Australian_Geographic_-_February_2016_

David Hancock

I WAS WORKING WITH herpetologist Arthur White

on a feature about the endangered green and gold

bell frog. I wanted to make the frog look heroic,

while making man look like the predator.

The story was about how frogs were indicators

of clean and healthy environments and how their

habitats were disappearing due to contamination

by humans. I put a soft box on the flash inside an

enclosure and lit the frog within with really nice

soft light to bring out its beautiful colours.

In the background, I lit Arthur with a harsh flash

that made him look menacing. The narrow focus

makes the frog appear sharp and Arthur blurry and

unrecognisable, so he could be viewed as a symbol

of the human threat. The shot became the opener

for the feature, and another image from this

assignment was selected for the cover of the

25 Years of AG Photography book in 2010 – and

I’m incredibly proud of that.

Mike Langford
ONE OF THE things that I truly regret is not learning
any Aboriginal languages, despite living
in the NT for nearly 30 years. I know a smattering
of Yolngu Matha, the language from north-east
Arnhem Land and, similarly, Bininj Kunwok, from
western Arnhem Land, but I ought to be able to
converse with the Aboriginal people I meet.
When I hear the lyrical sounds of Aboriginal
people talking, I am taken with the beauty of their
language. Frequently, their words go deeper and
mean more than our own technical and com-
merce-oriented talk. I photographed these women
in the dry bed of the Hanson River, near Ti Tree in
Central Australia. They were Anmatyerre and
Warlpiri speakers and were working with non-
Aboriginal linguists to revive their languages so
future generations can understand and speak them.
Like our native flora and fauna, many Aboriginal
languages have become extinct and we’re all the
worse off for it. Those who have made the effort to
learn one or more indigenous language see this
country in a way that the rest of us never will.

30 YEARS OF AUSTRALIAN GEOGRAPHIC

January. February 91

Green and gold bell

frog AG 48, 1997

Speaking up AG 116, 2013