FROM the idea of the “iconic” image of the south east’s forests comes, fully realized, a traveling exhibition, “Natural Forests - Australia’s wilderness coast.”
The photographic show at the Bermagui Community Centre will be opened by the director of the National Museum of Australia on Thursday, June 9.
This outstanding selection of works by seven photographers celebrates 2011 United Nations International Year of the Forests and the value of resilient native forests for: climate, water, wildlife, and beauty.
During a recent photographers’ camp held at Tanja, south of Bermagui, the photographers fanned out through the forests surrounding Eden, from mountains to coast, from East Gippsland to South East NSW.
The resulting photographs are breathtaking: ancient rainforests by Rob Blakers - helicopter panoramas by Richard Green - intimate forest and wildlife photos and portraits of the great champions for the forests by Narooma’s Heide Smith - tall eucalypts printed in silver-gelatin by Gordon Undy - John Reid’s night-time high in the forest canopy - Judith Deland’s iridescent fungi and ancient forests burnt after logging and Bermagui’s Wes Stacey - a master of the region’s forests and peoples.
Local photographers are also represented in a selection of forest and wildlife photos and a forest history display by Bermagui Historical Society.
“The native forests of the eastern mainland are habitat for threatened and endangered wildlife, including Australia’s iconic koala; regional extinction is a real threat after a recent two year survey found only 30 to 50 koalas where once hundreds of thousands lived,” Prue Acton, spokesperson for South East Regional Conservation Alliance (SERCA) said.
“Over 1,000 hectares of the forest in the above photograph have been unnecessarily approved for logging in 2011, mainly for woodchips; we have plantations to substitute for timber and fibre; this ongoing degradation is uneconomic, environmentally unsustainable and socially divisive.
We can change, from seeing forests as a resource, to revering them for their beauty and their essential part in the continuing evolution of life on this planet.”
We hope that this brilliant exhibition will be such a step.”
The public is warmly invited to attend the opening by Andrew Sayers AM, director National Museum of Australia, Thursday 9 June at 6pm.
RSVP and further information to gallerybodalla@gmail.com
View images and other venues www.serca.org.au/naturalforests
Email a friend