Xenophobia

Xenophobia: dislike of or prejudice towards people, cultures, customs that are foreign, or perceived as foreign. - Oxford English Dictionary

Danglers. Fuji X10, Melbourne, 2012.

I was talking to a friend recently who has been having a hard time since he has moved to lutruwita /Tasmania. He grew up in Sydney, speaks perfect English, he is a walking encyclopedia, and a gifted musician. He also has brown skin and a big black beard. When he walks down the street, the people of Hobart stare at him. Little children have come up to him and said ‘What are you doing here?”. Almost every day, he receives aggressive comments, ‘Go back to where you came from’. He has had eggs thrown at him while riding his bike. He has struggled to find work as a music teacher. Recently the attacks have gotten worse. As a result, my friend has decided to move interstate.

Facade. Fuji X10, Melbourne, 2012.

I am so disappointed in my fellow Hobartians. I never knew or imagined they could be so hostile to someone simply because they look different. Xenophobia is the word that comes to mind. Xenophobia is manifested as a ‘dislike of or prejudice towards people, cultures and customs that are foreign, or perceived as foreign’. One might say, xenophobia is the fear of the unknown. Some might say this is the greatest fear of all.

Cult(ure). Fuji X10, Melbourne, 2012.

The trouble with xenophobia is that it makes us mean towards people who have done nothing wrong. It’s one thing to punish someone who has done a terrible thing. But if you are self righteously being mean to a person simply because they look like someone who has done a terrible thing, well then you have fallen into the trap of a logical fallacy and you need a good kick up the bum yourself!

Dubstep, Drum and & Bass. Fuji X10, Melbourne, 2012.

The world is a big place and there are a lot of people in it. When will we learn how to behave toward each other with equality, fairness and respect? I keep waiting for the day when we start treating each other like the fellow human beings that we are. I might be waiting long.

-A.S. 26.10.24, Lenah Valley

 

Watchtower. Fuji X10, Melbourne, 2012.

The greatest fear of all

In this world

There are many fears.

 

Fear of spiders

Fear of snakes

Fear of heights

And fear of fakes.

 

Fear of losing,

Fear of pain,

Fear of hunger,

Or being slain.

 

But the greatest fear

There ever was

is the fear of

the unknown.

-A.S. 26.10.24, Lenah Valley

Misty Turrets. Pentax MX, Pan F 50, Nov 2020.

Uncertain Descent. Pentax MX, Panf 50, Nov 2020.

Rock Head. Pentax MX, Panf 50. Nov 2020.

The spine of the prince. Pentax MX, Panf 50, Nov 2020.

A proposition

“Always look at where you want to go, not where you don’t want to go.”
-A.S. 9/10/24

The Witch’s Thumb. Pentax MX, Oct 2020.

Misty quartzite ridge, lakes. Pentax MX, Oct 2020.

Lake Vera. Pentax MX, Oct 2020.

The Baron. Pentax MX, Oct 2020.

Quiet Places

“I remember an old man of this island… That old man never left this island… That old man mirrored everything that was good and is still good on this island… That old man whom I knew so well was conserved as I always want that mountain to be. He lived all his years here, in this island. It was really the only place he knew. He was a true part of this quiet land because he reflected its integrity. He is gone now but there is much of him still here.”


-Nick Evans, from the Introduction to ‘Quiet Places’.

Magenta Afternoon. Pentax MX, Ektar 100, Feb 2022.

“And in the still, quiet nights, feeling the shelter of the enclosing tent, one is even more aware than in the daytime of the vastness of the wilderness.” - Ellen Miller, Quiet Places

Pandanifolia, Crooked Spire. Pentax MX, Ektar 100, Feb 2022.

“It is a quiet that emanates from the land itself and its roots are deep.”

-Ellen Miller, Quiet Places

View toward the Cracroft Valley. Pentax MX, Ektar 100, Feb 2022.

The Arena

“A work of art is good when it is necessary, when it comes from a need. This is the only way to judge it, by its origins…

Maybe it will turn out our vocation is to be an artist. If that is so, take up that destiny and bear it, its burden, its greatness - without ever asking what reward from the outside it may bring you. For he who creates must be a world unto himself, must find everything inside himself and in the Nature to which he devotes himself.”


Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a young poet, Letter 1, 1903

The Arena, left.

The Arena, middle

The Arena, right.

The Arena. Three frame panorama. Hasselblad 500CM, Panf 50 Plus, Nov 2023. Taken in the South-West of lutruwita / Tasmania.
Displayed at the Long Gallery in nipaluna / Hobart as part of the 140th Annual Exhibition of the Art Society of Tasmania.
Exhibition wraps up at 4pm, 15th September 2024.

Along the old Lake Pedder track...

The old track to Lake Pedder can still be found. The trailhead is just past the Sentinels on the Gordon River Road. The start is not obvious, but once you start heading up toward the correct saddle, the track shows up where you need it. The track descends and follows the Swampy Creek valley, then climbs up and terminates on the south-west end of the Coronets.

Bonnie’s Bucket and one of the tentacles of the current ‘Lake Pedder’. Pentax MX, Delta 100, Sep 2023.

We walked along the old Lake Pedder Track in September 2023 with a friend of mine, Samara. I convinced her that we should take a fifty year old A-frame canvas tent as our only shelter. With some reluctance, she agreed. We ended up having a rest day on the second day of the trip, the day intended for summiting the Coronets, due to some classic south-west weather blowing in. Most things that were inside the tent ended up a bit damp. Well okay, maybe some things got saturated. Samara was justifiably grumpy with me. And my ultimate punishment was that the film I shot came out water damaged.

But now as I look back at these photos, and reflect on the drowning of Lake Pedder in 1972, it seems like the film itself is weeping at the loss of Tasmania’s most beautiful lake.

Looking back at the Sentinels. Pentax MX, Delta 100, Sep 2023.

But I’d rather end on a quirky than a tragic note.

I found a can of beer while we were out there, a solid day’s walk from the road! It was a good old cascade lager, in a blue can. Best of all, it hadn’t been cracked. It was on the ridgeline of the Coronets. I stepped a few metres off track to take some photos and as I went to set up my tripod, there it was. A full can of beer on the ground. I had to rub my eyes to believe it.

Well I couldn’t quite leave the can there, and there was no way I would carry the can out in full, so the only sensible thing left to do was to drink it. It was a bit flat, but it tasted like beer. It tasted good.

-A.S. 7/9/24, Lenah Valley

‘Lake Pedder’ from the Coronets, exactly where the three and a half kilometre long quartzite beach rests beneath 15 metres of dark water. Terminal peak on RH. Pentax MX, Delta 100, Sept 2023.

The Sound of Water

“Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way around or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves.


Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.” - Bruce Lee

Newtown Rivulet. Hasselblad 500CM, Portra 400, Aug 2024.

Mt Sarah Jane. Hasselblad 500CM, Portra 400, Aug 2024.

Buttongrass Moorland, Hasselblad 500CM, Portra 400, Aug 2024.

Angel Falls. Hasselblad 500CM, Portra 400, Aug 2024.

Ignorance and Apathy

The other day a friend of mine asked me what ignorance and apathy meant.
I told him I don’t know and I don’t care. ;)

Boulders and the Sea. Hasselblad 500CM, Cinestill 400D, July 2024.

A lot of the world’s troubles can be traced back to a lack of understanding and caring. Either people don’t know any better or they don’t care to do any better. Learning and caring come naturally to some but are elusive to others.

There have certainly been times in my life when I should have known better or should have cared more but I didn’t. Some days I wake up and I am full of quiet hope, ready to meet the world and to do my best. Other days, I wake up and I can’t motivate myself to care deeply about anything and I make a series of decisions that are detrimental to my own and the world’s well-being.

Why is it so hard to stay consistently true to our higher goals?

Rock Garden. Hasselblad 500CM, Cinestill 400D, July 2024.

Some of us know better, but fail to care enough to do better. Without shifting responsibility for our own actions, perhaps one reason for this is because we live in an insane society. Who can remain sane when the whole world has gone mad?

Humanity is on a trajectory of self destruction; we are passengers on a bus hurtling towards a cliff and our driver has their foot on the gas. The timeline of this self destruction is quite long and spans many generations; perhaps that’s why the annihilation of life on Earth doesn’t appear as pressing a matter as the rise of interest rates on our mortgages.

We are all witnessing the great tragedy of diminishing biodiversity, catastrophic climate change, overpopulation, and a decimation of the natural systems that support our own existence. And despite having a solid understanding of what the issues are and what some of the potential solutions may look like, as a society, as a species, we are unable to act in a coordinated way to implement those solutions. No matter how many ‘summits’ are held amongst the world’s leaders, emissions continue to increase, land is still being cleared, the oceans are still being exploited.

As an individual that is part of society, no matter how noble or well intentioned our actions are, we are all riding the big old ship of human destiny that seems bound for a terrible maelstrom. Perhaps this is why I wake up some days and I simply don’t care any more. I know that no matter what my actions are, nature is going to be destroyed by myself and my fellow humans as members of an insane society that is founded on the unsustainable use of limited natural resources. Why bother getting out of bed when my existence proliferates the imbalance of the world?

Lemon Rock. Hasselblad 500CM, Cinestill 400D, July 2024.

But then something akin to spirit awakens in me and I refuse to give in to apathy. While there is life, there is hope, and while there is hope there is a possibility of altering the trajectory of the future. The prerequisite for change is the belief in its possibility. Even though there are some days when I want to give in and stop caring completely, a little spark always remains and it gives me enough to carry on, to keep caring.

I may live in an insane society, in a horrendously skewed, imperfect world, but I am alive and this is the only life that I know, (or remember). And like Neil Young, I believe ‘it is better to burn out than to fade away’. So I’m going to keep the fire alive, and leave ignorance and apathy to those who don’t know and to those who don’t care.

-A.S. 24/8/24, Lenah Valley.