Australia: Facing the South. A book by David Evans: In the Adelaide City region of South Australia

Most days on Adelaide’s suburban beaches you’ll find the locals relaxing beside one of the many jetties along the coast. To us the jetties are a standard feature of the landscape but to Adelaide newcomer, David Evans, they're a photographer's dream.

“Everything here is new and interesting to me,” David said. “I'm like a kid in a candy shop in South Australia. I’ve been here a few years and it's a wonderful place to take photographs.”

David is originally from Sydney and while he's travelled extensively throughout Australia, the 27-year-old self-taught photographer says there's something special about the South Aussie landscape. And the most frequent question he is asked - what’s you favourite place?

“I don't think I have one. There are so many places that have just been so amazing,” David explained. “I think the Flinders Ranges would have to be up there. The Limestone Coast and Robe as well - the water down there is just absolutely so blue. One thing I've noticed about this state is that the colours are so vibrant and intense that it makes for very spectacular colour photography.

“The Flinders Ranges have wonderful reds and oranges and purples particularly around dusk. The Limestone Coast with the blue water and the sunsets are really fiery. The hills in the winter are just the greenest green outside Ireland and yet in summer they're bright yellow. I think that's one of the things I’m enjoying the most about shooting South Australia.

The contrasting colours are the overwhelming source of inspiration for David's work. South Australia dominates the pages of his first book, “Australia: Facing the South”. But interspersed throughout are other iconic images of this great Southern Land.

“Australia: Facing the South” is a collaborative effort. It combines a CD soundtrack of original orchestral music from internationally acclaimed Australian composer Leah Curtis and the poetry of Jennie Sharpe. Like David, Jennie has been captivated; not only by the landscape of places like Burra but the ghosts of the pioneers watched over by the now empty homes they built all those year ago.

They walked these hills,
Setting out with hands in pockets.
They trod their lonely thoughts into the dust.
And you sat
And you watched.

David reckons they're evocative images designed to get the reader out of his or her lounge chair and into the great open spaces of Southern Australia.

“Stir them somehow into feeling something that's positive. And stir them into action hopefully - go and see it.”

David Evan's book, “Australia: Facing the South” is available from all major bookstores.

Australia: Facing the South
Photography by David Evans
Available at major bookstores