The Seasons in lutruwita/Tasmania, 2021
This work explores the seasons within lutruwita/Tasmania throught landscape photography. Whilst initiallyplanning to explore concepts around change within the seasons, I landed on landscape photography as a way to deepen my understanding of Tasmania's native and endemic seasonal flora.
The folio is a collection of sixteen prints, with four photographs for each of the four seasons, summer, autumn, winter, and spring. Each of the seasons focuses on a particular native species of flora.
My summer photographs feature the endemic Richea Scoparia, a native flower, blooming at Dixons Kingdom within the Walls of Jerusalem National Park.
My autumnal photographs feature the endemic Nothofagus Gunnii, also known as Deciduous Beech, at Dove Lake in Cradle Mountain and Lake St Clair National Park.
My winter photographs feature Pencil Pines at Pine Lake in the Central Midlands.
My final collection of spring photographs feature varieties of Acacia, also known as Wattle, taken at Punchbowl Park in Launceston.
Throughout the year, I have learnt more about First Nations perspectives, and how connection to the natural world around us can allow us to better understatnd and live with nature. While writing my Major Research Paper, I explored the Nyoongar calendar, an indigenous seasonal calender of the First Nations peoples of south-western Western Australia, made up of six seasons. Two for summer, one for autumn, one for winter, and two for spring. The Nyoongar peoples' lifesttyles were influenced by the change in seasons, observing natural indicators such as variation in weather conditions, or the transition of local flora species to be able to live with nature.
By learning more about lutruwita/Tasmania's native and endemic species that signal seasons changes, I have better informed my understanding of the natural world that surrounds me, and deepened my connection to it.
