Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Photography Australia'

This thesis considers Max Dupain (1911-1992) and his contribution to the development of architectural photography in Australia. Through his continuous and prolific output over six decades of professional photography Dupain greatly stimulated awareness of and interest in Australian architecture. Before Dupain began specialising in the field, little consistent professional architectural photography had been practised in Australia. He and some of his close associates subsequently developed architectural photography as both a specialised branch of photography and - perhaps more significantly - as a necessary adjunct to architectural practice. In achieving these dual accomplishments, Dupain and like-minded practitioners succeeded in elevating architectural photography to the status of a discipline in its own right. They also gave Australians generally a deeper understanding of the heritage represented by the nation's built environment. At the same time, some of the photographic images he created became firmly fixed in the public imagination as historical icons within the development of a distinctive Australian tradition in the visual arts. Within his chosen field Dupain was the dominant Australian figure of his time. He was instrumental in breaking the link with Pictorialism by bringing Modernist and Documentary perspectives to Australian architectural photography. He was an innovator in the earlier decades of his professional career, however, his photographic techniques and practice did not develop beyond that. By the end of the 1980s he had largely lost touch with the technology and techniques of contemporary practice. Dupain's reputation, which has continued growing since his death in 1992, therefore arises from reasons other than his photographic images alone. It reflects his accomplishment in raising his fellow citizens' awareness of a worthwhile home-grown artistic tradition.

This thesis examines the reclamation of the 'Blak' body by Indigenous female photo-media artists. The discussion will begin with an examination of photographic representatiors of Indigenous people by the colonising culture and their construction of 'Aboriginality'. The thesis will look at the introduction of Aboriginal artists to the medium of photography and their chronological movement through the decades This will begin with a documentary style approach in the 1960s to an intimate exploration of identity that came into prominence in the 1980s with an explosion of young urban photomedia artists, continuing into the 1990s and beyond. I will be examining the works of four contemporary female artists and the impetus behind their work. The three main artists whose works will be examined are Brenda L. Croft, Destiny Deacon and Rea all of whom have dealt with issues of representation of the 'Blak female body, gender and reclamation of identity. The thesis will examine the works of these artists in relation to the history of representation by the dominant culture. Chapter 6 will look at a new emerging artist, Dianne Jones, who is looking at similar issues as the artists mentioned. This continuing critique of representation by Jones is testimony of the prevailing issues concerning Aboriginal representation

Master of Visual Arts
The Dissertation is a meditation on our relationship with this continent and its layered physical and psychological ‘landscapes’. It explores ways in which artists and writers have depicted our ‘thin’ but evolving presence here in the South, and references my own photographic work. The paper weaves together personal tales with fiction writing and cultural, settler and indigenous history. It identifies a uniquely Australian sense of 21st-century disquiet and argues for some modest aesthetic and social antidotes. It discusses in some detail the suppression of focus in photography, and suggests that the technique evokes not only memory, but a recognition of absence, which invites active participation (as the viewer attempts to ‘place’ and complete the picture). In seeking out special essences of place the paper considers the suburban poetics of painter Clarice Beckett, the rigorous focus-free oeuvre of photographer Uta Barth, and the hybrid vistas of artist/gardener Peter Hutchinson and painter Dale Frank. Interwoven are the insights of contemporary authors Gerald Murnane, W G Sebald and Paul Carter. A speculative chapter about the fluidity of landscape, the interconnectedness of land and sea, and Australia’s ‘deep’ geology fuses indigenous spirituality, oceanic imaginings of Australia, the sinuous bush-scapes of Patrick White, and the poetics of surfing. Full immersion is recommended.

The change from symbolism to imitative art in the late medieval period, and the confirmation of this in post- Renaissance art and art philosophy, served as a paradigm for painters until the mid nineteenth century. The pursuit of supreme objectivity in art, as seen through the camera obscura together with the questioning of the prevailing notions concerning the origins of natural phenomena, inevitably led to a reappraisal of what constituted 'beauty'. The birth of aesthetics endorsed the position of art as the most important medium of representation of the natural wilderness as the handiwork of the Creator but also confirmed the fallibility of the hand of man. Thus the concept of fixing the image of the camera obscura by a means other than drawing became an obsession at the turn of the nineteenth century and was resolved by the idea of 'sun-painting', 'heliography' or, as the first primitive, but workable, process was named, 'photogenic drawing'. The appearance of the first photographs sent a shock through the art community. If 'instant art' could be practised by anyone then the livelihood of artists was in jeopardy and it was necessary to reconsider what constituted 'good art'. But painters in particular saw advantages in the photograph as an 'objective copy' of Nature, one that could, itself, be copied at leisure, accurately. In this way problems of perspective, form, tone and detail were easily resolved. However, those practising the new medium began to adopt a semiosis of painting and photography became recognised not only as a new 'art' but also an art which, as a result of its indexical nature, in the Peircean sense, authenticated the subject. The utilitarian pragmatism of the early nineteenth-century colonist served to delay the introduction of photography to Australia until the process had been perfected, but it was then enthusiastically used to document progress, achievement and an environment which startled those 'back home'. However, the power of authentication surpassed representation and this enabled the unscrupulous to manipulate the photograph in order to exaggerate natural phenomena where this, in turn, served to heighten national pride in the new land. Thus the photograph became the tool of painters, illustrators and engravers in their efforts to authenticate fictionalised images of enterprise and production. But the introduction of photography had caused art critics to question the philosophy of verisimilitude in art and thus the epistemological basis of painting. Issues such as 'imagination' and the mediating role of the artist eventually challenged the post-Renaissance doctrine of imitation, but photography had already influenced painting irreversibly, not only through its use as a tool for painters, but also through the development of a 'photographic oeuvre' or style which was adopted by the first Australian 'school' of painting centred upon the artists' camps at Heidelberg in Victoria.

While the cultural history and practices of press photography in Australia have gained scholarly attention in recent years, the contribution of other forms of photography published in magazines—including editorial, advertising and readers’ photographs—to burgeoning concepts of nationhood has been largely overlooked. This thesis examines the role of photography in visualising a post-war ‘imagined community’ in a study of The Australian Women’s Weekly magazine, the highest-circulating weekly publication in the country, between the end of the Second World War in 1945 and the introduction of television in 1956. In its examination of these photographs, the thesis asks: What narratives of national identity were evident in the photographs? What subject matter and framing techniques were frequently employed to construct a national photographic language? And what does this reveal about the values the Weekly’s publisher and editors attached to being Australian? I argue that the Weekly was not passively depicting or reflecting a national community and its ‘Way of Life’, but that it actively constructed an Australian identity through the thousands of photographs it published, while simultaneously instructing its readers what good citizenship looked like—and how to perform their belonging to the nation. Visual analysis of over 200 photographs highlights the predominant narratives during the period, including an emphasis on the practice of family photography to reinforce ideals of urban, family life as centred within the modern home. Representations of immigration and Aboriginal Australians, the repetition of photographs of families participating in community events, and a valorisation of the rural worker’s relationship with the land were intertwined with the concepts of ordinariness and of the ‘Australian Way of Life’. These core ideals were deployed to enable multiple and potentially oppositional narratives to coexist on the pages of the magazine. Analysis of a series of readers’ colour travel photographs published in the later years of the study foregrounds the Weekly’s encouragement of its readers as collaborators by providing them with an opportunity to demonstrate their performance of national identity. The magazine thus became a platform through which readers contributed to the visual narrative of Australianness, via the medium of photography as a form of participatory citizenship. The thesis foregrounds the implementation of a high-speed printing press in 1950 as a turning point at which readers saw a significant increase in the publication of colour photographs of native flora and fauna, and specifically photographs of ordinary Australians within the landscape. I argue that Alice Jackson and Esme Fenston, the Weekly’s editors during the period of study, positioned it as the mediator of knowledge about Australia, and constructed a relationship with readers based on notions of intimacy and authority. Situated within the multidisciplinary field of visual culture, and drawing from photography studies, visual anthropology, cultural history and media studies, the thesis highlights the cultural work of photography in the process of imaging, and imagining, post-war Australia.

Contemporary designers and photographers face many challenges as the profession rapidly develops. This is especially the case in in the Western Australian context. A review into the recent history of the Western Australian design profession is evidence that designers and photographers are consistently shifting between commercial and self-expressive practice. However, the urge to keep up with technological advancement has masked conscious development of this shift, which is a key to self-realisation and improvement for a designer and photographer. This lack of conscious questioning limits holistic development in design practice. This research reflects on myself as a designer developing a response to the significant convergence of media that developed during my career. The research led to an understanding of the development of design as a practice and its connections to art, especially painting. This exploration of the differences and similarities between photography and painting, as representational practices that impact upon the values of a practitioner, seeks, in part, to understand photography using paint. This research is a broad investigation that sets out to reveal aspects of these relationships, and to raise questions that will form the basis of more in depth studies.

This practice-led research project investigates indeterminate aspects of perception related to human vision and postcolonial conditioning. Through an inventive range of lens-based artworks, the research draws parallels between preconscious visual phenomena and the subjective experience of non-indigenous Australians of multiple generations. The resulting body of creative work, New Australian Plants and Animals, can be seen to approach preconscious visual phenomena derived from the physiology of the human eye through the use of primitive photographic lens technology. This process is applied to the subject matter: introduced plants and partially naturalised migrants. This synthesis of subject and materials creates new insights into preconscious vision whilst questioning aspects of colonisation-in-reverse (Tacey, 1995) where the colonised land immeasurably exerts itself on the coloniser’s psyche. The partially naturalised migrant is metaphorically compared to introduced plants in Australia that are found inexplicably to evolve into new species. The research highlights photography’s historic role in falsely maintaining the view that the human eye views the world with a flat, sharp field of focus by revealing how images potentially appear at the back of the human eye before being processed by the mind. The photographic component of the research work can be seen to depart from the contemporary practice of representing cultured landscapes with highly refined technical processes. Instead, the photographs move towards picturing an indeterminate space where the physical world meets the embodied subject through the use of primitive photographic materials. Additionally, by inverting the power of the lens and photographing the coloniser instead of the colonised, this project enabled fresh insights into the postcolonial subject. In line with Paul Carter’s concept of material thinking (2004), this research relies on the ‘intelligence’ of materials to automatically reduce visual phenomena to a preconscious ocular quality whilst metaphorically operating as nineteenth-century colonial survey equipment. A broad range of artists has informed the research, ranging from late nineteenth-century European naturalist painters to contemporary Australian installation artists. The main theorists informing this project are Walter Benjamin, Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Edmund Husserl.

The Ngaanyatjarra region of the Western Desert of Western Australia is one of Australia's most remote and enduring frontiers. The aboriginal people who call this country home have been encountering 'incomers' with cameras since the early 1890s. The images they created continue to influence how Aboriginal lives are imagined by unfamiliar audiences. Rarely, however, have Ngaanyatjarra people had an opportunity to view and comment on the films and photographs produced in these encounters. This study recognises the specific social values which accrue with a subject's recovery of their own social history through images, and confirms the evidentiary significance of filmic and photographic archives for Indigenous peoples. This research uses photographic objects as a methodological tool for understanding both historical moments of frontier sociality involving cameras, and the ongoing social value of films and photographs these moments produced. Th primary focus is on the lives of Aboriginal families resident in the area of the Rawlinson Range where the Giles weather station was built in 1956. Their experiences are examined through detailed case studies of three films and a collection of photographs in which Ngaanyatjarra people appear: William Grayden's activist film, Their Darkest Hour (1957); the Commonwealth Film Unit documentary Balloons and Spinifex (1958, directed by Ian Dunlop); Keith Adams' crocodile safari' film Northern Safari (circa 1958), and the photographic collection Native Patrol Officer Robert Macaulay. Through a process I call 're-documentation', these films and photographs were returned to individuals who appear in them (or others who are familiar with those who appear in them), and information about the people and places they depict was recorded. The narratives that were offered in response to these images provide considerable insights into historical sociality and significance beyond the original moment in which the image was taken. Aboriginal respondents' attention to intergenerational relationships of care and companionship associated with individuals in historical images has enabled a unique examination of frontier life in the Rawlinson Range in the late 1950s. The resulting historical ethnography demonstrates the remarkable flexibility and resilience with which Aboriginal family groups responded to a range of often unexpected and unprecedented events. Sequencing disparaate archival images of individuals photographed at different times into 'long pictures' provides additional evidence of the variability in people's circumstances from one moment to the next. The rich and complex accounts of people's lives that emerge from these 'long pictures' challenge and refute previous visual representations of Aboriginal agency and wellbeing during this period.

Thesis (PhD) -- Bond University, 2007.
"A dissertation submitted in fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy"-- t.p. Bibliography: leaves 266-281. Also available via the World Wide Web.

Outdoor workers are exposed to high levels of ultraviolet radiation (UVR) and may thus be at greater risk to experience UVR-related health effects such as skin cancer, sun burn, and cataracts. A number of intervention trials (n=14) have aimed to improve outdoor workers’ work-related sun protection cognitions and behaviours. Only one study however has reported the use of UV-photography as part of a multi-component intervention. This study was performed in the USA and showed long-term (12 months) improvements in work-related sun protection behaviours. Intervention effects of the other studies have varied greatly, depending on the population studied, intervention applied, and measurement of effect. Previous studies have not assessed whether: - Interventions are similarly effective for workers in stringent and less stringent policy organisations; - Policy effect is translated into workers’ leisure time protection; - Implemented interventions are effective in the long-term; - The facial UV-photograph technique is effective in Australian male outdoor workers without a large additional intervention package, and; - Such interventions will also affect workers’ leisure time sun-related cognitions and behaviours. Therefore, the present Protection of Outdoor Workers from Environmental Radiation [POWER]-study aimed to fill these gaps and had the objectives of: a) assessing outdoor workers’ sun-related cognitions and behaviours at work and during leisure time in stringent and less stringent sun protection policy environments; b) assessing the effect of an appearance-based intervention on workers’ risk perceptions, intentions and behaviours over time; c) assessing whether the intervention was equally effective within the two policy settings; and d) assessing the immediate post-intervention effect. Effectiveness was described in terms of changes in sun-related risk perceptions and intentions (as these factors were shown to be main precursors of behaviour change in many health promotion theories) and behaviour. The study purposefully selected and recruited two organisations with a large outdoor worker contingent in Queensland, Australia within a 40 kilometre radius of Brisbane. The two organisations differed in the stringency of implementation and reinforcement of their organisational sun protection policy. Data were collected from 154 male predominantly Australian born outdoor workers with an average age of 37 years and predominantly medium to fair skin (83%). Sun-related cognitions and behaviours of workers were assessed using self-report questionnaires at baseline and six to twelve months later. Variation in follow-up time was due to a time difference in the recruitment of the two organisations. Participants within each organisation were assigned to an intervention or control group. The intervention group participants received a one-off personalised Skin Cancer Risk Assessment Tool [SCRAT]-letter and a facial UV-photograph with detailed verbal information. This was followed by an immediate post-intervention questionnaire within three months of the start of the study. The control group only received the baseline and follow-up questionnaire. Data were analysed using a variety of techniques including: descriptive analyses, parametric and non-parametric tests, and generalised estimating equations. A 15% proportional difference observed was deemed of clinical significance, with the addition of reported statistical significance (p<0.05) where applicable. Objective 1: Assess and compare the current sun-related risk perceptions, intentions, behaviours, and policy awareness of outdoor workers in stringent and less stringent sun protection policy settings. Workers within the two organisations (stringent n=89 and less stringent n=65) were similar in their knowledge about skin cancer, self efficacy, attitudes, and social norms regarding sun protection at work and during leisure time. Participants were predominantly in favour of sun protection. Results highlighted that compared to workers in a less stringent policy organisation working for an organisation with stringent sun protection policies and practices resulted in more desirable sun protection intentions (less willing to tan p=0.03) ; actual behaviours at work (sufficient use of upper and lower body protection, headgear, and sunglasses (p<0.001 for all comparisons), and greater policy awareness (awareness of repercussions if Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) was not used, p<0.001)). However the effect of the work-related sun protection policy was found not to extend to leisure time sun protection. Objective 2: Compare changes in sun-related risk perceptions, intentions, and behaviours between the intervention and control group. The effect of the intervention was minimal and mainly resulted in a clinically significant reduction in work-related self-perceived risk of developing skin cancer in the intervention compared to the control group (16% and 32% for intervention and control group, respectively estimated their risk higher compared to other outdoor workers: , p=0.11). No other clinical significant effects were observed at 12 months follow-up. Objective 3: Assess whether the intervention was equally effective in the stringent sun protection policy organisation and the less stringent sun protection policy organisation. The appearance-based intervention resulted in a clinically significant improvement in the stringent policy intervention group participants’ intention to protect from the sun at work (workplace*time interaction, p=0.01). In addition to a reduction in their willingness to tan both at work (will tan at baseline: 17% and 61%, p=0.06, at follow-up: 54% and 33%, p=0.07, stringent and less stringent policy intervention group respectively. The workplace*time interaction was significant p<0.001) and during leisure time (will tan at baseline: 42% and 78%, p=0.01, at follow-up: 50% and 63%, p=0.43, stringent and less stringent policy intervention group respectively. The workplace*time interaction was significant p=0.01) over the course of the study compared to the less stringent policy intervention group. However, no changes in actual sun protection behaviours were found. Objective 4: Examine the effect of the intervention on level of alarm and concern regarding the health of the skin as well as sun protection behaviours in both organisations. The immediate post-intervention results showed that the stringent policy organisation participants indicated to be less alarmed (p=0.04) and concerned (p<0.01) about the health of their skin and less likely to show the facial UV-photograph to others (family p=0.03) compared to the less stringent policy participants. A clinically significantly larger proportion of participants from the stringent policy organisation reported they worried more about skin cancer (65%) and skin freckling (43%) compared to those in the less stringent policy organisation (46%,and 23% respectively , after seeing the UV-photograph). In summary the results of this study suggest that the having a stringent work-related sun protection policy was significantly related to for work-time sun protection practices, but did not extend to leisure time sun protection. This could reflect the insufficient level of sun protection found in the general Australian population during leisure time. Alternatively, reactance caused by being restricted in personal decisions through work-time policy could have contributed to lower leisure time sun protection. Finally, other factors could have also contributed to the less than optimal leisure time sun protection behaviours reported, such as unmeasured personal or cultural barriers. All these factors combined may have lead to reduced willingness to take proper preventive action during leisure time exposure. The intervention did not result in any measurable difference between the intervention and control groups in sun protection behaviours in this population, potentially due to the long lag time between the implementation of the intervention and assessment at 12-months follow-up. In addition, high levels of sun protection behaviours were found at baseline (ceiling effect) which left little room for improvement. Further, this study did not assess sunscreen use, which was the predominant behaviour assessed in previous effective appearance-based interventions trials. Additionally, previous trials were mainly conducted in female populations, whilst the POWER-study’s population was all male. The observed immediate post-intervention result could be due to more emphasis being placed on sun protection and risks related to sun exposure in the stringent policy organisation. Therefore participants from the stringent policy organisation could have been more aware of harmful effects of UVR and hence, by knowing that they usually protect adequately, not be as alarmed or concerned as the participants from the less stringent policy organisation. In conclusion, a facial UV-photograph and SCRAT-letter information alone may not achieve large changes in sun-related cognitions and behaviour, especially of assessed 6-12 months after the intervention was implemented and in workers who are already quite well protected. Differences found between workers in the present study appear to be more attributable to organisational policy. However, against a background of organisational policy, this intervention may be a useful addition to sun-related workplace health and safety programs. The study findings have been interpreted while respecting a number of limitations. These have included non-random allocation of participants due to pre-organised allocation of participants to study group in one organisation and difficulty in separating participants from either study group. Due to the transient nature of the outdoor worker population, only 105 of 154 workers available at baseline could be reached for follow-up. (attrition rate=32%). In addition the discrepancy in the time to follow-up assessment between the two organisations was a limitation of the current study. Given the caveats of this research, the following recommendations were made for future research: - Consensus should be reached to define "outdoor worker" in terms of time spent outside at work as well as in the way sun protection behaviours are measured and reported. - Future studies should implement and assess the value of the facial UV-photographs in a wide range of outdoor worker organisations and countries. - More timely and frequent follow-up assessments should be implemented in intervention studies to determine the intervention effect and to identify the best timing of booster sessions to optimise results. - Future research should continue to aim to target outdoor workers’ leisure time cognitions and behaviours and improve these if possible. Overall, policy appears to be an important factor in workers’ compliance with work-time use of sun protection. Given the evidence generated by this research, organisations employing outdoor workers should consider stringent implementation and reinforcement of a sun protection policy. Finally, more research is needed to improve ways to generate desirable behaviour in this population during leisure time.

Thesis (M.V.A.)--University of Sydney, 2009.
Title from title screen (viewed November 26, 2009) Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Visual Arts to the Sydney College of the Arts, University of Sydney. Degree awarded 2009; thesis submitted 2008. Includes bibliographical references.

The purpose of this thesis is to outline the relationship that existed in the past and exists in the present, between Australians and the War Graves and Memorials to the Missing. commemorations of Australians who died during the First World War. Their final resting places are scattered all over the world and provide a tangible record of the sacrifice of men and women in the war, and represent the final result by Official Agencies such as the Imperial, and later, Commonwealth War Graves Commission, and its agency representative, the Office of Australian War Graves, of an attempt to appropriately commemorate them. The study follows the path of history from the event of death of an individual in the First World War, through their burial; temporary grave or memorial commemoration; the permanent commemoration; the family and public reaction to the deaths; how the Official Agencies of related Commonwealth Governments dealt with the dead; and finally, how the Australian dead are represented on the battlefields of the world in the 21st century. Australia.s war dead of the First World War are scattered around the globe in more than 40 countries and are represented in war cemeteries and civil cemeteries; and listed on large „Memorials to the Missing., which commemorate the individuals devoid of a known graves or final resting place.

Documentary photography is built on assumptions of factual objectivity, and seeks to provide direct access to human experience and emotion. Throughout its long history it has become synonymous with the recording of social conflict and human misery. However, it has also been criticised for exploiting, abusing and humiliating its subjects, as viewers often look at the downtrodden and their reality from a position of relative privilege and passivity. My exhibition of photographs and photobook collectively titled Other People’s Lives, and supported by the accompanying exegesis, challenge traditional documentary photography and propose a more ethical approach. The works are the result of fieldwork-based photographic practice involving people living in small towns in decline in Australia. My methodology examines whether collaboration and introducing notions of trade and exchange into the photographic encounter can respond to the inherent potential for exploitation, abuse and humiliation in documentary, whilst still maintaining its ability to capture the reality of those people living in towns in decline. The medium of the photobook, combining text and image, allows for a deeper exploration of subjects and their surrounds, whilst the exegesis, through two key case studies - Richard Avedon’s In The American West and Walker Evans and James Agee’s Let Us Now Praise Famous Men - examines the relationships between subjects and photographers, including the impact of making payments to subjects, the effect of celebrity and the idea of trade and exchange in the photographic encounter. The research project references critiques of photographic practice by Ariella Azoulay, Susan Sontag, Roland Barthes and John Berger, as well as reflecting on work by a selection of contemporary documentary photographers that relates to the development of the methodology and aesthetic in the research project.

The Enigma of Appearances is an examination into the medium of three-dimensional photography, with particular focus on the technique of stereoscopy. Invented in the mid-Victorian era, stereoscopy was an attempt to simulate natural three-dimensional perception via a combination of optics, neurology, and a pair of dissimilar images. Whilst successful in producing a powerful illusion of spatial depth and tangibility, the illusion produced by stereoscopy is anything but ??natural??, when compared to three-dimensional perception observed with the naked eye. Rather, stereoscopic photography creates a strange and unnatural interpretation of three-dimensional reality, devoid of atmosphere, movement and sound, where figures appear frozen in mid-motion, like waxwork models, or embalmed creatures in a museum. However, it is precisely stereoscopic photography??s unique and enigmatic interpretation of three-dimensional reality, which gives it its strength, separating it from being a mere ??realistic?? recording of the natural world. This thesis examines the unique cultural position that stereoscopy has occupied since its invention in 1838, from its early role as a tool for the study of binocular vision, to its phenomenal popularity as a form of mass entertainment in the second half of the 19th century, to its emergence in contemporary fine art practice in the late 20th and 21stt centuries. Additionally, The Enigma of Appearances gives a detailed analysis of the theory of spatial depth perception; it discusses the dichotomy between naturalia versus artificialia in relation to stereoscopic vision; and finally, traces the development of experimental studio practice and research into stereoscopic photography, undertaken for this MFA between 2005 and 2007. The resulting work, Camera Mortuaria (Italian for ??Mortuary Room??), is a powerful and innovative series of anaglyptic portraits, based upon an experimental stereoscopic technique that enables the production of extreme close-up three-dimensional photography. Applying this technique to the reproduction of the human face in three-dimensional form, Camera Mortuaria presents a series of ??photo sculptures??, which hover between reality and illusion, pushing the boundaries of stills photography to the limit, and beyond.

Captain Samuel Sweet worked as an outdoor photographer in South Australia (including the Northern Territory) between 1866 and 1886. In Australian public libraries, museums and archives his photographs are consulted as objective visual documents. Their more recent appearance in public art galleries ascribes to them the status of art, obscuring the fact that Sweet was a commercial photographer whose subjects and style were directed by the colonial market. This thesis documents the extent and nature of Sweet’s oeuvre, and examines his photographs within the original context of their creation, including Sweet’s photography business, photographic practices, the photography market, the man himself and the colonial context in which (and for which) his photographs were created. It analyses his photographs as both images and as material objects, utilising scientific testing. It argues that, as a commercial photographer, an Englishman and a colonist participating in the creation of a new world, Sweet did not photograph colonial South Australia, but rather the ideal that was being sought in its creation. It identifies Sweet’s as the largest visual record of the South Australian colonial process and boom-time, and pinpoints the pitfalls awaiting researchers and viewers who mistake his photographs as simple objective documents or aesthetic objects. It argues that if we are to make better use of Sweet’s photographs today – as art objects or research sources – we must first understand them within the full context of their creation. It concludes that Sweet’s photographs mapped an ideal of modernity, rather than reality, onto photographic paper, and that when his work is approached from this perspective, we not only achieve a deeper insight into his work, but also into the world he was picturing.
Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of History and Politics, 2015

Invasive plants pose a serious threat to ecological, environmental and cultural values of infested regions and can be costly to control. Grass invasions are particularly concerning because they can alter wildfire regimes and change ecosystem function and structure at a global scale. Mapping, monitoring, and understanding invasive species ecology sufficiently to identify habitats prone to invasion are important for containment of the invasive plant. To this effect, remote sensing and spatial information science can be useful. In arid and semi-arid rangelands worldwide African perennial Buffel grass (Cenchrus ciliaris L.) has been introduced to improve pasture. However, it has become contentious because it can rapidly invade and transform non-target landscapes. Most research into Buffel grass relates to its agricultural uses, and little is known about the invasive ecology of the species. There is a need to consolidate existing knowledge, as well as map the current distribution, model potential distribution and improve efficiency in the detection of new infestations in remote landscapes. This research addresses these needs by developing and applying techniques from the spatial sciences to map and model Buffel grass distribution in remote, arid Australia. For controversial invasive species like Buffel grass, awareness about the ecological dangers of allowing spread to continue unchecked is important. Here, a new, comprehensive review is presented of the ecology, distribution and biodiversity impacts of Buffel grass when behaving as an invasive species. Importantly, this review also lays foundations for research into localised habitat requirements, setting the scene for all subsequent components of this research. The review reveals that temperature is a primary limitation to distribution at a global scale, soil texture may be a significant habitat parameter at localised scales and disturbance is required for seedling emergence. It is strongly suspected that Buffel grass fuelled fires are responsible for declining numbers of characteristic arid plants, the Saguaro Cactus (Arizona, USA) and the River Red Gum (Australia), and worldwide, arid landscapes stand out as requiring urgent control. The distribution of Buffel grass in invaded landscapes in arid southern Australia is not explicitly known. Over 3100 km of South Australian roads were surveyed to document current Buffel grass distribution in collaborative work with government. The grass was found to be wide ranging along major highways, but was mostly only sparsely distributed. Empirical modelling of species’ distribution helps identify local environments that may be prone to invasion, and is becoming an increasingly important step in effective management planning. Buffel grass roadside survey data were used in an exploratory regression analysis to identify environmental parameters of the species’ distribution across regional South Australia. Roadside populations were recorded separately from populations away from the road on adjacent land and considered as separate dependant variables for predictive modelling. The models return strong results and on the basis of these we make management recommendations that containment of propagules along roadsides will be the most important factor in preventing spread and that where roads intersect drainage lines should be focal points for monitoring. Remote sensing presents as an ideal mode for mapping and monitoring invasion as it affords a landscape scale view and can be cost effective compared with laborious field work. However, it is challenging to implement because of the overall similarity of the spectra of different grasses and variability of Buffel grass stands, and photosynthetic status within stands over space and time. In this thesis, Buffel grass discrimination is trialled using high spatial resolution satellite imagery and aerial photography. Multispectral (eight-band) satellite imagery (2 m GSD) namely, Worldview-2 was found to effectively map dense infestations, but for early detection of emerging infestations, it is shown that aerial imagery spatial resolution no coarser than 5-6 cm GSD is required. Presented in this thesis are tools needed to assess, monitor, predict and ultimately mitigate Buffel grass spread in arid Australia, including maps of present distribution, techniques for mapping and monitoring invasion over time, and an understanding of the species ecology as an invader to predict regions vulnerable to infestation. The methodology for roadside survey which makes the data more applicable to landscape-wide predictive habitat modelling could be adopted for any species where roads are considered a vector for spread. The research has important implications for Buffel grass management in regional arid Australia, and also for understanding the exotic distribution of Buffel grass worldwide. For detection of emerging Buffel grass infestations at a regional scale, aerial survey is recommended. Use of satellite imagery for monitoring of larger infestations is one area for future research.
Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, 2013

This thesis examines the teaching of photography in Australia at higher education institutions offering the subject and investigates both the commercial and the domestic sectors of the photographic industry from the point of view of professional practitioners. Baseline survey data was collected from responding teachers of photography at Australian higher education institutions offering this area of practice and from 393 practicing professional photographers. This was followed up with case studies of photography teaching in higher education and the professional photography industry. The analysis clearly shows how both education and industry are adapting to the challenges introduced by wide spread technological innovation. The findings reveal three misalignments between the teaching of photography and the requirements of the photographic industry. While curricula vary, it can be argued that all have some common weaknesses that, in the interests of students' career options, could be addressed. Firstly, the universities and the vocational college in the study provide an education that is broad, includes specialist options, and has a strong vocational focus. While employers may have some misunderstandings about the skill-sets of current graduates they believe many, who present for employment, are poorly prepared for the industry. This discounts the efforts being made by higher education institutions to equip their students with many generic skills regarded as necessary for work. This thesis also analyses which skills are deemed more important than others for a long term successful career in the industry. The second finding shows business and marketing skills is an area where there were significant differences between intended graduate outcomes and the real world requirements of commerce. Industry recognises the importance of these skills but for various reasons, many higher education providers fail to address this in a relevant and meaningful way. This thesis explains the reasons why many schools find it difficult to engage students in these studies. The third area of misalignment concerns domestic photography, which includes for example, wedding and portrait photography. While this area of practice offers significant opportunities for graduates in all regions of Australia, higher education providers appear do little to cater for and direct students to this sector. Curricula appears biased towards the commercial/advertising, photojournalism and art markets and to a large extent ignores the conceivably lucrative but possibly less glamorous domestic sector. This may disadvantage many students who cannot break into other market sectors or who live in regional areas where there are limited opportunities to practise other disciplines. This thesis considers the reasons why curriculum designers generally avoid this career option. Finally, it is a proposal of this thesis that all sectors of the photographic industry, with the exception of those covered by trade union representation, should consider establishing one major unified representative peak industry body. This is a vision supported in various degrees by most practitioners and organisations but has not been realised. This thesis analyses the many reasons that surround the vexed issues of unification and the advantages it may hold for the industry and education.

La « triple catastrophe » survenue le 11 mars 2011 dans la région du Tōhoku au Japon coïncide avec l’émergence de nouvelles technologies numériques qui ont rendu possible la diffusion en ligne presque immédiate des photographies de l’évènement après leur prise. Un des défis subséquents des artistes professionnels japonais est alors de donner une forme adéquate aux conséquences de ce désastre sans nécessairement contribuer à ce qu’ils perçoivent être un trop plein d’images. Ce mémoire prend la série Exposure (2015 – 2016), une oeuvre réalisée à Tchernobyl par le photographe Obara Kazuma, pour examiner quelques stratégies entreprises par des artistes japonais afin de répondre à ces impératifs. D’emblée, ce mémoire reconstitue les évolutions de la culture visuelle rattachée à la catastrophe de Tchernobyl (1986) jusqu’à l’ouverture officielle du site aux touristes (2011). Les productions photographiques tant des amateurs que des professionnels qui ont visité le lieu sont examinées pour mieux pour comprendre la position que prend Obara dans le champ visuel de Tchernobyl. La théorie du bricolage, telle qu’articulée par Claude Lévi-Strauss et selon laquelle un projet artistique est élaboré à partir des matériaux que possède d’emblée un créateur, jette un éclairage sur le rapport de mutualité établi entre Obara et les parties constitutives d’Exposure. Le second chapitre examine l’aspect fragmentaire de la série et les possibilités de lecture qu’offre ce mode de représentation. La théorie du montage de Walter Benjamin propose que le rapprochement de divers fragments participe à affiner et renouveler l’histoire de Tchernobyl telle qu’elle est actuellement montrée et narrée. Ultimement, le troisième chapitre examine la façon dont Obara rend inaliénable la composante historique de ses images. Exposure est alors analysé à l’angle des théories archéologiques de la spolia, qui démontrent comment Obara rend actuelle la catastrophe de Tchernobyl comme il en reproduit les propriétés et spécificités historiques.
The ‘triple disaster’ that occurred on March 11, 2011 in the Tōhoku region of Japan coincides with the emergence of new digital technologies which allowed an almost immediate online dissemination of photographs of the event after they have been taken. For many professional artists, the challenge is then to give an adequate visual shape to the consequences of the disaster without contributing further to an already massive number of images of the catastrophe. This thesis takes a series made in Chernobyl by photographer Kazuma Obara, Exposure (2015 – 2016) to examine some strategies undertaken by various Japanese artists to meet these imperatives. From the outset, this dissertation reconstructs the visual culture linked to the Chernobyl disaster, from its beginning (1986) to the official opening of the site to tourists (2011). The photographic productions of both amateurs and professionals who have visited the place are examined to better understand the position Obara takes in the visual field of Chernobyl. The theory of bricolage developed by Claude Lévi-Strauss, according to which an artistic project is developed by its creators with the materials they already possess, sheds light on the mutual relationship established between Obara and the constituent parts of Exposure. The second chapter examines the fragmentary aspect of the series and the reading possibilities this mode of representation entails. Walter Benjamin's theory of montage suggests that the bringing together of various fragments helps to refine and renew the history of Chernobyl as it is currently shown and narrated. Ultimately, the third chapter examines how Obara makes inalienable the historical component of his images. Exposure is then analyzed from the angle of archaeological theories of spolia, which demonstrate how Obara makes the Chernobyl disaster contemporary anew as much as it reproduces its historical properties and specificities.

My practice-led project explores the indexical lamination of memory, history, narrative and reality afforded by photography imbued with the illusion of spatial dimensionality. This thesis investigates the notion that far from freezing a ‘slice of time’ photography reanimates perception through sensation rendering duration flexible and elastic. Using the liminal landscape of South Australia as time’s stage, I contend that time is ‘collapsible’, constantly unfolding and repeating. In embracing this temporal flow, I submit that photomedia becomes our most compelling connection to time itself, as lived experience. It is this connection that can act as an ethical agent of change for the betterment of the landscape in which we live. The project includes work created in South Australia, the ACT, the United States and the Outer Hebrides and Shetland Islands of Scotland. It includes artefacts photographed in the Adelaide Civic Collection, The South Australian Museum and the National Museum of Australia.

Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
The major theme that runs throughout my work has always been the question of representation; where to draw the line between ‘real life’ and ‘art’, illusion and abstraction, transcription and composition. The line between illusion and truth, or to put it another way, “between the ontological and the epistemological – between ‘things as they are’ and ‘things as they seem”, was also a concern that preoccupied the seventeenth century. This research challenges the assumption that the ancients are fixed firmly and stably in a past in which the moderns are the victors and the ancients the losers. This research reconsiders the contribution the Baroque has made to Western thought, but in particular, to explain its ongoing appeal and its continuing relevance to painting in the late twentieth / early twenty-first centuries. And more importantly for the purposes of my own research as a painter in the digital age, is to pose the question: how to formulate a Neo-Baroque aesthetic adequate to addressing the problems and uncertainties specific to painting in the twenty-first century?