We were stunned at how dry, brown and bleak the South Australian landscape was when we were driving down to Encounter Bay from Adelaide. We had just flown into Adelaide from spending a couple of weeks travelling, walking and photographing in New Zealand.
It was a real shock after experiencing the greenness and lushness of the New Zealand landscape in both the North and the South Islands. After experiencing frequent rain, flowing streams and rivers, and lush green bush, we were taken back by the dryness. Hell, we thought, we live in this dry, bleak landscape.
I had noticed the brown landscape as we flew across Victoria and South Australia on route from Melbourne to Adelaide, but up close and walking in this landscape was a shock.
Yesterday afternoon, when I walked along the coastal path and the rocks on a late afternoon walk with Maleko, I didn’t even bother to take a camera with me. I couldn’t see the point.
Whilst walking with Maleko I wondered how I could find visual poetics amongst this kind of harshness or bleakness. Everything was so dusty and dirty. The bushes along the coast looked as if they were just hanging on. Surely I was crazy to even consider making this a photographic project.
The following morning when I was walking with Kayla along the Heritage Trail I noticed the clouds:
My heart lifted a little. Maybe I wasn’t that crazy after all. Then I slowly remembered the atmospherics and the light along this ever-changing coast.