Joining The Sydney Morning Herald as a cadet in 1962, he was the first Aboriginal Australian to work on a metropolitan daily newspaper and one of the first to become a professional photographer.
In 1950, "Minty" gained an "official exemption certificate which permitted 'more advanced' Aborigines to live apart from mission blackfellas in post-war Australia".
[9][7][10] Artist Jonathan Jones wrote in 2014: "In this startling image, composition, contrast and Aboriginal social commentary combine.
It is a classic example of photojournalism that has since transgressed its original context and come to insinuate the impact of religious missions within Aboriginal Australia and, in particular, on the Stolen Generations".
Some of his most enduring work came from this period, as he visited Indigenous communities and documented "the first flush of an idealistic era when land rights, equal wages and government-funded aid seemed to presage a new dawn for Aboriginal Australians".
[6] His wife, Elizabeth, died of cancer in 1991, and he was left to care for their teenage son, Tim, and six-year-old daughter, Rosemary.
[14] In 2010, Bishop's work was included in Candid Camera: Australian Photography 1950s–1970s at the Art Gallery of South Australia, a group retrospective of social documentary photography which also featured the work of key Australian photographers Max Dupain, David Moore, Jeff Carter, Robert McFarlane, Rennie Ellis, Carol Jerrems and Roger Scott.