On Austerity
I wanted to make a few notes on each of my gallery categories — here are some on Austerity and what it means to me.
At either end of the day, the light in the bush is gentle, imparting rich hues of blue-green and yellow to the eucalypts and acacia, and ochre to the red dirt. What photographers call the “golden hour”. In much of Western Australia, however, it might better be described as the “golden few minutes”; the light shifts quickly between gentle and harsh, or gentle and gone.
For much of the day, colours compress under the bright sun and heat. They are not enriched; they feel washed out and over-exposed. Form becomes defined by sharp shadow rather than subtle shifts in hue. The landscape seems to shrink to a world of light and shadow.
More often than not, the sky is a cloudless, vibrant blue, offering no filter to the bleaching sun. Blue skies can be beautiful, but they can also distract when they are not included purposefully.
This is when I am inspired to make black and white images, like those in my gallery Austerity.
Midday in the bush between Hyden and Norseman
Austerity suggests restriction, or a lack of ornamentation. Quite simply, these are images where colour is not an important ornament in conveying the emotion or intent of the photograph.
My intent is not different from any of my other images. It may still be to convey wonder at the vastness and solitude of the landscape; wonder at its persistence; or wonder at the quiet cycles of growth and decay.
Whatever the intent, I use this austerity when form and texture, cast by light and shadow, define the image; or where the unfiltered sun and blue sky serve to bleach the landscape, reducing it to structure and tone.
