Cronulla's Craig Golding is one of the most experienced and decorated editorial/sport photographers in the world but it was when he turned his lens on his own backyard that he appreciated what Sutherland Shire residents have always known.
Craig started work at the Sydney Morning Herald in 1985 and as with all photographers working for newspapers in Australia at that time, he covered all areas of photography such as news, sport and the arts. While he enjoyed the variety of work encountered as a press photographer, his real love was sports photography.
In 1991 he was appointed to shoot sport full time for the paper and remained in that position until leaving the Herald in 2008 to pursue a freelance career.
His work has taken him to many major international events both in Australia and overseas, including five Olympic and Commonwealth Games, Rugby World Cups, and World Swimming Championships, to name a just a few events during his 24 years with the Herald.
During this long career, he has won over 40 international awards, plus the Australian press Photographer of the year,five World Press Photo Awards,the Walkley Sport Award and around 100 national awards for his photography.
He has produced two books on his photography, "Images of Sport" in 1993 and "Surfclub" in 2008, and has been featured in many others books in relation to his sports photography.
His work has also been exhibited worldwide and appeared in publications in numerous countries including Russia, China, the U.S.A and throughout Europe.
Craig still continues to shoot sport, corporate events, PR and feature work for various clients, while continuing to work on his long term project of photographing his surrounds in the southern beachside suburb of Cronulla where he lives.
His Cronulla picture series ramped up during the covid period when a lot of sport and business events shut down and he has now set up a website to show and sell some of his images from this body of work.
Craig said apart from working on his normal sport events he turned his lens back onto his home town around a decade ago to really document what was going on around him.
"Initially It started as a form of therapeutic escape and as a point of difference from my more structured and deadline driven sports photography."Craig said
"The more I did it the more I found out about where I lived and discovered parts of my home town that I didn't know existed.
"I just wanted to express my everyday photos in a more artistic way"
Golding's reportage photographic style lends itself to the daily candid moments put in front of his camera.
After a decade of building this body of work Craig decided he should share these pictures and show these candid photos and has now finished building his website where people can look at and purchase the images.
"It started out as relaxation but developed into a long term project that became equally as important to me as my career in sport" Craig said.
The website 'craiggoldingphotos.com' is set up with a link to his portfolio and another link to his Cronulla series with more work displayed in the Shop/Print Sales section.
Archival prints or canvas prints are available in four sizes from 30x20cm to 110 cm (longest size) and can be accessed at
John Veage
Thirty five year photographer for Fairfax -former NSW Chief Photographer for FCN and now Photo Journalist for the St George and Sutherland Shire Leader in southern Sydney.Official photographer for Cycling Australia (20 years) Official photographer for Surf Life Saving Australia (30 years) Founding Life Member of Cronulla Boardriders Club and Life Member of Surfing Sutherland Shire among other things.
Thirty five year photographer for Fairfax -former NSW Chief Photographer for FCN and now Photo Journalist for the St George and Sutherland Shire Leader in southern Sydney.Official photographer for Cycling Australia (20 years) Official photographer for Surf Life Saving Australia (30 years) Founding Life Member of Cronulla Boardriders Club and Life Member of Surfing Sutherland Shire among other things.
