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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On a recent road trip to Melbourne  I stayed overnight at Mt Arapiles. We had been walking for  a week or so in  Wilson's Promontory in early 2022,  and  we were making  our way back  to Encounter Bay in South Australia, after staying a few days in Melbourne. The reason for the overnight stay at Mt Arapiles was that I wanted to  make a few  b+w 8x10 photos of some trees in the flat land in  front of the imposing cliff-face. 

I  had initially visited and explored Mt Arapiles a few years earlier with the now defunct Melbourne-based Friends of the Photography Group that was run by David Tatnall.    I was impressed by Mt Arapiles then and I promised myself that if I had any spare  time on any subsequent road trips to Melbourne I would try to arrange things so that I could tarry a while at Mt Arapiles and wander around the state park. I had several trees in mind that I wanted to photograph.  

 I was intrigued by the area even though it was completely surrounded by agricultural land.  The rock face was the centre of attention of the climbers and the trees and bushes in the open space at the foot of the cliffs were largely ignored. On the  initial visit with the  Friends of the Photography Group I would often walk along and around the straggly trees in the open ground. This terrain could not be considered beautiful. My  experience of being in this landscape was not one of experiencing natural beauty and my sensations were not ones of pleasure.  

The  two photographs below are an experiment. 

At the time I was trying to obtain a washed-out or bleached, high summer look. The photographs are of nothing much, the technique I used was overexposure, and the camera  was a 1960's heavy metal Super Cambo 8x10 monorail,  a Schneider-Kreuznach 240mm  lens and  a Pronto shutter.  

The photo below is of the mouth of the Hindmarsh River  at Victor Harbor on the Fleurieu Peninsula of South Australia: