[7] In 1973 and inspired by Learning from Las Vegas, Gollings arrived in Surfers Paradise (a well known holiday destination) from Melbourne, with the intention to extensively photograph the town's architecture, signs and symbols of leisure.
40 years later, building on field work in collaboration with Melbourne architect Tony Styant-Browne, urban planner Mal Horner and graphic designer Julie Jame, he undertook a project to re-photograph the city from exactly the same viewpoints.
[8] In the mid-seventies he travelled to Los Angeles to shoot a new portfolio featuring modern architecture and in 1976 he received private tuition from Ansel Adams in his darkroom at Carmel, California.
He has a particular interest in the cyclic fires and floods that characterise the Australian landscape, which he documents with aerial photography, and is known for his technique of photographing at night using partial artificial light during extended, or periodic, exposure.
In 2009-2010, with curators Sarah Kenderdine and Jeffrey Shaw and 3D production by Paul Doornbusch and Dr. L. Subramaniam, Gollings presented the Ancient Hampi exhibition at the Immigration Museum in Melbourne.
Monash Gallery of Art, Melbourne presented a major survey John Gollings: The history of the built world 2 December 2017 to 4 March 2018.