Peter Dombrovskis
‘Water: Cycles’
Through the camera lens, Peter Dombrovskis captured places apparently untouched by human activity. His images celebrate the shapes and textures of the Tasmanian wilderness: a perfectly round rock pool or long rubbery strands of bull kelp. These landscapes entered many people’s daily lives via calendars and posters.
While Dombrovskis’s photographs offer a sense of calm and continuity, one work in particular rallied Australians to action. Morning Mist, Rock Island Bend, Franklin River, Tasmania played a pivotal role in the Australian environmental movement. The photograph was famously used on the ‘NO DAMS’ campaign in 1982, accompanied by the caption: ‘Could you vote for a party that will destroy this?’ In a time of increasing ecological loss, Dombrovskis’s work suggests that an appeal to beauty might be our most effective tool for change.