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This paper deals with Australian photographys historiography in published survey histories. It argues that photography has a doubled history, represented in broader histories of Australian art and its own medium specific histories. It considers photographys treatment in recent histories of Australian art by Christopher Allen (1997), Andrew Sayers (2001) and John McDonald (2008). The four survey histories of photography published to date – by Jack Cato (1955), Gael Newton (1988), Anne Marie-Willis (1988) and Helen Ennis (2007) – are discussed in relation to the different methodologies used. The inter-relationship between local and international developments in historiography is considered and recent paradigmatic shifts in writing on photography are identified. They include the emergence of a pluralized notion of photography, interdisciplinary approaches and concerns with narrative and materiality. Finally, it is argued that a new kind of historiography has emerged, evident in histories that are purposefully fractional.