About Sophie Howarth
Photograph by Lisa Haymes Photography
"My work is about reverence.
This is at the heart
of my practice."
Sophie Howarth, during a 30-year career in photography, has specialised in social documentary and commercial photography, and now makes her living as an exhibiting artist.
The key theme in Sophie's art is reverence - found in the environment, far-off-lands, festivals, and the everyday.
A graduate of Sydney’s National Art School, her early practice flourished in the demanding, creative environment of Australia's rock music scene.
There, she earned an access-all-areas pass as an official photographer for the iconic Big Day Out; toured through Arnhem Land with legendary Aboriginal performers, Gurrumul Yunupingu and the Saltwater Band; and became a staff photographer for Rolling Stone Australia.
Her rock & roll archive is now an important document of Australian and international music culture, from the 1990s to the mid-2000s which attracts interest from gallery and museum curators - featured in exhibitions such as Unpopular (Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, 2022-2023).
A solo retrospective of Sophie's work, Behind the Lens with Sophie Howarth, developed and curated by Glasshouse Regional Gallery Port Macquarie (2021), diarised and celebrated the anthology of imagery created by Sophie to date - telling individual stories, capturing experiences, culture, and land.
Behind the Lens showcased images from Sophie's visits to Mongolia as an embedded photographer for The Golden Eagle Festival, wearable art from her emerging collaboration with Hoponit Designs of Melbourne, Homage to Chicks - an impressive 16-metre installation from the Sophie Howarth Photography Rock & Roll Archive that highlights women’s independent presence throughout all industries, and her first book - Peace Love and Brown Rice A Photographic History of the Big Day Out which shared the spirit of the festival from an insider's perspective.