Ambient Pressure: Exhibition and Monograph (2019-2024)

BACKGROUND Landscape photography is not ideologically neutral, although traditionally it has been presented as such. Liz Wells’s argument that “the frame as a device in landscape photography begs interrogation” underpins the creative approach and research methods of “Ambient Pressure”. This project seeks to draw attention to and critique the framing of nature — its representation and idealisation — in landscape photography through experimental material interventions. CONTRIBUTION “Ambient Pressure” is a series of photographic prints that problematises landscape photography through physical modifications of conventional nature imagery. The artworks were produced through analogue and digital interventions in which negatives and prints were cut, burned, folded, marked, or obstructed. By physically disrupting the pictorial conventions of landscape photography, they can no longer be viewed as neutral ‘windows’ onto an environment and instead point to evidence that photographs are constructions. The methods used literally and figuratively rupture the framing device by drawing attention to its existence, challenging the conventions of landscape photography. SIGNIFICANCE “Ambient Pressure” was selected for a solo exhibition in the 2022 Belfast Photo Festival by a jury of leading photographic curators, including Shana Lopes (SF MoMA) and Marta Weiss (V&A Museum). The festival drew an estimated 100,000 visitors. Development of the project has spanned seven years (2017–2024). Significant new material was created for the 2023 monograph published by Tall Poppy Press, with the most recent installation in 2024. The book was included in “New Photobooks from Australia” at the V&A Museum and is now held in the National Art Library. Exhibitions of the project include: UniSC Art Gallery (Australia, 2024), Harry Wood Gallery (USA, 2023), Museum of Art and Culture yapang (Australia, 2023), Athens Photo Festival (Greece, 2022), Copenhagen Photo Festival (Denmark, 2021), Encontros da Imagem (Portugal, 2020), and the Aperture Foundation (USA, 2019). Articles featuring the project were published in online magazines LensCulture, Fisheye Magazine, and Lomo Photography.