Journeys Into the Wild: The Photography of Peter Dombrovskis

Journeys into theWild is a poetic escape to a fragile and breathtaking wilderness, withcelebrated photographer Peter Dombrovskis as our guide. A silhouette of a damaged twisted PencilPine, wearing a fine dusting of fresh snow and precariously positioned abovethe Pool of Siloam in the Walls of Jerusalem National Park, is like a portraitof a lively old friend. A fresh ice sheet, uniquely patterned, is coloured bythe alpenglow, as the day's first sunlight reflects on a Cradle Mountain tarn.A flowering white Olearia pinifolia at the base of a massive boulder on Mount Wellington is a study in permanencyand transience. Here, too, are photographs of the Snowy Mountains and thetropical rainforests of Queensland's Daintree and Hinchinbrook Island, Fiji andBorneo. Bob Brown and PeterDombrovskis forged their friendship in the battle to save the Gordon andFranklin rivers. As a founder of the Wilderness Society, Bob organised theblockade of dam works on the Franklin, recruiting Peter and his iconicphotography to make the case for conservation over profit. During the campaign,Bob accompanied Peter on one of his kayak trips down the Franklin and observedhis process as a photographer. Peter would go on to take one of the most famousphotographs in Australian history, Morning Mist, Rock Island Bend, FranklinRiver , an image that featured in calendars and diaries across Australia andthat was integral to the success of the campaign. The two remained friendsuntil Peter's death in 1996.