Cider Gums Series
Every experience begins with a journey.
Journey-based Art Photography works are focused series and sequences that explore ‘journey’ through the landscape. My photographic art was born in the environmental art movement of the 1970s. Before setting off on a journey, I set parameters for image taking. Parameters may be: Take an image every 15 paces while holding the camera at hip level. Or take an image of every tree in the space. The images taken this way are the antipathy of composition, focus, and classical photography.
Click on all images or links in this Art Photography Galley to see the complete series, stories behind the series, and purchase details.
Autopsy of a Cider Gum 2021
It all started with this tree that I painted in 2015. It has since died
This series seeks to document this incredible tree before it loses its skeletal canopy in the harsh winds of the Central Plateau.
Toward a Cider Gum – Approaching Death 2021
As we approach this ancient tree we are also approaching death. In the heart of Tasmania Australia live the ancestors of the Lairmairenna people. These sacred Cider Gums were the soul of this nation’s culture and traditions. These very rare trees are suffering dieback induced by climate change caused by a lack of heavy snow as the snow-line retreats and lack of burning practices last carried out before 1828. This tree was last burnt before the Lairmairrenna were tragically massacred and removed from their land.
Click on the image for more details.
Anatomy of a Cider Gum 2021
This tree is introduced by the series of four photographs above: The Gallery Header image. But these trees are impossible to describe in a single image. So I photographed the tree randomly moving in and around its trunk. This was later organized into pairs of photos. That can be arranged variously on a Gallery wall. Click on images to go to the complete series.
Cider Dance 2021
This series of six individual photos were pivotal in helping me find different ways to describe these amazing trees.
Time is running out 2021
One tree was photographed at the hour marks of a clock.
One of the issues of presenting these series in a virtual world is fitting them on a screen. In a gallery, it would be presented on one large long piece. Click for the full series.
Cardinal Light 2022
Based on the same tree as ‘Time is running out.’ Cardinal Light documents the tree from the compass points of NSEW. More importantly, by focusing on the abstraction of the light from which the forms emerge it explores the cardinal markers of life these ancients are.
Rooted 2021
This tree was last burnt by the First Nations people the Lairmairenner before 1826. The tragedies of the Central Plateau are played out in this series. The tree is rooted. They were rooted. We are rooted.
Click on the image for more complete details.
Faces of a Cider Gum
The Cider Gum comes from the family of White Gums commonly called snow gums. The North, East, South, and West faces are showing as is the snow that has almost melted.
Assorted Art Photography from 1980-current
Watch this space.
Also, I am currently painting in two very different biomes the Central Plateau and Temperate Rainforests of Tasmania. Follow my progress below and in the Story section. Finished works will appear in the main galleries as completed. Click on individual images for details and sales.
Cider Gum Project
Liffey Rainforest Paintings
I am also a Silversmith, Photographer, and Performance Poet. click for details.