Flora Obscura 04

These photographs ask us to examine our human relationship to the native flora of the area, manipulated and stylised to mimic early Kodak camera photography from circa 1889. The technique pays homage to plants cleared by early settlement and express the aesthetic beauty of the plants, but also recounts history, incorporating both Indigenous and non Indigenous narratives, and serving as a memento of an environment that has been changed by settlement.

“The series intelligently locates these botanic gems within a circular format, and colours the backgrounds in mysteriously dark sepia tones. We lurch between the seductive beauty of the flower forms and the sense of wonder that earlier migrants must have experienced.” (Jude Van de Merwe, Artlink, vol 34 #3 [2-14] / 95.)