On the way to inspections, 2025

My partner Luisa (pictured) and I have moved rentals 9 times in the 13 years we’ve been in Sydney. This image was made while rushing between inspections on a Saturday last year. Our children (Orson and Leon) are in the background, letting loose some of their pent-up energy.

Sam Ferris (b. 1985, Melbourne) is a Sydney-based photographer whose work reflects on the tension, humour, and fragility of everyday urban life. He began photographing daily in 2010 and has since developed a practice defined by an obsessive engagement with the city, its light, and its fleeting moments.

Ferris is the winner of the 2023 Australian Life Photographic Prize, one of Australia’s most prestigious awards, and his images have been exhibited internationally at festivals in San Francisco, Miami, Brussels, and Sydney. His work has been widely published, appearing in Reclaim the Street (Thames & Hudson, 2023), 100 Great Street Photographs (Prestel, 2017), The Guardian, Leica Fotographie International, Lonely Planet, Eyeshot, and Photo Review.

A co-founder of the AUSSIE STREET Festival and a member of the renowned Burn My Eye Collective, Ferris has played a leading role in building and sustaining street photography communities both in Australia and abroad. His debut photobook, In Visible Light (2021), sold out three print runs and established his reputation as one of Australia’s most compelling contemporary street photographers.

Ferris lives in Newtown, Sydney, where he balances his photographic practice with family life and his career as a high school English teacher.