His practice is defined by a commitment to human-centric storytelling and the exploration of complex social themes through collaborative portrait photography and community engagement. His most significant project, #Sacrifice_Stories, explores themes of sacrifice, social issues, and community resilience through portrait photography and oral histories. The exhibition, derived from this long-term project, has toured eight regional Queensland galleries since 2022, including the Gladstone Regional Art Gallery in 2024. #Sacrifice_Stories has since been serialised through social media platforms such as Substack, Instagram, and YouTube, thus reaching audiences globally.
Other significant projects include Voice of Resilience, an innovative photo-novella project highlighting stories of hardship and recovery from the Gladstone Region, and The Sea I Swim In, an early career book and exhibition project about the role of art as a therapeutic strategy to address mental health issues. Over the last few years, the historic cyanotype printmaking technique has become central to William Debois’ practice, leading to very successful participative projects such as Creating Contrast, a collaboration with Jolene Watson, at Bundaberg Regional Art Gallery, and schools in the Bundaberg Region, as well as a series of high-volume public workshops delivered with Jenny Fournier for the Gladstone Regional Council during Luminous in 2025.
William’s work is underpinned by a BA (Hons) in Photomedia from the University of Plymouth, UK, and over a decade of experience as the owner of Photopia Studio, where he balances commercial digital media production with high-quality community arts engagements. A resident of the Gladstone Region since 2013, he is deeply grounded in the cultural landscape of Central Queensland, where he feels at ease to develop reflective and accessible work that invites personal introspection as well as considerations on community and social narratives.
