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A New Look at the Outback: Australian Photography Today
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11233 |
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Section : |
THE ARTS
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| Issue
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9 / 1993 |
1,923 Words |
| Author
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Stephen Henkin
Stephen Henkin is an arts editor for The World & I. |
Due to Australia's geographic remoteness and tedious pioneer development, it is not surprising that much of its public image has been based on photographs of the majestic yet harsh Outback with its mysterious Aborigines and unique wildlife. Affective "postcard" views of the island-continent's monumental terrain as well as skyline shots of its burgeoning key cities have added to the perception that while industrious, Australia, nonetheless, is an eternally vast and isolated land. The myth goes that, unlike its mother country, Britain, where the countryside has achieved a well-ordered, cozy, and lush pattern, Australia, isolated and exotic, is doomed to be a well-documented place of perpetual peril.
Indeed, much of the stereotypical images we have of Australia come right out of the pages of National Geographic, which, at times, has sponsored photographic missions Down Under in order to have publication coincide with national anniversaries. The February 1988 cover features rough-and-ready, Western Australian father-and-son sheep farmers. This predictable image runs above the cover title: "Australia: A Bicentennial Down Under." Inside the magazine is a quality map entitled "A Traveler's Look at Australia," which highlights the nation's tourist spots along with giving background information on the song "Waltzing Matilda." It seems that Americans want, indeed need, to vicariously relive their nation's pioneer heritage through the Australian experience and this spiritual urge is being pictorially promoted by National Geographic's talented, yet essentially non-Australian, photographic staff.
While staid frontier subjects still comprise a disproportionate amount of the art photographs being produced in Australia today, a significant artistic plateau seems to have been reached within this milieu. Many of today's important Australian photographers, unlike their professional counterparts at National Geographic and elsewhere, have refined a more genteel eye toward their native land. Perhaps recognizing the achievement by residents of some state of harmony with the long inhospitable Australian environment, this new breed of commercially trained photographer is, at long last, unlocking the true primeval beauty in the nation's awe-inspiring landscape. It is this current phenomenon of capturing Australia's special beauty for the sake of art alone that has been a driving force behind a photographic movement that has generated a number of memorable world-class images.
This innovation of sheer art photography as a viable artistic pursuit is a fairly recent development in Australia. Although the first daguerreotypes were made in that nation as
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