Warren Kirk, the Westographer, goes to the country and captures a slice of life that is disappearing in his book Beyond Suburbia

Photographer Warren Kirk has an unusual strategy for combating the blues: whenever he’s feeling down, he hits the highway.

“There’s something really liberating for me about driving and being in open space, seeing the clouds in the sky, the big horizon, and then just pulling in wherever and having a wander,” he says. “We’re crowded in the city, even if we don’t realise it.”

The artist formerly known as the Westographer – the name of his much-loved Flickr site, devoted to the changing face of Melbourne’s west – takes his camera with him, documenting the towns and people he happens across.

Images from those road trips across the past 15-or-so years are collated in his latest book, Beyond Suburbia. Ranging geographically from Nhill to Beechworth and many points in between, the book docu