Healsville, Victoria. February 2009
This day 12 years ago was unbelievably hot due to the events of a long drought and an extreme heatwave that led to the hugely hazardous bushfires of Black Saturday.
The Bureau of Meteorology has written a detailed and insightful article (Remembering Black Saturday) on the extraordinary weather behind the weather events of the 2009 Bushfires. It’s well worth a read.
10 Years On
Snowy Creek, Victoria 2018
In 2018 I was hiking the trails on top of Lake Mountain, Victoria. It was here where I found I was in awe of the Snow Gums (Eucalyptus pauciflora) that were standing tall with the tree canopies arching over the hiking trails However, all the Snow Gum trees had been stripped of their leaves and bark due to the fire storm 10 years earlier.
From the weathering the tree carcasses are a white and grey tone which look magical and ethereal. It was during this hike at Lake Mountain that I felt I somehow had to capture the peaceful beauty of what I was seeing, which then led onto also capturing the Mountain Ash (Eucalyptus regnans) in the region as this also created some impressive variation in the landscape shots.
Fine Art Series - Light. Ash. White
After careful and precise research of the subject the fine art photographic series Light. Ash. White was diligently photographed and curated for its exhibition at Fortyfivedownstairs, Melbourne in February 2019.
Light. Ash. White has since been exhibited in Melbourne, Sydney & New York. The fine art photography ‘Mt Margaret Road, Victoria’ won first place in ‘THE FACE OF THE EARTH’ theme in the 6th Edition of Life Framer and adjudicated by Nick Brandt. A Q&A with the Life Framer editors which I talk more in depth of the Light. Ash. White series can be read on their journal here - A Denuded Earth
Mt Margaret Road, Victoria 2018 - First place ‘THE FACE OF THE EARTH’ - Life Framer 2019
“A photograph of an environmentally denuded world – what must be thousands of skeletal dead trees from an Australian wildfire – that is like an almost abstract but intricate engraving or pencil drawing. It’s almost hard to tell if one is looking at a negative or positive image. An image of death yet also eerily beautiful. To me, this encapsulates the current face of the earth in the 21st century, in the midst of environmental crisis.”
– Nick Brandt
Art work is available for purchase through the Fm+1 shop. All photographs are pigment ink print on Baryta Photographique 310gsm. Framed in authentic Victorian Ash Timber.