Most of my large format photography has consisted of isolated photos that stood on their own or were a  strand  in a broader project such as Mallee Routes. It was  significant step to  construct a project or a series, with  large format photography after the decline of modernism and  based on  the rejection of modernism's  emphasis on artistic subjectivity.   Thus  John Szarkowski's conception of photography turned the act of looking and choosing into an aesthetic gesture that prized, above all, the unique vision of the person behind the camera. Szarkowski's efforts to establish a legitimate place in the art world for photography by formally aesthetic criteria resulted in photography as an autonomous modernist art becoming  a medium of subjectivity. 

These depopulated  photographs  were conceptual in orientation, namely  '10 silos on the Mallee Highway', which   emerged  from driving along the Mallee Highway when I was   travelling  from Adelaide to Canberra  and vice versa.  The title was formulated in advance of taking the photographs, which were  constructed as black and white and  made with  an old 8x10 SuperCambo monorail that I had owned from  the 1980s. I had bought it cheap,  but had barely used  it since,  because  it needed a new bellows. 

I  acquired a new bellows  around 2011  and started photographing the silos shortly afterwards  when I was living in Adelaide.  I would camp at places like Ouyen or Murrayville so that I could wait for suitable conditions with respect to clouds and soft light.  I followed a predetermined route in my car and systematically and photographed just the silos. 

 Carina, Mallee Highway, Victoria

I had photographed around 6-7  of the silos  and,  though I exhibited some of them  in a small  exhibition, the project was never finished. I  became sidetracked by Mallee Routes and forgot about it.  I have decided to ease my way back into photography after the 2 year layoff  by  completing the project  as a photobook.

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This is the 1st step in  starting to  scope for a large format  photo session with the Cambo 5x7 S3 monorail. I thought that this pink gum (Eucalyptus fasciculosa) in the local Waitpinga bushland could be  one possibility:

I haven't used the 5x7 Cambo monorail  since January 2025. Life has intervened: Suzanne was quite sick and I was renovating the cottage in Adelaide and my large format photography was put on hold along with my photography in general.  I need to find some way to get back into  making large format photographs -- an easy way -- and a  simple tree study in the local bushland seems a good place to start.

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I have finally undertaken  some small steps towards making  the necessary shift to what the photographic industry  calls   digital medium format photography. 

One  reason that  started me to make  this shift  is the  trouble I have recently been experiencing  using  the 5x7  large format with  colour negative film:  eg., bellows yaw on the Cambo  SC-3; the  poor quality  commercial lab film processing of colour negative sheet film;   Newton rings from scanning 5x7 negatives  on  a flat bed Epson scanner;  and then the  difficulties with  the subsequent colour correction in Lightroom.  These  ongoing problems over a couple of years  led me to  more or less give up using both the 5x7  format and the Cambo SC-3 (circa 1960s).   Time to cut my loses I thought. 

Below  is an  early image of the wetlands in the Hindmarsh Estuary in Victor Harbor on the southern Fleurieu Peninsula of South Australia using the  5x7 Cambo monorail.  It was exposed on colour film (Kodak Portra 160 ASA),   but  then converted  to black and white as an experiment to see if it was possible for me to make a return to b+w. Yep was my response. It looks okay.  

Though some  of the above issues have been resolved -- eg., those with the  pro-lab and then using a hand made 5x7 film holder for scanning -- the encountered  difficulties  with the work flow convinced me to start making some small steps to  shift from using large format colour negative exclusively,  and to begin to start  using  black and white sheet film. I have  more control  over the work flow process as a result.  

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Yet another mistake! 

I loaded the 4x5 b+w sheet  film incorrectly -- the wrong way round ie., back to front!  This  is something that I have never done before. I cannot explain how made this mistake. 

 I do have an image after processing the film in Rodinal, but the image quality is poor. There is little detail in the blacks.  To my suprise there was vignetting in both the upper corners, despite using a recessed lens board and a wide angle bellows. 

The particular subject is the railway yard at Quorn in South Australia. It is  early  cloudless morning during  the winter months.   The camera a 5x4 Sinar F1 monorail,   the lens was a Schneider-Kreuznach 75mm f.5.6 Super Angulon, and  the sheet film was Ilford FP4 Plus.  Though the camera is a monorail it is light enough for field use, which is how I use it. 

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A small  study of a melaleuca in the Bluff Reserve using the Super Cambo 8x10. It is from the archives and it has been  forgotten and overlooked.    

Ignored really, because I was embarrassed by it.  It wasn't a hero image. It was   plain and ordinary. I recoiled from its implicit dissonance,  its lack of meaningful unity or harmonious whole.  Its appearance is that  nothing is happening in the image and that it  could have been taken at any time.  It looks like  kitsch, low art as opposed to high art.   

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This picture of the appearance or shining forth (Schein) of the quartz  form amongst Cambrian Kanmantoo rocks  along  coastal Waitpinga  on the southern Fleurieu Peninsula in South Australia  is part of a long term,   ongoing  littoral zone  series in my local area. This particular  location  is near a natural spring of fresh water that flows through the coastal rocks into the Southern Ocean.  

Unfortunately,  the picture  is yet another example of me, as the large format photographer,  making mistakes on location.  The scanned digital file  is over-exposed  and the bottom half  of  the picture  is  out of focus.  I cannot recall why or how  I slipped  up,  as the file is from the archives,  and I have no explicit memory of this photo session.

 I've reworked  the  file into something that is ok as  a place-filler  for the absence of any  memorials  of the violent, early 19th century encounters along the coastal region of Encounter Bay; ie., one  between the white sealers from  Kangaroo Island and the first nations Ramindjeri people.

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The two pictures in the post are from the  archives.

 They were made  when I was photographing around the Port Adelaide /Osborne area on the   Lefevre Peninsula (north west of Adelaide's CBD)   in the  1980s. The photography would be interpreted as a mirror with a memory as the photos  represent a part of the history of industrial Adelaide that is being marked by absence.  

This picture is of the  Port River estuary  and it is looking across the river to the suburb of Taperoo and  the Penrice Soda ash  plant, Osborne.  The gas-fired  Torrens Island Power Station is just outside the right side of the frame. 

The Penrice Soda Holdings Ltd company, which was established in the 1930s,  went into receivership round 201 and   its  Osborne soda ash  plant has been decommissioned and dismantled.  The remediation of the site is ongoing.  Most of the area along  both sides of the Port River have been  closed off to the public -- ie., the land  has been privatised. I would not be able to make the above photo today.

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This is a  local southern Fleurieu Peninsula view that  I see on those  days when  I drive up Willunga Hill  from Encounter Bay on my way to walk in the local Waitpinga bushland with one of the standard poodles.   We are looking across the grazing land of a local farm to rain falling on the southern ocean. 

I had scoped the view  a number of times with both  a digital camera and a 35m film camera --- an expired Velvia 50 version can be seen on this post . I chose an overcast wintry  day for the large format  photo session  using the 5x7 Cambo S3 monorail as  I wanted some  atmospherics.

 I have struggled with a poorly developed/underdeveloped  colour negative  from the professional lab. The colour was all washed out. The initial scan looked awful -- the post processing has  a substantial amount  increased saturation and contrast whereas I normally do the opposite. 

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I came across the image below  whilst  going through  the archives looking  for photos that I'd made in April 2022 when we stayed overnight  in accommodation behind the coffee shop at Natimuk. We were on our way back to  Encounter Bay in South Australia from  walking in Wilson's Promontory in Victoria. 

I'd forgotten about the  image below  which  I'd  made on my  first visit  to this  part of western Victoria.  It  is of Castle Craig at  Mt Arapiles (known traditionally as Dyurrite by the Djurid Balud clan of the  Wotjobaluk people) and  it was made pre-Covid  with the 5x4 Linhof  Technika IV  Some other colour images  from Mt Arapiles  are here.  

Mt Arapiles, which  is in  the  Mt Arapiles-Tooan State Park near Natimuk,  is  a large  rock outcrop overlooking the Wimmera plains and surrounded by the  agricultural country.   It is a well known international  climbing spot. 

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Living on the  coast of the southern Fleurieu Peninsula in South Australia  has meant that I've become  familiar with both the local, banal or unscenic bushland that is considered unworthy of aesthetic attention, and  making large format landscapes of this region.  Since the past three decades have witnessed a growing awareness of climate change and its impacts on people and the natural environment,  photographing nature needs to take  this impact into account. How to do that with a camera and a lens is something that I  struggle with without resolving.

The two pictorial realist photos  in this post are  ones that look at the non-human world in the context of what is happening  to nature in the context of the background climate heating.  A first attempt,  as it were, to  link landscape photography and climate heating,  to push   the traditional centre of the human experience and the human aesthetic preferences aside and to initiate a photography of mourning within the tradition of landscape photography.  

This has made me aware of my unease with the views of those who hold that we live in a post-natural world. A post-natural world means that  nature is no longer independent of   human activity.  The world we  inhabit is the one we  humans have made.The cultural concept  for this new planetary epoch is the Anthropocene condition  in which  the geological strata we are now creating record industrial emissions, industrial-scale crop pollens, and the disappearance of species driven to extinction. This cultural concept is used by many to describe an era of accelerating human impacts such as climate change and biodiversity loss. 

 However, if climate change is the emblematic crisis of the neo-liberal Anthropocene, turning the world’s climate  into a joint human-natural creation, then nature  is still ontological independent of humans --- it  existed before us and will likely go on existing after us. Though the world we inhabit will be one that we have helped to make, and in ever-intensifying ways,  there is no  need reject terms such as the natural world. By “the natural world,” we mean  the material structures and processes of the  non-human world. So we should say  nature  is no longer unaffected by human activity. Humans are dependent  on nature but nature is not dependent on humans. Nature will continue to exit without us and will produce new species and forms of life without human intervention. .

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