Photo of the Week
Tribute to Dombrovskis
24/02/08
Mountain Rocket
My tribute to the landscape photographer I hold in highest regard, Peter Dombrovskis. Of the those listed as being my greatest inspirations, Dombrovskis has had the least direct influence on my work, stylistically. A household name in Tasmania, his adopted home, he is not so well known among outside of that state. Among landscape circles however, Dombrovskis is a giant. Just read the numerous references in Joe Cornish's classic book "First Light".
My favourite photography book is "On the Mountain", a collection of photographs taken on Mount Wellington near Hobart. This was Peter's "backyard". As with almost all his books, it is out of print and extremely difficult to come by.
There is no better example of the power of wilderness photography than his most famous photograph, Morning Mist, Rock Island Bend, Franklin River, which many believed to be important in Bob Hawke's victory in the 1983 federal election. From Wikipedia : "The photograph portrayed a section of the Franklin River which was to be submerged by the proposed Franklin Dam and spearheaded the visual appeal of the Franklin River in the contentious 'No Dams' campaign of 1982. Dombrovskis later co-authored with Dr. Bob Brown a splendid example of his skill in photographing the Gordon and Franklin Rivers in his book, 'Wild Rivers' of 1983.
On 28 March, 1996, Peter died of a heart attack while photographing near Mount Hayes in the Western Arthurs mountain range of South West Tasmania."
Why do I consider Dombrovskis the greatest? He could do things that no other photographer has been able to do. Most of his works are intimate portraits, in seemingly dull foggy conditions. I suspect confronted with similar scenes, most photographers would not even consider them 'shots'. Yet he is able to imbue these subjects with a special luminosity and vivid details that draw me into his world.
Dombrovskis received an honour of the highest order with his induction into the International Photography Hall of Fame and Museum in Oklahoma City, USA for 2003, the first ever Australian to have achieved this accolade.
Canon 5D, 16-35mm 2.8L, polarizer, 1 stop hard ND grad, f22, 6 seconds, ISO 100.