Folio: Ian Hill
I renovated a wooden Kodak 5 x 7 field camera in my last year of photography college in 1988, this film format and the creation of darkroom prints have remained the mainstay of my artistic practice ever since. Ian Hill
All photographs are taken on 5 x 7 black and white film, digitized from negatives for this publication, but otherwise printed on silver gelatin paper. The prints have no fixed size, unless otherwise indicated.
Photograph above: Wind, Weetootla Gorge, September 2004, from Flinders Ranges series.
I am currently working on a new series of photographs of the Otways rainforest and adjacent coastal cliffs that explores fragments of the remnant Gondwana forest and contrasts this with the ancient geological forces evident in the weathered cliff faces.
Chambers Gorge in the Flinders Ranges was the location of my first series of landscape photographs, initially using a 6x6cm roll film camera with colour film to record the range lands and hillsides, then moving to 5 x 7 black and white film as the emphasis of my work changed to images found within the extraordinarily atmospheric gorges of this place.
These images record the effects of lightning induced wildfires on the mallee landscapes of the Big Desert, whereby the low-lying landscape is reduced to a gleaming white snow-like vista of sand and charred skeletal forms, dominated by the burrows of large beetles and cockroaches.
Looking back at my series of photographs of grain silos in the Wimmera region of Victoria, plus the later series from the Riverina in southern NSW, I am reminded of the extraordinary effect they had on me as I stood before them. These very tall structures stood out for many kilometres on otherwise flat landscapes and, like cathedrals of old, they imposed a humbling physical dominance over the observer and commanded the eye with a magical play of light across their cast concrete or silvered steel surfaces.
Ian, a very strong body of work. Thank you for being part of View Camera Australia’s Folio series.
Thanks for your kind words David, I appreciate the invitation.
A striking set of photographs Ian, I was especially impressed by the Chambers Gorge and Big Desert images on your website too. I hope to see more of your Otway series as it comes together, the subjects you selected have been very effectively presented.
Thanks for the feedback Murray, I’ve done test prints of the Otways series and it’s looking good at 30×40″ size, so here’s hoping.
Beautiful work Ian. John Cato would have loved these images. I have often thought how important your silo images are. Such icons of the Australian rural landscape documented by you at a time when their architectural purity was still evident.
Thanks Julie, much appreciated, yes silos in their natural state are getting rare!
Congratulations Ian. Superb work. ❤️
Cheers Michael, thanks for your kind thoughts.