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December 10, 2007
Most of the imagery of Wilsons Promontory that I’ve seen works within the picturesque. The picturesque form was popularised in 18th century Britain in the travel writings of William Gilpin, who said that ‘The purpose of [picturesque] landscape was to arouse the emotions, stir the imagination, and to delight the eye with its naturalness.’
The ‘picturesque’ approach was used in white settler Australia to depict Australia as a natural Garden of Eden, as an Arcadia in the Antipodes waiting to be occupied. It was central to the act of the colonists constructing a known place. Their ‘landscape’ resonate with an enduring sense of place, suggesting physical presence and embodying symbolic values. Australian ‘picturesque’ representations were a direct reflection of the English country park estate, and the grazing landscape, portraying a model of high civility and nature in the Antipodes.Colonial Australian landscape paintings often portray a humanised foreground with water in the middle ground, set against a backdrop of sublime nature.
The Prom, in contrast, is represented as wilderness by a variety of pleasant images of white uninhabited beaches nestled by green trees with odd patches of granite rock; or sun drenched lichen covered rocks, blue sea and white beaches. These images of beauty stand in opposition to the market civilization of the farmers and small business people in Foster.
Gary Sauer-Thompson, caravan, Yanakie, 2007
There is not a hint of the effects of the human use of the peninsula, or even people. Yet the traffic into the park on the weekend is a constant stream. So the picturesque is used to sell tourist images of wilderness to Australians and international tourists.
The picturesque dominants, just as it did around wilderness in Tasmania. I have seen very little close up images of the habitat, little exploration of the different moods and habitats of the prom, or the effects of human inhabitation, or the nature of tourism. The image of the prom is that of picturesque wilderness.
Gary Sauer-Thompson, Squeaky Beach, Wilsons Promontory, 2007
Maybe there is a Flickr group—friends of the prom ---in which different kinds of photos are being taken. Everywhere I went international tourists were taking photos of themselves in various popular locations with digital cameras. These snaps are a different kind of photography and represent a different and more realistic view of the Prom.
But where were the contemporary landscape artist/photographers?
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