate of Sydney’s National Art School her practice flourished in the demanding and creatively rich environment of Australia's rock music scene. With a visual sensibility that earned Sophie an access-all-areas pass as official photographer to iconic events like the Big Day Out, touring with artist Gurrumul Yunupingu through Arnhem Land and staff photographer for Rolling Stone Australia. The legacy of her early work is a culturally significant archive of world-class Australian and international rock music artists and the music scene from the 1990s to mid- 2000s. Her archive of work is now an important document of Australian culture.

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Sophie’s recent exhibition ‘Behind the Lens with Sophie Howarth’ developed and curated by Glasshouse Regional Gallery diarises and celebrates this expansive anthology of imagery created by Sophie to date, telling individual stories, capturing experiences, culture and land. 

Drawing on her archive, Sophie’s first book Peace Love and Brown Rice A Photographic History of the Big Day Out realises in text and image, the spirit of the Big Day Out experience. A more recent collection from the archive – Homage to Chicks  to be exhibited with the Head On Festival 2022, highlights women’s independent presence throughout all industries. Sophie’s love of tour photography and cultural festivals had her embedded as a photographer of The Golden Eagle Festival of Mongolia, the standout work in her most recent solo exhibition.

‘Behind the Lens with Sophie Howarth’ set to tour Nationally in 2023. 

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Read and download Sophie's CV here.