How can you photograph the landscape in the era of the Anthropocene in a way that addresses the future that is already coming?
The photo below was an attempt in 2022 to try and represent the movement of hanging bark caused by the wind within the context of the strangeness of the local bush in Waitpinga in the Fleurieu Peninsula of South Australia. It was in the early morning during early autumn, when there was a light breeze gently moving the bark. The blur was designed to step away from the picturesque or the tourist style.
The method chosen was a double exposure of one 5x7 sheet of film and 2 long exposures of around 40 seconds each. The composition had been pre-determined with some earlier scoping with a digital camera.
Alas, the experiment did not work at all. Failure.
The tonality of the photo turned out to be utterly different to what I'd pre-visualized and planned for. I couldn't believe what I was seeing when I scanned the negative. "What the hell" was my immediate response. I was dumbfounded. Then, when I realised the scan was okay, a wave of embarrassment surged through me. This was such a long way from the quality standards of the large format culture.