20 Years of Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year

Exhibition Review: Photography | Brian Rope

20 Years of Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year I Various Artists

National Archives of Australia, Canberra I 28 November 2024 – 27 April 2025 

The Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year prize is celebrating its 20th anniversary in this exhibition - displaying winning entries from each year since it began. Developed by the South Australian Museum, the exhibition invites visitors to trace the evolution of photographic techniques over the past 20 years. 

Australian Geographic magazine says the bioregion that encompasses Australia, New Zealand, Antarctica and New Guinea possesses a unique natural heritage stretching back more than 80 million years, to the break-up of the great southern continent of Gondwana. And, together with the South Australian Museum, it is committed to enhancing general knowledge of this extraordinary legacy by encouraging photography of the region’s nature and landscapes and promoting it in this annual prize competition.

Promoting the show, National Archives Director-General Simon Froude says “These expertly captured images celebrate the unique diversity of our natural world. Nature photography continues to move, amaze and inspire us – and visitors can experience this best by taking their time to enjoy this exhibition.”

So, what is there to see in the exhibition? The images include one of the eye of a firestorm, a macro shot of mosquitoes on a treefrog, and one of a face-off between a Gentoo penguin and an elephant seal. There is also a rainforest dragon, two fighting egrets and a grey-headed flying fox drinking. And a great deal more.

2006 – Overall Winner. Rainforest dragon. Photographer: Stanley and Kaisa Breeden

2008 - Overall Winner. Fighting Egrets. Photographer: Allen Peate

The grey-headed flying fox drinks water in a unique way. They swoop low, skimming the water with their bellies. Then they lick their wet fur as they fly - and after then perching somewhere nearby. And did you know that mosquitoes feast on the forehead of tree frogs? These are just two examples of what can be learned from the images on display and the accompanying words about them.

2011 - Grey-headed flying fox drinking behaviour. Photographer: Ofer Levy

2006 – Overall Winner. Piercing Headache. Photographer: Matthew McIntosh 

Not having really followed this major annual competition, I was initially surprised to see Nick Moir’s 2009 Overall Winner Temora Bushfire. It beautifully captures nature's power and a firefighting aircraft attempting to control it. Speaking about it at the time Moir reportedly said. "The strong outflow winds from these storms drove the fires into inaccessible land, making firefighting on the ground difficult. Dangerous spot fires were hammered by the vigilance of the fire-fighting aircraft." So, why was I surprised?

I am not a Nature photographer myself but am aware that definitions used by the major photography bodies in Australia and elsewhere as to what is allowable in a Nature photography competition previously excluded anything that might be described as “the mark of man.” However, some research has informed me that is no longer the case.

Nowadays the rules applied by some of the most significant photography bodies worldwide say the most important part of a Nature image is the nature story it relates, that high technical standards are expected, and the image must look natural, and objects created by humans plus evidence of human activity are allowed in them  (but only when they are a necessary part of the Nature story.) Clearly, an aircraft is created by humans and a firefighting plane in action fighting the forest fire certainly tells a key part of the Nature story in Moir’s excellent photograph.

There is no question that the exhibition images are all of a high quality. They vary in the approach the photographers have taken to recording their chosen subject matters. They clearly show us something of the diversity of nature in the bioregion referred to earlier. We can all learn things about some creatures and parts of the natural world that we might previously not have known. These things alone make a visit to the exhibition most worthwhile.

This review is also available on the author's blog here.

And has been published in The Printer at pages 20-22 here.

illuminate ‘24

Photography | Brian Rope

illuminate ‘24 | Friends Photographic Group

ANBG Visitor Centre Gallery | 28 November – 15 December 2024

Exhibitions staged in the Australian National Botanic Gardens (ANBG) Visitor Centre Gallery seek to explore the Australian environment through a range of creative artforms. illuminate ‘24 is the 11th annual exhibition by the Friends of the ANBG Photographic Group.

Most of the exhibits were judged for the David Cox memorial awards in a Flora category with " Grevillea" as the chosen species and a Fauna category. Canberra Times photographer Karleen Minney and I were invited to select three winners in each category (authors were not identified to us until after we had made our decisions.) 

We looked for artworks that stood out for us, distinguishing them from an overall high-quality selection of images displaying the wonderful native flora and diverse fauna, mostly with abundantly rich colour.

The Fauna Award went to Simone Slater for a delightful artwork titled Two’s company. It is a simply delightful montage of six images all featuring the same fauna – a variegated (or spotted amber) ladybug generally loved for its cuteness. Here are just three of the images. Go and see the exhibition if you can, to enjoy the complete montage.

     Two’s company 1 © Simone Slater

Two’s company 4 © Simone Slater

Two’s company 5 © Simone Slater

Slaters’ excellent photographic skills are very much evident in this work.

Second in the fauna category was Kerry Boden’s The Circular Showdown featuring a very different type of fauna – Gippsland Water Dragons. The title is spot on. The ANBG website tells us that water dragons are fast runners and strong climbers, who will quickly disappear into the bushes when scared, but if you are quiet and patient you may see them communicating to each other with little arm-waving movements. These two are communicating with each other in a very different way – the dust is flying as they circle around chasing each other. Boden has captured the event most effectively.

The Circular Showdown © Kerry Boden

Third in fauna category was Pink petals and native wings by Debbie Howard. The composition of this shot and the rich complementary colours in it draw the eye. The circular soft focus yellow shape in the background (presumably the centre of another flower) could almost be the sun. The native Halictidae lasioglossum bee can be clearly seen and is positioned well in the composition.

Pink petals and native wings © Debbie Howard

The Flora (Grevillea) Award also went to Simone Slater. Washed Out is a monochrome image with spectacular detail, both of the Grevillea lanigera (also known as a Woolly grevillea) and of the water droplets on its surface. It stands out both because it is monochrome and because of those details. The composition is also unusual with the main subject being “attached” to the top left corner of the image and the remainder being shades of grey and black. All of that combines to create an artwork that stands out.

Washed Out © Simone Slater

Second in the Flora (Grevillea) award was given to The critically endangered Tumut Grevillea with pollinator, White-naped Honeyeater. This image by artist Pam Rooney includes fauna with the flora. The honeyeater has been captured in a splendid position performing its important role as a pollinator. One eye seems to be looking directly at the camera’s lens.

The critically endangered Tumut Grevillea with pollinator, White-naped Honeyeater © Pam Rooney

The third placegetter in Flora (Grevillea) was Impression, Grevillea 'Coconut Ice'. Fanny Karouta-Manasse, unlike most other exhibitors, is showing an image which has not gone in close on some detailed section of the flora. Rather, this is an image of a largish area of a very hardy Grevillea before a background of trees. What also makes it stand out from the crowd is that it has a look and feel reminiscent of a watercolour painting. The word “impression” in the title fits the image perfectly.

Impression, Grevillea 'Coconut Ice' © Fanny Karouta-Manasse

The exhibition successfully displays, in print, numerous aspects of Australia’s beautiful natural environment as seen through the lenses of the exhibitors’ cameras.

All the prints are worthy of close examination, and I encourage readers to visit and see for themselves if possible.

This review is also available on the author's blog here.

 

Birds and Nature - A Photographer’s Perspective

Exhibition Review: Photography | Brian Rope

Birds and Nature - A Photographer’s Perspective| Binh Le Thanh

Kyeema Gallery at Capital Wines, Gladstone Street, Hall | 7 March - 7 April 2024

This is Binh Le Thanh’s first exhibition. It essentially falls into two parts – one is all about birds in nature. The other set of images are astrophotography – also known as astronomical imaging – which is the photography or imaging of astronomical objects, celestial events, or areas of the night sky.

The artist’s website reveals that he grew up surrounded by books about the famous photographers Art Wolfe and Frans Lanting, which he says brought him closer to nature. Nowadays he likes nothing better than spending hours “in the woods” watching birds and listening to the sound of the wind in the trees while taking in all the beauty of the wilderness.

When I asked how he got started in photography, Le Thanh told me his parents introduced him to it and encouraged him. Indeed, we learned that we had very similar experiences of picking up and using cameras from the days of our early childhoods.

Le Thanh, says that, for him, photography is about capturing the unique moments and feelings he has experienced with wildlife, the smell in the air, the intense mood within the silence and serenity of nature. In other words, it’s a way of preserving his memories enabling him to revisit those precious moments. His Instagram presence describes him as a nature shooter who happens to love the night sky.

This is a substantial exhibition of good quality framed prints. However, I feel there are too many in the show. Most are hung very close together in the small gallery space, whilst some are hung in various available smaller areas of walls in the wine tasting part of the venue. I suggest the artist would have benefitted from having an experienced curator plan the placement of his works – and to cull them down so that individual works might be better viewed and explored. I would also recommend having speakers at exhibition openings who have a good understanding of photography. That would enable visitors attending to hear some good commentary about the works and the purpose behind them.

Some other excellent photographers active in both fields - birds and astrophotography – have complimented this artist on these artworks. One has said the prints are breathtaking, the colours good and realistic, and the combination of subjects and backgrounds clever and harmonious. Getting the colours right is important to portray birds accurately. All good nature photographers will quickly draw attention to colours that are too saturated or simply not right. I am no expert, but the colours in this artist’s works appear to be spot on to me.

Golden Headed © Bien Le Thanh

Brown Thornbill © Bien Le Thanh

Red Capped Mum © Bien Le Thanh

The astro images are composed very well and reveal the artist’s technical skills. I was told by another gallery visitor who also is into astro photography that one of the locations photographed requires a walk (at night) over uneven ground from a carpark for a good hour. It also has to be the right time of year when specific features will be present in the night sky. Of course, the photographer must also carry all the right gear with which to get the desired image.

Le Thanh has chosen some excellent locations for his astro shots, including a number that feature country dwellings and churches.

Westerman © Bien Le Thanh

St Thomas © Binh Le Thanh

Other astro shots show beautiful landscapes.

Canola near Harden © Binh Le Thanh

So, whether your interests are specifically birds or nature or astro, or photographic art generally, this is an exhibition you can enjoy, whilst also checking out some good quality wines.

This review is also available on the author's blog here.

 

With Nature

Exhibition Review: Visual Art | Brian Rope

With Nature | Bridget Baskerville, Megan Cope, Wendy Dawes, Marley Dawson, Sammy Hawker, Annika Romeyn (curated by Alexander Boynes)

CCAS Lakeside | 10 February - 6 April 2024

With Nature is about environmental changes happening because of us. Six contemporary Australian artists address the issues, aligning the materials they employ in their studios to convey their messages.

The landscape has influenced their work outcomes, revealing our impacts on Earth’s transformation. Humans have the ability to collaborate, but we need to explore our frequent failure to do so with respect to nature. These artists, working in photography, drawing, sculpture and textiles, ask “how can we collaborate with our natural environment to better understand how to live a sustainable future on this planet?”

Kamberri/Canberra-based Sammy Hawker is showing a number of her marvellous salt works here. These photographs (created across the Yuin Nation on Walbunja & Djiringanj Country) explore repeated motifs presented by salt in the ocean. Her experimental technique challenges traditional approaches to film development and cultivates a deeper connection between art and nature. She allows the environment to shape the outcome saying, “the crosses and fractals feel like signs of sentience, marks of the deeper frequency” and “Earth’s oceans were created from forms of water that came from outer space - a combination of icy comets and grains of solar dust. It feels the oceans hold material memory of this interstellar resonance.”

Murramarang NP #1, 2020 – Pigment inkjet print 110 x 110 cm © Sammy Hawker

Emerging artist Bridget Baskerville has previously explored the effect of extractive industries on waterways around her Kandos hometown. Dead River (2023) shown here originated from a 2023 residency in Queenstown, Lutruwita/Tasmania when she explored how the Queen River, one of Australia's most polluted waterways, interacted with immersed copper plates. A 2-channel video shows her work in progress, and a superb set of corroded copper plates created by an etching process in the water, reveal bright orange rust patterns. The plates indicate the impact of extractive industries on water systems.

Dead River, (detail) 2023, corroded copper plates,
2 channel video, dimensions variable © Bridget Baskerville

 Annika Romeyn, another Kamberri/Canberra-based artist contributes more corrosion/rust in a very different artwork. This artist combines watercolour, drawing and printmaking processes to create intricate and immersive works on paper looking to convey a restorative experience of being in nature, focussing on the threshold of rock and water. Wana Karnu (2024) is a spectacular multi-panel rust and ink drawing which captures her experience of walking gravelly ridges in Mutawintji National Park at sunset. The work reveals rich colours of iron oxide and 'rock rust' formed when iron, oxygen and water interact.

Wana Karnu (detail) - rust and ink, 2024 on Rives BFK 300gsm paper
240X360cm © Annika Romeyn

Quandamooka artist Megan Cope, from Minjerribah/North Stradbroke Island, is known for her site-specific sculptural installations, public art, and paintings. She blended art and conservation with Indigenous history and practice in her impressive large-scale midden installation Whispers at the entrance to the Sydney Opera House in 2023. Comprising a 14m wall and 200 timber Kinyingarra Guwinyanba poles covered in Kinyingarra (oyster) shells, it emphasised the resilience, and historic erasure, of First Nations custodianship, culture and Country at the world-renowned site. Here again we are asked to consider the role of art in bringing about cultural and ecological change. A single channel video reveals the landscape of country. It is well worth watching. It clearly reveals what we all should be looking for and seeing wherever in this land we live or visit.

'Kinyingarra Guwinyanba' 2022, Burogari (Cyprus Pine), Kinyinyarra (Sydney Rock Oyster) shell and stainless-steel trace wire Photo by Cian Sanders © Megan Cope

Wendy Dawes has created a remarkable perpetual motion machine, using an overhead projector with a deconstructed monitor to show, on a screen, permanent marker drawings on transparency film. A meter measuring power consumption during the exhibition acknowledges the artist's personal use of resources and highlights the need for more renewable energy sources.

'Perpetual Motion Machine' (work in progress), 2024 © Wendy Dawes

Using chemistry, mechanics and construction techniques, Marley Dawson creates sculptures and installations that highlight some outlandish aspects of our world and ourselves. He is dedicated to pushing the limits of what is considered to be art and encouraging dialogue about the wonders of our environment and ourselves. One of his contributions to this exhibition is a stunning and high-quality artwork constructed from brass, steel and timber and utilising electrics to produce a mesmerising hum from brass pieces vibrating against each other.

Hum (Louis + Morris), 2022, brass, steel, timber, electrics, 184 x 71 x 6cm – Marley Dawson

Concluding his curator’s essay, Alexander Boynes writes “Together, these six artists demonstrate art's ability to prompt introspection, foster conversation, and inspire action in addressing environmental challenges.”

This review is also available on the author's blog here.

Water

Photography Exhibition Review | Brian Rope

Water | Cristy Froehlich

The Link, Ginninderry, 1 McClymont Way, Strathnairn | 23 Jan - 3 Mar 2024

Canberra photographer Cristy Froehlich is so fascinated by droplets of water that she has brought them to life via her camera lens. In her exhibition, Water, Froehlich has produced images of her constructed interactions between water, light, time, colour, texture and oil. 

Froehlich has a Diploma in Photo Imaging and gained photographic accreditation through the now, sadly, defunct – after 75 years - Australian Institute of Professional Photography (AIPP). She was awarded the Epson 2017 ACT AIPP Emerging Photographer of the Year. 2024 is a watershed for Froehlich as she has just resigned from her Public Service position after a 20-year career. This will allow her to commit more time to her passions - photography and nature.

I have not seen an exhibition of this artist’s work previously. Indeed, my only knowledge of Froehlich was when she critiqued entries, including mine, at a Canberra Photographic Society event in November 2023. So it was most interesting to learn about her online.

You can see this artist’s works on her own website, plus Facebook and Instagram. You can learn from her by participating in her free monthly Be Curious Photo Walks (which have their own FB page, and there is a video about on YouTube). The more I read about Froehlich, the more I saw about her clear love of nature. She is soon to conduct courses about photo editing and macro photography for Nature Art Lab.

The nineteen images, plus several large acrylic tiles, on display in this exhibition were taken with the artist seated on a chair, with a tripod and camera set up. Froehlich has written “Water was dripped, dropped, placed, pushed and squeezed. It had oil, paint, food dye and glycerine added. Water was frozen, defrosted and soaked up.”

The resultant images displayed are eye-catching, graphic, conceptual and aesthetically pleasing. I have no doubt many would be delighted to have one or more of these artworks displayed on the walls of their own homes. Solidarity is just one example of a deliciously coloured fine art print matted and displayed within a white shadow box frame.

Solidarity - 51 x 51 cm Framed artwork © Cristy Froehlich

Frozen also has a range of colours but is a very different artwork. You might spend quite some time working out for yourself what plants have been used in its creation – if you think that matters.

Frozen - 51 x 51 cm Framed artwork © Cristy Froehlich

Not all the images are coloured in the sense that we usually use the word. Whilst black is a colour, you might simply see Disparity as a monochromatic image.

Disparity - 51 x 51 cm Framed artwork © Cristy Froehlich

Some prints are on cotton rag paper. Some are high gloss metallic prints. Others are described in the artist’s exhibition sheet as being fine art prints on delicate paper. Some of the artworks are displayed in white shadow box frames. Others are framed in black. And some have “delicate floating torn edges.” All reveal that Froehlich has an artist’s eye and presents each work in the way she believes it looks best. The variety in presentation is a bonus.

As already mentioned, there also are prints mounted on acrylic tiles. The artist speaks of these works as taking on a view of water or bubbles through water. One example, Escape, presents a quite intriguing image. It is described as taking on “the view of water when looked at through water.” Of course it doesn’t matter what it is we are looking at but, sometimes, the challenges of trying to work subjects out have a habit of drawing us right in. If you had this one on display in your home, I’d expect every visitor you had would want you to tell them about it.

Escape - 10 x 10 cm Acrylic block © Cristy Froehlich

 

This review is also available on the author's blog here.

REFLECTIONS ON NATURE

Photography | Brian Rope

REFLECTIONS ON NATURE | VARIOUS ARTISTS

OLD BARN GALLERY | 2 – 12 FEBRUARY 2023

The Reflections on Nature artist-in-residence project was launched on social media at the end of April 2020. At that time it was described as “designed to encourage artists to connect with nature over the coming months…… observing and creating in response to observations of colour, regrowth, seasonal change and interesting revelations….. for everyone from beginner artists ….. a guided journey of topics and inspirational thoughts….. a safe space …. to share …. sketches, photos, ideas, prose and observations.…… We may even grow this into an exhibition of observations or a publication eventually!”

Well it certainly grew. And now there is an exhibition of works selected from the huge number of observations by the substantial membership of the project - more than 600 people made thousands of contributions. The creative reflections gathered represent a unique and contemplative perspective on the environment during a time when our world changed. 

Before this project was born, the environment had been dreadfully damaged by fire and drought. Then COVID-19 began. As a result, project participants felt a great need to explore the outdoors. They slowed down and looked for ways to create a sense of possibility, and for the promise of healing. 

Photographers, writers, artists, journalers, ecologists and naturalists joined forces exploring the natural environment. Places they often knew well became sources of fresh wonder and delight, as they rediscovered and saw them afresh. Indeed this was a personal experience as I walked around the open areas of my own suburb.

Over a period of twelve months of guided, focussed observations in the Canberra region and beyond, the artists shared purpose around a common interest in nature resulted in a rich record of their experiences.

The exhibition was officially opened on World Wetlands Day (wetlands are being lost three times faster than forests) by Senator David Pocock who described the artworks as incredible and the exhibition as making a massive contribution.

The Senator noted that First Nations people had looked after our environment for thousands of years and that we all need to do so now. He suggested the participants’ engagement with the environment had gathered information that politicians could not ignore, and urged all present to fight for what they love – the bush capital and its landscape – by having hard cultural conversations with other Canberra residents and seeking to engage the next generation.

The many fine artworks on display are diverse – photography, video, drawings, painting, sketched and written journal entries, and more. It is difficult to single out some artworks for individual mention.

However, amongst those to which I was drawn was Bohie Palecek’s delightful and colourful portrait of herself with a bird on her shoulder.

Transformations Theme - Self-portrait by Bohie Palecek

Rainer Rehwinkle’s spectacular Grasslands was one of many standout photographic images.

Sense of Place theme - Rainer Rehwinkel - Grassland image-2

I also very much enjoyed David Flannery’s various quality bird images.

Transformations Theme - Choughs - Photography by David Flannery

Amongst the many collages is an excellent one of eucalypt bark abstracts.

Panel of eucalypt patterns - colours and textures by Terry Rushton (Installation shot)

Chris Lockley is showing a colourful image amongst another of the collages.

Waning Theme - Fungi photography by Chris Lockley

Sue Bond shares a delightful photo of a crane fly at a sundew .

Textures and Revelations Theme - A sundew with a crane fly Photography by Sue Bond

There also are many marvellous journal pages to flick through or explore carefully, depending how much time you are able to spend at the exhibition.

Emergence Theme - Nature journaling of grassland forbes by Julia Landford

Julia Landford 1

Waning Theme - nature journaling response by Fiona Boxall (watercolour sketch)

An engaging Nature Video by David Rees is also well worth viewing in its entirety. Images included in the video can be seen on his Flickr site here.

I could go on sharing details of individual artworks here for ever, but it would be much better to visit the exhibition for yourself if possible. If you can’t make it, take a look at the project’s Facebook page here. 

I understand the organisers have been invited to show the work at Canberra Museum and Gallery in 2024, which is further recognition of the importance of our environment and the value of nature. It will provide another opportunity to see the artworks on display.

This review is also available on the author's blog here.

 

 

 

 

Entanglement

 Photomedia Exhibition | Brian Rope

ENTANGLEMENT | NOELENE LUCAS

Canberra Contemporary Art Space | Until 12 June 2022

Noelene Lucas is a video installation artist with a background in sculpture. Her work addresses our land from ecological and historical perspectives. It has been curated into major exhibitions in Australia, Europe and Asia, awarded three major Australia Council grants, Thailand, Paris and two Australia Council Tokyo residencies, the latter one deeply affecting both her life and art practice.

Birds are disappearing. Common wild birds connect us to nature. The chance of seeing a Kookaburra in SE Australia has halved since 1999. Those are just three of the messages presented on some of the video panels in this thought-provoking exhibition by Lucas.

Noelene Lucas, Bird text, 2022, (detail) multi-screen video

Other panels display slowly moving clouds and ocean waters overlaid with words such as Ozone (O3), Halons (CBrClF2), Halogenated Gases – Fluorine (F2), and Black Carbon (PM2.5). Those words are about a colourless unstable toxic gas with a pungent odour and powerful oxidizing properties, unreactive gaseous compounds of carbon with bromine and other halogens known to damage the ozone layer – including a poisonous pale-yellow gas that causes very severe burns on contact with skin, and a climate-forcing agent contributing to global warming.

 

Noelene Lucas, Entanglement, 2022, Multi-screen video installation with sound, Dimensions variable_022

I’m no scientist and had to research the meanings of some words when writing this. Nevertheless, the message about environmental changes and damage had been very clear to me whilst actually viewing the works in the gallery.

Another video panel reminds us – if we need any reminder – that “We are dependent for our wellbeing on the wellbeing of the environment.” And yet another informs us that “Filling the Hunter’s existing 23 massive mine voids will cost $25.3 billion but the government holds only $3.3 billion in bonds.”

 

Noelene Lucas, Entanglement, 2022, Multi-screen video installation with sound, Dimensions variable_008

This well-presented exhibition leaves visitors in no doubt that environmental issues are important and require urgent attention in order to “Save the planet” – words that passed by, overlaid against clouds, on another video panel.

Bird numbers and habitats have dwindled as we have destroyed many forests and wetlands, plus our previously clean air and water. Birds have disappeared as humans have destroyed their life support systems - as well as our own. So, it is most appropriate that there are also several videos of various birds and of water contaminated with drifting litter. The clear message is everywhere as you walk around the exhibition spending time watching the moving imagery.

 

Noelene Lucas, Galah, 2022, (detail) multi-screen video

Central to Lucas’s work is her investigation of the land from both environmental and historical perspectives. Land, birds and water quality in the light of climate change are key to the environmental research. At the base of all her video work is the exploration of time and fleeting moments.

 

Noelene Lucas, Entanglement, 2022, Multi-screen video installation with sound, Dimensions variable_011

Every day we hear or read about unprecedented flood or fires, that glaciers are melting faster and faster, that people’s homes and gardens are being inundated by rising sea levels. We are told there’s yet another crisis then, thankfully, that it’s passed.

We only have to consider the recent flood events in NSW and Queensland to appreciate the truth of those words. More crises do keep occurring and many of us now expect that, as a result of climate change inaction, they will only happen more and more frequently – that we are moving towards creating a world that our descendants do not deserve. If any reminder of the problem is needed this exhibition serves that purpose most effectively. 

Entanglement highlights so many environmental issues and points to our involvement in the climate change crisis. But it also points to where hope resides - in our contact with other life forms, in seeing and valuing and not being indifferent to the damage that has been done.

This review was published in the Canberra Times of 30.05.22 here. It is also on the author's blog here.