In this post I continue my story of two books, published 47 years apart, that represent for me classic wilderness photography and are an inspiration for my own photography.
In my last post, I discuss the legendary of Olegas Truchanas – explorer, photographer and conservationist – who was at the forefront in the 1960s and early 1970s of bringing images of an unknown wilderness to the public with the view to protecting this landscape from development. As Bob Brown, a key figure in the campaign to protect the Franklin River and former leader of the Australian Greens has explained, “it was not so much that Truchanas and Dombrovskis recorded national parks, as that national parks followed where they recorded.”
In this post, I discuss a book published last year by Martin Hawes called Unexplored. Another great Tasmanian photographer and advocate for the wilderness, this book is also an inspiration for me.
This book may still be available through Martin’s website – I would recommend a visit if only to view his gallery of wilderness photographs. Note I have used Matin’s images from his website to ensure I am not sharing online any images he has not made public.
His first book, Above me only sky (AMOS) is relatively text heavy for a photography book, full of descriptions of bushwalking adventures and advocacy for protecting the wilderness. The book feels very similar to The World of Olegas Truchanas which is not surprising – it is of the same era, published in 1981 during the series of campaign to protect Tasmania’s wild rivers1.
AMOS certainly pulls no punches in its advocacy for the environment – “Ultimately, Lake Pedder was the victim of a culture that owed as much to the exploitation of our environment as others owed to slavery and plunder, which arrived in Tasmania on the day the first flag was planted to proclaim white man’s dominion over Tasmanian soil.”
Some 40 years later, Martin has published another wilderness photography book. Unexplored contains the same passion for the wilderness and, like The World of Olegas Truchanas, was made by long, arduous journeys into the bush, often alone, to capture scenes rarely visited. But the book is very different. It is a small print run, self-published high-quality art book with limited text.
Martin Hawes arrived in Tasmania in 1969, having immigrated from England as a 13-year-old, and in February 1970 he first visited Lake Pedder with the Hobart Walking Club. From that point on, Martin and his brother were out walking and exploring most weekends.
It was here that Martin found freedom and independence that could only be found in the wilderness. For Martin, this wilderness is a precious thing – easily disrupted by a plane overhead or distant signs of man. In AMOS Martin talks about his early exploration of the Anne Range and then laments how (in 1981) Mount Anne can be climbed in only half a day from the nearest road and the view is greatly different with Lake (dam) Pedder and roads and transmission lines visible scars across the landscape.
“I seldom climb Mount Anne these days [1981]. It depresses me to see how much has been destroyed in the few years since I first saw that country.”
Since then, Martin has been a strong advocate for wilderness and has authored a number of academic publications on land management in wilderness areas including a 2018 paper Refining the definition of wilderness: Safeguarding the experiential and ecological values of remote natural land.2
In an interview on Talking Landscape Photography,3 Martin emphasises the importance of solitude to the wilderness experience – long wilderness journeys alone deep into remote country is to go to the heart of wilderness – “To be completely alone is a transcendent experience.”
It is this perspective that informs the aesthetic of Unexplored.
As Martin describes in this interview, it took a while to work out what he wanted to express in the book. As he describes, it came down to two things. Firstly, to reflect the “sublimeness of the wilderness, the ineffable peace, and the immense beauty that has one stand wordless in awe”. Secondly, to not shy away from the savageness, the wildness, the hardship and extreme discomfort that is part of the wilderness experience.
The selection of images, the text and the book design all support these dual objectives. There is the faint impression of bauera scrub on the cover reflecting the awfulness of pushing through trackless bush. And there is the Zen-like stillness of the image of two rocks in water on the dedication page. There are images of a timeless landscape, and images of just fleeting moments of light.
Even the title, Unexplored, has dual meanings. The landscape is unexplored in the sense that few people visit these places, but even more so, our relationship with the wilderness is unexplored. Few people put themselves in a position to really understand the wilderness and our place in it through deep immersion in that landscape.
“What happens when you go into the wilderness? What happens to your mind when you escape the pressures of modern life and immerse yourself in a landscape that the modern world has hardly touched?”
While many of the images are awe inspiring, this is a book that encourages quiet contemplation. For me, although having this book for over a year and delving into it many times, there is still much to be explored.
The text is sparse and tells in few words of expeditions into the wilderness. Mostly they are accounts of moments of splendour, coming across a fellow creature or an inspiring view, or moments of struggle and desperation on account of the weather or scrub.
“When I go alone into trackless country I have to deal with the fear. Fear of danger, fear of isolation, fear of the unknown. It’s like a thicket of scrub that I have to push through.”
Although the three books I have reviewed in these two articles are hardly a comprehensive survey, it seems to me that they reflect how wilderness photography has changed over time. Although there are many wild places that are relatively unphotographed – whether due to the challenges of access or are yet to be discovered – it is no longer enough to make a record of a place in order to raise awareness. There are too many photos, and too many issues competing for attention.
The nature of the threats to the wilderness has also changed. While the pressures of resource extraction and business continue, there are other existential threats that are even more insidious. These include the impact of encroachment on untracked landscapes, unthinking tourism (the oxymoron of the ‘luxury wilderness’ experience or the chase for Instagram likes) and the all too apparent impacts of climate change and the resulting increase in fire and flood in areas unused to these events.
Instead, photography needs to tell a story of man’s relationship with nature, for the art to connect our soul with the unexplored wilderness. Unexplored describes in word and image both the beauty and the challenges of the Tasmanian wilderness and makes clear exactly what is at risk.
The blockade on the Franklin River reached its peak in late 1982 and the issue was finally resolved by an historic High Court judgement on 1 July 1983 that decided that the sympathetic Commonwealth government had the power to stop the dam based on Australia’s international obligations under the World Heritage Convention. A good summary of the High Court decision can be found here.
The Tasmanian Wilderness was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1982 and extended in 1989, June 2010, June 2012 and again in June 2013 and now covers some 1,580,000 hectares. However, challenges continue to protect this precious landscape from the impacts of human visitation and exploitation and key parts of the Tasmanian wilderness are not yet fully protected.