Click on the audio buttons to hear the conversation between Guardian Australia picture editor Jonny Weeks and the photographer Mervyn Bishop, whose work will be on display in a free exhibition at Art Gallery NSW in Sydney from 24 June to 8 October.

Prime minister Gough Whitlam pours soil into the hands of traditional land owner Vincent Lingiari, Northern Territory 1975. Photo by Mervyn Bishop courtesy of Art Gallery NSW.

We originally took the picture under the shade of a bough shed and it didn't have a nice look about it Mervyn Bishop

(above) Bishop with Vincent Lingiari beside an obelisk; Bishop and Gurindji men outside the Murramulla Social Club. Copyrighted images supplied by Mervyn Bishop.



Photography cadets with a model at the Sydney Morning Herald, 1967. Photo by Mervyn Bishop courtesy of Art Gallery NSW.

I borrowed Mum's camera to take photos of aeroplanes. She said: 'Don't do it anymore because you'll waste the film!' Mervyn Bishop

(above) Cousins Ralph and Jim, Brewarrina, 1966; Brewarrina, New South Wales, Australia, 1966; children playing in river, Mumeka, 1975.



(above) A woman drinks a pint of beer in a Glebe pub on the eve of its closing in 1967. Fairfax Media via Getty Images.



I don't think there were even Indigenous journos in those days. As my friend said: 'You were the lone ranger' Mervyn Bishop

(above) Save the Children preschool, Nambucca Heads, 1974; Roslyn Watson, 1973.