Out There by Goff and Quentin Merlaud

A Potted History of a Revolution Called Nimbin

“Out There” chronicles 50 years of alternative revolution: the simplest, yet strangest journey ever undertaken; an insightful collection of 39 separate self-told stories that concisely capture different aspects of Australia’s counterculture movement. This is the real Nimbin revisited through a unique concept that combines powerful photographs with poignant audio recordings and gripping crafted soundtracks.

Bursting with creativity and revolutionary ideas, a bunch of dreamers found shelter from the storm. With pure madness or for the sake of love, a small rural town started a big movement.  Out There chronicles 50 years of alternative revolution: the simplest, yet strangest journey ever undertaken; an insightful collection of 39 separate self-told stories that concisely capture different aspects of Australia’s counterculture movement.

A wonderful body of interviews and art including many perceptive and exquisite photos of Nimbin, its people and the surrounding area.  It gives a strong voice to much of the philosophy & practices that have survived and flourished here while holding a lovingly realistic but inspirational lens to the Nimbin experience.  This is the real Nimbin – naked, deconstructed and spontaneous – revisited through a unique concept that combines powerful photographs with poignant audio recordings and gripping soundtracks all individually crafted to each tale.

The book is created by a duo of photographer Goff and musician Quentin Merlaud. Music lovers working at two ends of the music industry, they met a decade ago and decided it was time to take on the world. Their first travels brought them to Australia, where its music history led them to the Aquarius Festival. What was this? Was it still happening? What was left?

Taken by their love for the sixties and seventies era, and probably because of their French roots where revolution is the national anthem, they ended up in Nimbin.  What’s more enriching than to have a yarn with rule-breaking visionaries, activists, dreamers, artists and self-thinkers?

Persuaded that stories shape the world, this led them to capture and create a unique format merging the stillness of photography and the motion of sounds through an interactive multi-art book.

“Never before has this ‘alternative’ community of Australians been so thoroughly documented with such style. It is not only authentic but it’s also a book full of love for its subjects, their philosophies, their sometimes seemingly wild and wacky ways and also their deep love of the land they and us depend on.” Craig Potton, MNZM “

A unique and vibrant look on a counter-culture emblem! Revelatory and entertaining, this book documents a never-to-be-repeated time that would otherwise quite likely be lost.” Gerard Hindmarsh, award-winning writer.

Hardback
214 pages
21 cm x 31 cm x 2 cm