Outdoor Photography

20 Outdoor Photography February 2018

investment. Although most photographers tend

not to discuss cameras, Christian makes a point

of explaining his move from the 35mm

equivalent DSLR to its bigger brother. ‘I like

making big prints. I’ve got a big gallery space

and I love to see a big image. I often hear from

people back in England that their houses aren’t

big enough to hang 60x80in prints. But here in

Australia we have houses that are way bigger

than they should be and the people that live in

them need big things to hang on their walls.’

The switch to medium format was therefore

simply to extend quality over an increased area:

‘You can blame yourself for your technique or

your style or your eye, but you can also blame

your gear for some things.’ Until moving to

Phase One, Christian had been stitching images

from DSLRs, thinking ‘this was about as good

as it gets. But when I saw the prints coming

from the Phase One, they blew me away.’

There was a temporary downside to his

investment, though. ‘When I changed over I got

heavily involved with detail – I wanted to see

every grain of sand in my prints and my

photography changed. My wife thought it had

become too technical and had lost some of its

emotion, which was true. Even with the perfect

camera, you’ve got to remember that it’s a dumb

instrument; it’s a tool for saying what you want

to say, and these days I want to convey my

environmental ideals. I’ve made a living from

photographing the environment and so you’ve

got to take a look at what you’re giving back.

When my kids came along it stopped being all

about me and it became about them. There was

all this talk of climate change and I realised that

I wanted them to grow up knowing that I’d

thought about these things and had done

something about it. Not that I can do much as

a photographer,’ he says, before detailing the

environmental photography groups he’s either

founded or been part of, while explaining how

the ambassadorial role of the photographer in

this context is virtually a moral imperative.

Yet Christian very nearly didn’t become a

photographer at all. He admits to being the

embodiment of the Australian surfer dude cliché,

although he did at least have a 35mm Rolleifl ex

SL35 SLR back in those pre-digital days. ‘I was 15

at the time, and my brother, my dad and I each

put in 50 dollars and got the camera.’ But teenage

education, followed by an offi ce job in the

government meant that he ‘didn’t even think

about photography, much less make it a career.’

Left (top) Crop fi elds near Albany, West Aust ralia.

Left (below) Cemetery in Punta Arenas, Chile.

Opposite (top) Wind turbines at Sandpatch, Albany,

West Aust ralia.

Opposite (below) Windswept tree, Esp erance,

West Aust ralia.

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