JO FLACK ISSUE 32 GUIDE AUSTRALIAN SCREEN EDUCATION Wildness STUDY 1 Morning light on Little Horn, Cradle Mountain. (Photo Peter Dombrovskis) © Liz Dombrovskis INTRODUCING WILDNESS What would the odds be of two men from Baltic states, each of them finishing up in Tasmania, being top wilderness photographers, each dying out there, each devoted one to the other? Max Angus, artist ISSUE 32 ISSUE 32 SYNOPSIS of progress. Olegas is renowned for campaign to save it from a similar fate. his slide presentations which, over 20 His photograph of the Franklin’s Rock AUSTRALIAN SCREEN EDUCATION AUSTRALIAN SCREEN EDUCATION Olegas Truchanas and Peter Dom- years, brought ever-increasing atten- Island Bend became a national icon, brovskis were two of Australia’s greatest tion to the island’s unique landscape. establishing him as one of the country’s wilderness photographers. Their work In particular, he captured on film the most influential photographers. became synonymous with campaigns to pink quartz beach and tea-coloured protect Tasmania’s natural heritage. water of Lake Pedder before it was Olegas and Peter shared many things, drowned by a fiercely protested hydro- including a bond that was more like From the 1950s to the 1980s, Olegas electric scheme. that of father and son. Both migrated and then Peter used photography to to Tasmania from Baltic Europe. And galvanise public opinion as the Hy- Ten years later, Peter’s magnificent pho- both died alone doing what they loved 2 dro Electric Commission cut swathes tographs of the Franklin River were used - photographing the wild. They left be- 3 through the wilderness in the name to spearhead the successful national hind a legacy of extraordinary images - contributing not only to their art but to CURRICULUM LINKS humanness of man. If man becomes an emerging environmental conscious- contained, too docile, programmed, ness in Australia. Wildness is a useful teaching resource then he becomes less human. And this in a range of curriculum areas includ- wildness in the wilderness allows the Their philosophy was simple and re- ing: Studies of Society and Environment, wildness in man an expression. markably effective - if people could see Environmental Science, Outdoor Educa- Peter Dombrovskis the beauty of Australia’s wild places tion, Australian History, The Arts, Media, then they might be moved to protect English, Legal Studies, Politics. Discuss the concept of wilderness. What them. They might also be encouraged does the term mean? What use is wilder- to understand the true value of the world The film can be used as a stimulus for a ness? What are students’ experiences ISSUE 32 ISSUE 32 around them. particular area of study, as a stand alone of wilderness? text, or as one of a range of texts for the AUSTRALIAN SCREEN EDUCATION AUSTRALIAN SCREEN EDUCATION Wildness brings over 300 Truchanas and study of themes and issues raised within The Wilderness Society says of wilder- Dombrovskis photographs together with it. The activities below provide options ness: archival film and stunning contemporary for these approaches. footage, in an epic story of two men Wilderness is a remote area essentially whose passion for nature became a BEFORE WATCHING unaffected and unaltered by modern in- crusade to save an environment under dustrial civilisation and colonial society. threat. WILDERNESS Wilderness is the result of millions of It is a wild land and I think that there is a years of evolution, and is large enough 2 certain wildness, a certain wild element to maintain for the long-term, biological 3 in man’s nature that is essential to the diversity and ecosystem processes. Truchanas children at Lake Pedder, Tasmania (Photo Olegas Truchanas) © Melva Truchanas Left: Portrait of Olegas Truchanas (Photo Norman Laird). Right: Cushion plants, Mount Anne, southwest Tasmania (Photo Peter Dombrovskis) © Liz Dombrovskis Through Adele, Peter met Olegas Max Angus, The World of Olegas Truchanas, who took him on canoe- Truchanas, 1975, Olegas Truchanas ing expeditions and encouraged his Publication Committee, Hobart. photographic endeavours. In time, Dombrovskis’ photography came to be Peter Dombrovskis, On the Mountain, understood by the Australian public as 1996, West Wind Press. a true representation of the Tasmanian wilderness. Dombrovskis was a keen Peter Dombrovskis and Bob Brown, conservationist; his work became iconic Wild Rivers, 1983, Peter Dombrovskis in the fight to save the Franklin River. Pty Ltd. Dombrovskis died of a heart attack on 28 March 1996, whilst photographing Peter Dombrovskis website - www.view. the Western Arthur Range in Tasmania’s com.au/dombrovskis remote southwest. LOOKING AT WILDERNESS INTRODUCING THE WORK OF PHOTOGRAPHY Wilderness can be tropical jungle, for- OLEGAS TRUCHANAS AND PETER ested mountains, alpine plains, open DOMBROVSKIS Students may begin by looking for imag- grasslands, arid woodlands, sand or es of nature in their family photographs; gibber deserts or coral reefs. While students may be familiar with they can then be asked to consider the wilderness photography, Australian wilderness is also a cultural they are unlikely to have landscape that has been actively man- given it much thought. For aged by Aboriginal people for tens students, such photography of thousands of years. Wilderness is will often be understood as Aboriginal land.1 the fading posters on waiting room walls, or as postcards OLEGAS TRUCHANAS – SHORT from friends and family. A few BIOGRAPHY may have framed prints or coffee table books at home. Olegas Truchanas was born in Lithua- Indeed, many students nia in 1923. He fought with the under- would be unaware that they ground resistance during World War may in fact know the work of Two, before arriving in Tasmania as a Olegas Truchanas and Peter refugee in 1945. He had experienced Dombrovskis through some the harshness and privations of war- of their iconic images. reason these images were taken. What torn Europe and in the wilderness of was the photographer trying to capture? Tasmania found an opportunity to ex- One introductory activity would be to Beauty? Memory? Emotion? A sense of perience, record, and be renewed by, provide examples of the work of both time or place? Art? Other motivations? places little known by white Australians. photographers for students to examine. Are these images of wilderness or of Truchanas conducted slide shows of his It is quite difficult to find examples of nature and what, if anything, is the dif- photographs and became involved in Truchanas’ photography; Dombrovskis’ ference between the two? the conservation movement. His most work is more readily available. Some ex- famous achievement is his photograph- amples may be found in the following: In order to develop an understanding ic record of Lake Pedder shortly before of the wide-ranging use of wilderness its flooding. Olegas Truchanas drowned photography, students could look for ISSUE 32 ISSUE 32 while canoeing on the Gordon River on examples in their local environment. 6 January 1972. Peter Dombrovskis What is represented in these images? AUSTRALIAN SCREEN EDUCATION AUSTRALIAN SCREEN EDUCATION found Truchanas’ body. How is it represented? To what uses are such images put? Art? Advertising? PETER DOMBROVSKIS – SHORT Magazine and newspaper illustration? BIOGRAPHY Other uses? Peter Dombrovskis was born in 1945 in a refugee camp in Germany to Latvian parents. He emigrated to Tasmania in 1950 with his mother Adele. Both 4 keenly explored the Tasmanian bush. Above: Portrait of Melva Truchanas and Liz 5 Dombrovskis. (Photo Matthew Newton) © Film Australia. Left: Portrait of Peter Dombrovskis. (Photo Peter Jackson) © Peter Jackson ISSUE 32 AUSTRALIAN SCREEN EDUCATION 5 ISSUE 32 AUSTRALIAN SCREEN EDUCATION 4 ISSUE 32 AUSTRALIAN SCREEN EDUCATION 7 AUSTRALIAN SCREEN EDUCATION ISSUE 32 6 HYDRO-ELECTRICITY had trained in England and Europe and tried, with varying degrees of suc- Tasmania has a large number of hydro- cess, to use techniques and colours electric power plants. Where are these appropriate to their upbringing. One of plants? Why does Tasmania have so the most famous is John Glover. Find many? How does a hydro-electric representations of the bush in colonial power plant generate electricity? What art and compare these to the work of are alternate methods of generating Indigenous and modern artists. What do electricity? these paintings and drawings say about the way early white Australians thought Hydro Tasmania - www.hydro.com.au about the bush? Department of Infrastructure, Energy & Resources - www.dier.tas.gov.au/ PHOTOGRAPHIC energy/index.html constructed in this way? What purpose REPRESENTATIONS OF TASMANIAN does such a technique serve for audi- WILDERNESS AFTER WATCHING ences who are familiar with the original photographic representations, and for Photographers began capturing Tas- THEMES AND ISSUES those for whom the subject matter is mania as early as the mid 19th century. new? How might this technique influ- Images from that time include the in- List the themes the documentary ence the viewer? creasingly popular stereo photographs, addresses. What view, if any, does which were designed to be viewed in Wildness present about each of these REPRESENTATIONS OF TASMANIAN a stereoscopic viewer that simulated a themes? WILDERNESS IN ART three dimensional view. Copies of these may be found in the State Library of Tas- MULTIPLE STORYLINES Few of us have been to the Tasmanian mania’s online Images collection from wilderness, yet through the work of art- http://images.statelibrary.tas.gov.au. To Wildness is structured around several ists, photographers and film-makers we view the 3D effect, hold a piece of stiff separate but interconnected storylines. may feel that we know it. The repre- card in the middle of the two images List each of these and draw a concept sentations created by visual artists have against the computer screen, look at map that illustrates how they con- changed over the years as Australians the left image with the left eye and the nect.