Nature and Form presents medium format and 35mm analogue photography. The aesthetic is minimalistic, with a strong awareness of composition, contrast and form. Captured between 2015-2018, the works feature sparse components; tree trunks, concrete structures, hard lines and architectural features. Human details are set against this backdrop, inviting a consideration of the experience of the diminishing untrammelled natural world as it is viewed through the lens of a post modern landscape.

The imagery is inspired by a fascination with architecture, seasonal change, modern cities and the impermanence of individual human activity in constructed settings. Texts by Rebecca Solnit, installation art by Andy Goldsworthy, and the graphic street-scape paintings by Jeffrey Smart have influenced both the aesthetic and context of the exhibition.

Subjects grasp the available fragments of natural elements in engineered settings; mother and child soak up a dose of sunlight, a tree stands in conversation with an empty bench seat, a figure gazes at the ocean. Can the horizon drown out the encroaching concrete and bitumen? These urban scenes are contrasted with imagery pertaining to what was once a more authentic representation of nature and the passing of time – gnarled wood, melting snow and charred bushland.

This exploration is furthered by the imagery’s seemingly subconscious tendency to anthropomorphise organic and constructed forms; tree trunks mimic human form, architectural form mimics human gesture. Thereby a simulacrum of the human in natural and built environments is created, as both an acknowledgement of and an attempt to latch on to this fleeting connection.