Australian photography is at an interesting moment. More than ever, it is compelled to respond not only to the present reality that the average Australian is now considered either illegitimate, illegal, fraudulent, or irreparably corrupted, but also to the fact that these same problems afflict the efficacy of photography as a documentary medium. Presented as a “media” problem globally, for us this crisis of truth can be traced back to Nicholas Caire's c.1878 crystoleum print of the fairy scene at Healesville. Inaugurating Australian photography as an art form, Caire carefully composited the marvellous and the ridiculous as proximate realities.