Page 59 - Tropic Magazine Issue 34

TROPIC • ARTS

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Alchemic magic

PHOTOGRAPHY
Meet Matthew Stanton,
a photographer who’s spent
decades documenting the deep, 3
tropical north.

Although his photographic series Shooting a lot of the city’s underground
Deep North spans more than a decade music scene during the 90s, he soon
of observation, Matthew Stanton believes turned his lens towards the environment, The process is slow and
he’s only “scratched the surface” alongside working with the Wet
of our tropical north landscape, Tropics Management Authority’s usually very deliberate
his childhood home. revegetation projects. in execution
Growing up in Djabugay Country, at the Now based in Melbourne, Matthew
end of the Redlynch Valley near regularly returns to the region to visit Matthew Stanton
Photographer
Crystal Cascades, Matthew has witnessed his parents – and assist with their 30
housing estates take the place of year-long rainforest regeneration project “The level of sustained attention and
cane fields, and grassy Eucalypt near Mount Bartle Frere – as well as to
woodlands become dense forests produce Deep North, an ongoing project. consideration the medium frequently
demands encourages a certain mode of
dominated by rainforest pioneer species. “In late 2013 I began working on the series
It’s these dramatic changes, as well as the with a more focused intent,” he said. absorption and embodiment within a
not so palpable shifts in local ecosystems, “At that time the first of the major coral location which, for me, is unique to that
method of working,” he said. “How that
that he hopes to capture in Deep North – bleaching events had occurred along the
opening at NorthSite Contemporary Arts northern stretch of the Great Barrier Reef state of immersion translates into the
finished image is impossible to say, but it
this February. and the redevelopment of the Abbott
“A large part of my early motivation Point Coal Terminal had also just been has always felt like an essential part of the
was spurred by a renewed fascination announced. It was becoming ever more process for me.”
Deep North runs at NorthSite
with the landscape’s layers of visual and clear that these landscapes, which were
psychological complexity which would already significantly wounded, faced the Contemporary Arts from 18 February to
23 April. It is Matthew Stanton’s first solo
continually beckon my gaze. I soon found prospect of being dramatically redefined
myself compelled to try and translate by global warming in the decades ahead.” exhibition in Cairns.
those impressions photographically,” Deep North is shot on colour negative 1. Matthew Stanton, Johnstone River #1, (Ngadjonji
Matthew told Tropic. film, with a large format view camera. Country), 2013, chromogenic darkroom print (hand
The artist discovered photography in The equipment, which Matthew says printed by the artist)
2. Credit: Final Grade Fine Art Printing
his final year at Cairns State High, is reminiscent of what was used in the 3. Credit: ABC
in the school’s black and white very early days of photography, requires
darkroom under the guide of his teacher, relatively long exposure times, even in MORE: northsite.org.au
Ana Sullivan. normal lighting conditions.

59 • tropicnow.com.au