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photo-web collections and information on selected gallery-exhibitions   Selected Photography Exhibitions   National Gallery of Victoria Photography Gallery Landscape, Australia Mark Johnson Tommy Psomotragos Stephen Wickham Laurie Wilson Richard Woldendorp 6 November 1981 - 28 February 1982 This online version based on documents supplied by Albert Brown in 2017   INTRODUCTION   LANDSCAPE, AUSTRALIA brings together some divergent styles of photography recently coming from this country.  It does not pretend to be a definitive selection but is, rather, an encounter between a few interesting ideas outside the norm of idealised pictorial landscape. While Richard Woldendorp's aerial pictures from the west are breathtakingly exhilarating they are in no way idealised, for they actually describe and clarify what nature is about in shaping the continent. The daily drama of the tide's mighty flux (#7, 10, 11, 12 and 13), the fresh gaping wound of a gorge (#35), the ridges and waves of range and desert (#30 and 31) and the pretty pink all-over pattern of sand upturned by countless colonies of ants among puffs of salt bush (#34), are no mere abstractions for our delight but precise details of geographical observation, the meanings of which are manifested from the air and uniquely illustrated in photography. However, only the artistic judgement and practised skill of the photographer can relate these tales of creation for us, and Woldendorp's inspired organisation of subject matter here marks an intensely interesting development in the evolution of his style. Richard Woldendorp was born in 1926 and grew up in Holland, emigrating to Perth in 1950.  Whilst he had long been interested in and studied landscape painting he only discovered photography in 1955 and was immediately drawn to it. He became a professional in 1961 (which seems to suggest a period of intensive preparation) since when with unusual equilibrium he has run a successful commercial business while continuing to develop his personal work.  His own words are best to enlarge our understanding of his love for the Australian landscape and his motivation in undertaking this expensive work (an experienced pilot and sound aeroplane being prime requirements). The Australian landscape has always appealed to me. There's something about it - its spaciousness, its character, the light and its uniqueness.  But it also is a very old landscape. It is the flatest and dryest continent, which compared with other countries does not manifest itself in grandeur as we know it -- large rivers, large mountains and the dramatic changes of the seasons. However, I found that by looking at the landscape from the air, many characteristics revealed themselves much better and form a strong image not visible at ground level. It shows the evolution and the geographical variations. Australia also has large spaciousness, virtually unaffected by man, so it is possible to record millions of years of evolution in total. It is unfortunate that the preservation of certain unique areas has never been the prime target of people and government and we often only look at a skeleton of what was once there. Most of the Australian bush is fragile and not very able to withstand the intrusion of foreign flora and fauna. I feel that by taking a hard look at the landscape as a photographer, I'm discovering a great deal of variety and uniqueness in the Australian landscape, without having to compare it against other landscapes in the rest of the world. I also find the manmade landscape of great interest because the Australian conditions, plus the aerial point of view abstracts the nature of the subject. It is remarkable that photographs which explain nothing and are created of so little can move us so. Laurie Wilson's monochrome prints have been forged out of the dense fibre of his emotions in response to the much loved landscapes of his native land. They convey much about Wilson, the most impassioned Australian photographer, who was dying and knew it, but in the event we are left with an awed sense of the ultimate mystery of death and the workings of the creative imagination. Most of these prints are among the last work he did when he was no longer able to go out with a camera but was re-working old negatives. Some could be the savage visions of a dying man. He faced his own death with equanimity but his wife's death coming less than a year before his own enraged him. The occasional use of bleach as toner imparts to certain prints (#22, 24, 25, 29 and 30) a sense of corruption, while it adds to the alpine landscape (#18) a sensuous richness in the foreground snow in contrast with the receding planes of dark tones beyond.  Seldom have such highly charged photographs been made with such economy of means.  A splintered tree trunk set in dead grass, a barbed wire fence disappearing into mist, a deserted country road, are plainly not seeking for resignation but suggest inexorable finality. Roads and fences seem not so much to lead on as to halt us like a barrier challenge. Dead trees stand like hieratic absolutes of tenacity. The sludge deposited in scraggy trees by a flood could signify raw disgust at the mess man makes upon earth. Wilson was never interested in the fine print as such - indeed, it is often a sterile field as far as the imagination is concerned - but with superb craftsmanship he expresses very deep emotions in his work.  However not all is in one sombre key;  the lyrical Wilson is represented also. Many will recall his earlier turbulent rocky landscapes, the moon and sea pictures, and the exquisite pale studies of stillness made of sand and snow - which might be termed minimalism with feeling.  Dog Rocks (#13) and You Yangs (#14) show his mastery in creating mood by a lovely use of reduced tonalities, and his rapture with nature's mercurial inconstancy is demonstrated in the dramatic turmoil of #7, 8, 17 and 19.  Two of the most remarkable prints ever to come to the collection are #15 and 16, being an untidy typical scene of mountain trees and scrub struggling from rocky outcrops among the undergrowth and a group of slender pale trees emerging subtly out of dark mist as if chalked on a blackboard, both taken in the gloomy depths of a wintry day. He learned his craft in the seventeen years of running his own studio in Geelong (1945-62), taking on such commissions as debutante sets, portraits and weddings, pets and local businesses, calenders and so on.  After the enforced retirement caused by his ill-health he began submitting prints to camera clubs around Australia, but after he turned fifty, his true imaginative development began. All of his significant work came out of these last ten years and the prints here shown (some of which are the only ones known to exist), except for #1, 2, 9, 12, 13 and 14, are almost certainly the last photographic work he did.  As they are neither identified nor dated one cannot say with certainty that this is so, but judging by his normal methods and also by the interpretations it must be strongly conjectured. At any rate these examples by a truly original artist, none of which have previously been exhibited here, show some of the most intense photography ever done in Australia. From the last work of Laurie Wilson we come to some early work by Tommy Psomotragos, who was born in Greece in 1953 and took Australian citizenship in 1969. He studied drama, film and television between 1972 and 77 at Rusden State College and Melbourne State College of Education.  The following year he travelled in Europe. His interest in photography dates back to schooldays. His fresh view of snow gums touches an area that might not have engaged the eye of a native born Australian, to whom gum trees are traditionally something of a cliche.  This small group of prints makes a quite radical progress from close-up to extreme close-up; from a conventionally seen close view of a tree trunk within a horizon-bounded view, to closer look at wrinkled detail of the pressures occurring during growth, to an even closer view - an elegant landscape indeed - of the stippled textures and striations of a tree lapped with shadow, and finally, beyond, to a point of view that waives form and is contained of pure, palest tone and hue, like watercolour surrounding the charcoal portrait of an old carbuncle. This daring visual breaks through the conventions of photographic picture making without resorting to manipulation or tricks. Mark Johnson made no concessions to pictorial effect in portraying Sydney's waterfront. As he wrote: 'In the present foreshore work, I initially experimented with other lighting conditions, but eventually returned to the clear light (which atmospheric contamination is making increasingly rare) and cloudless skies under which the landscape of our climes seems to me to be most fully itself.' Obviously Johnson made the right decision in eschewing the effect -or more likely the distraction - of romantic cumulus clouds and slanting light with sparkles upon the water. The unblinking severity of his interpretation, the rigour and critical quality of his prints, bring us a work of real intellectual attack, certainly the most interesting by this photographer to date.  It is a pleasure to scan the prints and appreciate his virtuoso glissando through the tonal range from glaring white to soot black. In this assiduous delineation of information and the massing of subject, in short by his composition and detail, we can read the boom and bust and daily chore of Sydney's past and present, recognising its uncontrolled Topsy-like growth over two centuries in some astonishing contiguities of architecture. But in spite of the contradictory elements of the content there is a certitude in the design of the whole which is the mark of Johnson's confidence in the concept, and conveys his captivation by and deep involvement with the subject. This quintessentially photographic work should go down to the future as a profoundly informative and fascinating document. We come to the leastassertive, most informal, perhaps the most affectionate work of the exhibition, Stephen Wickham's instant film miniatures of the Mt. Buffalo National Park, taken over four seasons with a cheap plastic camera and self developing film. By the device of placing a white circle in the landscape Stephen Wickham in a way defines his area, but more than that, he bestows upon the work to be undertaken a kind of deliberation, or a ritual intention, which brings an ambiguous quality to the final result. It is like a secret sign, or a symbol, to find a magic circle hinted at through water or snow crystals, reappearing at times in an inscrutable fashion, out there in a declared wilderness.  Stephen Wickham is a teacher and a product of our art training system, which means that he is overinclined to intellectualise or to theorise about visuals and this sometimes has the effect of chasing the meaning away. It is interesting that he has elected to present each picture mounted, literally raised up, like a little monument, within a small gold frame.  Conversely, there is the contradiction that the photographs are made with a simple foolproof camera. So it is a set of innocent views, if you like, arising from a complex net of theories and even to be explained by art jargon. I would like to suggest that these preceptive and evocative visuals have a quality which owes nothing to Wickham's didactic tendencies however intelligently he has realised the concept and that they would look just as good in a personal album, to be thumbed through with pleasure.  They need to be savoured for what they are, delicate and stringent pictures of a landscape the author knows and loves. They are visuals arising rather more from poetic appreciation than from conceptual thinking and they are a cogent argument for the language of photography best enjoyed without the language of words. Jennie Boddington Curator of Photography October, 1981   Check List   RICHARD WOLDENDORP   1927    Born Utrecht, Holland Studied commercial art and painting 1950    Emigrated to Perth, Western Australia Worked as a house painting contractor 1955    Bought a camera and became interested in photography 1961    Became a professional photographer      Publications    Hidden Face of Australia  1968 Million Square 1969 Indonesia  1972 Walkabout  1974 Looking West  1977 Perth, 150 years  1979 Collections National Gallery of Victoria Philip Morris Collection Art Gallery of Western Australia   1 Solar Salt Works I (Dampier, W.A.), May '81 Pentax 6x7, Fujifilm), Cibachrome print by Peter Whyte, July 1981, 50.6 x 40.1 cm     2 Solar Salt Works II (Dampier), May '81 (Pentax 6x7, Ektachrome 200) Cibachrome print by Peter Whyte, July 1981, 50.6 x 40.4 cm     3 Solar Salt Works III (Dampier), May '81 Pentax 6x7, Ektachrome 200) Cibachrome print by Peter Whyte, July 1981, 50.4 x 40.2 cm     4 Solar Salt Works Reflection (Lake McLeod, Carnarvon) June '80 , (Nikon F 35mm Kodachrome 25) Cibachrome print by Peter Whyte, July 1981 50.5 x 38.5 cm     5 Lyndon River Estuary (North of Carnarvon), June '80 (Pentax 6x7, Ektachrome film, 105mm lens) Cibachrome print by Bill Pether, November 1980, 50.5 x 39.8 cm     6 Beach and Birds (80 Mile Beach), May»81 (Nikon F 35mm Kodachrome 25) Cibachrome print by Peter Whyte, July 1981, 50.4 x 34.0 cm     7 Tidal River (Kimberley Coast) May '81, (Nikon F 35mm Kodachrome 25), Cibachrome print by Peter Whyte, July 1981 50.3 x 39.3 cm     8 Tidal Coastline (Kimberley) May '81 (Pentax 6x7, Ektachrome 200) Cibachrome print by Peter Whyte, July 1981, 50.5 x 40.4 cm, From the Collection     9 Tidal Coast (Kimberley), May '81, (NikonF 35mm Kodachrome 25) Cibachrome print by Peter Whyte, July 1981, 39.2 x 50.2 cm     10 Tidal Pattern (Prince Regent River, Kimberley), April '79 (NikonF 35mm, Kodachrome 25, 105mm lens) Cibachrome print by Bill Pether, August 1979, 50.2 x 39.8 cm, From the Collection     11 Tidal River with Mangrove (Kimberley Coast) May '81 (NikonF 35mm, Kodachrome 25) Cibachrome print by Peter Whyte, July 1981, 50.2 x 33.4 cm From the Collection     12 Tidal Sand Pattern (Derby, Kimberley), May '81, (Pentax 6x7, Ektachrome 200) Cibachrome print by Peter Whyte, July, 1981, 40.2 x 50.4 cm, From the Collection     13 Estuary (Kimberley Coast), May '81, (Nikon F 35mm Kodachrome 25), Cibachrome print by Peter Whyte, July 1981, 35.5 x 50.0 cm     14 River Estuary (Gascoyne River Mouth), June '80 (Nikon F 35mm Kodachrome 25, 105mm lens) Cibachrome print by Bill Pether, September 1980, 40.0 x 50.3 cm, From the Collection     15 Warren Inlet (Warren River, South W.A.), August '79 (Rolleiflex 66, Ektachrome 64, 85ram lens) Cibachrome print by Bill Pether, November 1979, 34.8 x 50.1 cm     16 Wave (Broome Beach, Kimberley Coast), May '81 (Pentax 6x7, Ektachrome 200, standard lens) Cibachrome print by Peter Whyte, July 1981, 50.2 x 40.2 cm     17 Dunes (South West Coast near Bremer Bay), Feb. '81 (Nikon F 35mm, Kodachrome 25) Cibachrome print by Peter Whyte, July 1981, 40.5 x 50.4 cm     18 Ploughed Earth (Dongara, South of Geraldton) June '80, Nikon F 35mm, Kodachrome 25, 105mm lens) Cibachrome print by Bill Pether, November, 1980, 38.4 x 50.5 cm     19 Brine Pool (Lake McLeod north of Carnarvon), June '80, (Pentax 6x7, 105mm lens), Cibachrome print by Bill Pether, August, 1980, 50.6 x 39.8 cm     20 Shark Bay (Peron Peninsula), June '80 (Pentax 6x7, Ektachrome 200, standard lens) Cibachrome print by Bill Pether, September 1980, 38.2 x 49.4 cm, From the Collection     21 Land Sea Border (Peron Peninsula), June '80, (Nikon F 35mm, Kodachrome 25, 105mm lens) Cibachrome print by Bill Pether, January 1981, 39.5 x 50.3 cm     22 Pink Lake (North of Geraldton), June '80 (Nikon F 35mm, Kodachrome 25, 105mm lens) Cibachrome print by Bill Pether, August, 1980, 39.4 x 50.5 cm, From the Collection     23 Salt Lake Island (North of Lancelin Salt Pans), June '80 (Nikon F 35mm, Kodachrome 25, 105mm lens) Cibachrome print by Bill Pether, August 1980, 39.7 x 50.3 cm, From the Collection     24 Spinifex, Pilbara (South of Hamersley Ranges), April '79 (Pentax 6x7, 105mm lens) Cibachrome print by Bill Pether, September 1980, 40.2 x 50.5 cm, From the Collection     25 Spinifex Yellow (South of Millstream, Hamersley Ranges) April '79  (Pentax 6x7, 105mm lens) Cibachrome print by Bill Pether, September 1980, 40.2 x 50.5 cm, From the Collection     26 Salt Pans (Peron Peninsula, Shark Bay), June '80, Pentax 6x7, Ektachrome 64, 105mm lens) Cibachrome print by Bill Pether, September 1980, 40.0 x 50.2 cm, From the Collection     27 Derby Tidal Flats, July f77 (Nikon F 35mm Kodachrome 25, 105mm lens) Cibachrome print by Bill Pether, November 1980, 50.2 x 37.5 cm     28 Mud Flats (Derby, Kimberley), May '81 (Pentax 6x7, Ektachrome 200) Cibachrome print by Peter Whyte, July 1981, 50.3 x 40.2 cm, From the Collection     29 Hamersley Range, Pilbara, May '81, (Nikon F 35mm, Kodachrome 25) Cibachrome print by Peter Whyte, July 198, 50.2 x 33.6 cm, From the Collection     30 Great Sandy Desert, May '81, (Nikon F 35mm, Kodachrome 25), Cibachrome print by Peter Whyte, July 1981 50.4 x 39.0 cm, From the Collection     31 Ashburton (Lower Hamersley) May '81, (Pentax 6x7, Fuji film, standard lens), Cibachrome print by Peter Whyte, July 1981 50.4 x 40.0 cm, From the Collection     32 Flood Plain (Carnarvon), June '80, (Nikon F 35mm, Kodachrome 25) Cibachrome print by Peter Whyte, July 1981, 39.2 x 50.0 cm, From the Collection     33 Lake Austin (Between Cue and Mt. Magnet), May '81, (Nikon F 35mm Kodachrome 25) Cibachrome print by Peter Whyte, July 1981, 50.4 x 38.8 cm, From the Collection     34 Ants Clearing (North east of Newman by edge of Desert) May '81, (Nikon F 35mm Kodak 64) Cibachrome print by Peter Whyte, July 1981 50.3 x 40.0 cm, From the Collection     35 Start of Gorge (Black Rock Hills, North Chichester Range, Pilbara.) May '81, (Pentax 6x7, Fuji 100, standard lens) Cibachrome print by Peter Whyte, July 1981, 50.3 x 40.0 cm, From the Collection     36 Scrub Fire (East of Port Hedland) May '81 (Nikon F 35mm Kodachrome 25) Cibachrome print by Peter Whyte, July 1981 50.3 x 38.4 cm, From the Collection     37 Bushfire Pattern (Between Bruce Rock area and North west Esperance) Feb. '81 (Nikon 35mm Kodachrome 25, 105mm lens) Cibachrome print by Bill Pether, March 1981, 39.8 x 50.2 cm, From the Collection     38 Bushfire Trails (between Bruce Rock and North west Esperance) Feb. '81 (Nikon F 35mm Kodachrome 25, 105mm lens) Cibachrome print by Bill Pether, March 1981, 35.0 x 49.0 cm   LAURIE WILSON 1920    Born Geelong, Victoria 1934    Left school 1942    First photography job, as assistant at Lockwood's Studio in Geelong 1945    Set up his own professional studio - weddings, portraits and all kinds of local commissions 1962    Retired because of ill-health 1966    Began exhibiting in Camera Club shows around Australia 1974    Completed Dog Rocks series 1975-76  Received a grant from the Visual Arts Board of the Australia Council to devote the full year to landscape photography in Victoria 1980    Died at Geelong Collections: Australian National Gallery, Canberra Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris Geelong Art Gallery, Victoria Horsham Art Gallery, Victoria Museum of Modern Art, New York National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne Victoria and Albert Museum, London 1 Long Hills  n.d. Silver print  16.2 x 49.0 cm     2 Sheep fields and road (unidentified) Silver print  9.4 x 22.0 cm     3 Park seat and sundial (unidentified)  * Silver print  23.1 x 34.8 cm     4 Rocky coastal scene (unidentified)  *  Silver print   24.5 x 35.8 cm     5 Waterhole (unidentified)  *  Silver print  26.3 x 35.7 cm     6 Waterway and island (unidentified)  * Bleach tones on silver print  24.0 x 35.6 cm     7 Ski tow (unidentified)  * Silver print  23.2 x 35.0 cm     8 Ski resort and cloud (unidentified)  * Silver print  22.7 x 34.3 cm     9 Channel (unidentified) Bleach tones on silver print  23.3 x 35.0 cm 10      10 Upland picnic area (unidentified)  Bleach tones on silver print 23.5 x 35.0 cm     11 Rocky slope (unidentified) Silver print  25.0 x 35.5 cm     12 Mt. Buffalo  1976 Silver print 24.3 x 34.2 cm     13 Dog Rocks  1976 Silver print 21.0 x 31.5 cm     14 You-Yangs  1976 Silver print  13.8 x 22.0 cm     15 Trees and rocky hillside (unidentified)  *Silver print 23.0 x 34.8 cm     16 Chalky trees in dark mist (unidentified)  *Silver print 24.8 x 35.5 cm     17 Farmhouse and cloud (unidentified)  * Silver print  23.0 x 34.8 cm     18 Landscape with snow (unidentified)  * Bleach tones on silver print  23.3 x 34.7 cm     19 Tree and cloud (unidentified) Silver print  14.0 x 20.3 cm     20 Waterhole (unidentified)  * Silver print  23.0 x 35.0 cm     21 Sheep tracks  (unidentified)  * Silver print  27.6 x 25.0 cm     22 Splintered tree stump (unidentified)  * Bleach tones on silver print  23.0 x 34.7 cm     23 Empty road (unidentified)  * Silver print  23.4 x 35.3 cm      24 Flood debris in trees (unidentified)  * Bleach tones on silver print  34.0 x 22.4 cm     25 Dead tree and barbed wire fence in mist (unidentified) * Bleach tones on silver print  23.3 x 34.8 cm     26 Ploughed black hillside (unidentified)  * Silver print  23.0 x 34.8 cm     27 Spindly sapling (unidentified)  * Bleach tones on silver print 27.0 x 37.0 cm     28 Cloud and mountain scene (unidentified)  * Silver print  22.8 x 34.7 cm     29 Dead tree (unidentified)  * Bleach tones on silver print 23.2 x 35.6 cm     30 Fence and Trees, Discovery Bay 1976  * Bleach tones on silver print  33.8 x 22.5 cm *  Indicates only one print known of this picture   TOMMY PSOMOTRAGOS 1953      Born in Greece 1969     Australian citizenship 1972-77  Studied Drama, Film and Television at Rusden State College and Melbourne State College of Education 1978     Travelled in Europe Film work with Trevor Graham is represented in the Film Archive Collection of the National Library and the Vincent Library at the Australian Film Commission. Lately has turned to still photography in colour. The four prints shown are on Type C colour, each measuring 46.5 x 30.5 cm All are in the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria, purchased 1981. Snow Gum Series #2 Snow Gum Series #3 Snow Gum Series #4 Snow Gum Series #13     MARK JOHNSON 1946  Born Sydney 1957  Took up photography at school 1970  Graduated in Medicine, University of Sydney 1973   F.R.C.S. (England) 1977  Photography became principal activity Collections: Art Gallery of South Australia National Gallery of Victoria Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery Philip Morris Collection Visual Arts Board Australian Photographic Industries Council Parliament House, Sydney Artbank, Sydney The photographs were taken with a Mamiya RB67 camera on negatives 6.0 x 7.0 cm The silver prints each measure 40.5 x 50.5 cm Woolloomooloo Bay:   Woolloomooloo 1980 Black Wattle Bay:  Glebe I  1979 Parramatta River:  Waverton  1980 Parramatta River:  Birchgrove I  1980 Port Jackson, Milson's Point  1979 Darling Harbour:  City of Sydney  1979 Sydney Cove:  City of Sydney  1979 Rozelle Bay:  Glebe Point  1980 Parramatta River:  Rhodes  1980 Iron Cove:  Balmain I  1980 Iron Cove:  Balmain II  1979 Johnston's Bay:  Prymont  1979 Black Wattle Bay:  Prymont II  1979 Parramatta River:  Mortlake  1980     STEPHEN WICKHAM 1950     Born Melbourne 1972     Studied photography at Prahran College of Advanced Education 1974     Graduated National Gallery Art School  (Painting) 1974     Awarded Hugh Ramsay Prize 1977-78  Travelled in Nepal, India, Europe 1981     Tutor in photography Caulfield Institute T.A.F.E. 1981     Studying at Melbourne State College of Education (Dip. Ed.) 'These photographs are selected from a larger body of collated information gathered in a series of walks in the Mt. Buffalo National Park.  They were produced within a one kilometre radius of a specific place which is marked by a white stone circle placed over grey-red moss.  Transitions within the seasons' cycle have been recorded at this site and others. The work is generally dedicated to friends who have accompanied me on the walks, and specifically to Linda and Anitsa.  The images were made with a Kodak Colorburst camera and print/film in 1980/81'.  Stephen Wickham 24 prints each measure 7.0 x 9.0 cm and were mounted and framed by the photographer.