New Australian Landscapes
1999 – 2009
The landscapes in this series are not those of the pristine Tasmanian wilderness, tropical rainforests or the arid red centre but rather that which is lived in by the vast majority of Australians – suburbs nestled along the east coast – looking out to sea.
They seek to not only describe the physical landscape but also something of the economic, cultural and even psychical “landscape” of my corner of Australia – South East Queensland, Australia – at the dawn of a new millennium.
The maps and indexes of various editions of the local street directory* were my essential guide in the making of this collection of photographs.
They provided me with a list of locations and features in the landscape that have interesting names. These places then became my subjects and their names used as titles for the resultant photographs (mostly literally but occasionally with a little poetic licence!)
The images were made using a 50mm standard lens on a Nikon FE2 35mm camera. They are presented here in full-frame with no post-production.
* UBD Street Directory Gregorys Brisbane, Gold Coast & Sunshine Coast Refidex.
Brian G. Jefferies 2024
