Geoffrey Lea is a Tasmanian environmental activist whose tool of choice is his camera. Recently, he was named Canon/ Landscape Photographer of the Year 2006 and deservedly so. The stunning photo below, of sea breaking over rocks taken at Port Davey in Tasmania’s southwest, gained a gold distinction and was ranked in the top ten across all categories (more than 1,500 images).
A few years ago, Geoffrey came to Windgrove with a commission to photograph the land and my sculptural benches for inclusion in a book on Australian Gardens (The Open Garden/Allen&Unwin publishers). The day was overcast and bleak and I fretted that the dark, ominous clouds would hamper his efforts to get even one decent photograph, let alone the three needed. Well, his mastery of light and dark, of clouds and contrasts resulted in the publishers using two of the images for double page spreads. Wasn’t I fortunate that this master of the dark cloud happened by on this particular day?
For several weeks now I have been looking at the Port Davey photograph and am still awed by its sheer beauty and chaotic power.
I have looked around where I live and have tried to imagine capturing such an image.
What is there around here, I have asked, that speaks of something: overwhelmingly daunting, beyond control, needing courage to tackle, seemingly impossible to fathom, an overpowering sense of helplessness, or, where even the gods fear to tread?
For days I have stalked this land waiting for just the right moment, just the right combination of events to give me what I wanted. But to no avail. In the end I would come home empty handed.
And then I saw it. Right in front of my eyes. What I had been waiting for. The image that would capture all the meaning…
of fear,
of dread,
of wildness untamed,
of despair and foreboding.
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