The Australian Gothic as a New Mode in Australian Landscape Photography
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The term Australian Gothic found its way into cultural analysis via literary critic Gerry Turrcotte’s (1998) paper aptly titled Australian Gothic, and quickly established a niche of its own in Australian literature. My chapter addresses the curious absence of new inquiry pertinent to the Australian Gothic in the visual arts, and especially in contemporary Australian landscape photography. I do so, firstly, by presenting some of my own photographic work focusing on the monstrous in the Australian landscape, and secondly, by providing a retrospective genealogy of the Australian Gothic in the Australian visual arts. I am an internationally exhibiting Australian artist and in this chapter I present some examples from my recent photographic series In Tenebris. Through my creative research I examine the hetero-topic experience of camping, concentrating specifically on the psychology of darkness, the unfamiliarity experienced when sight is limited and the narrative possibilities this creates. My images draw on the contemporary postcolonial imaginary of the Australian bush, steeped with references of dingoes taking babies, backpacker murders, and the dangers that may lurk. I place my work within a contextual history of other Australian artists, particularly photographers, in order to draw out a retrospective genealogy of how the Australian Gothic was created in and embraced by the visual arts. I ponder the extent to which the Australian Gothic is (or should be) gaining traction as a considered mode within contemporary Australian landscape photography. I proceed by analysing the close relationship between the Gothic and the sublime, and put forward that recognition of their intertwining is integral to understanding portrayals of the Australian landscape in the contemporary visual arts. I conclude by contemplating the Australian Gothic as a succinct approach to viewing a post-colonial Australian landscape photography.