Gallery release: ‘Symbiosis’

A photographic exploration of Tasmania's central and northeastern rainforests.
Images captured in May 2022. 

While you peruse the gallery, I encourage you to consider our wild places such as these precious rainforests and the immeasurable importance they have for us and our planet. An ongoing struggle ensues to protect Tasmania's rainforests from plundering, exploitation and destruction, all amidst a climate emergency. 

The title of the gallery comes from the idea of humanity's dependent relationship with trees and wilderness. 'Symbiosis' can be defined as "a close and usually obligatory association of two organisms of different species that live together, often to their mutual benefit". However, in the case of our forests, humanity as a whole falls into an exception from that final clause. Though we benefit from our trees - breathing their air, turning them into products, building our houses - they, in return, receive pollution, vandalism, trampling and destruction. If it were a country, the global logging industry would rank 3rd in CO2 emissions, after China and the US. There is very little that is "mutual" about this relationship that we depend so dearly on.

As much as I try to do these places justice through my photographs, nothing can convey what it's like to truly be present there. To feel the cold, fresh water flowing at your feet; to hear the wind breathe through the leaves; to see fungi clinging to a moss-laden trunk; to feel the sun's warmth through a rich and diverse canopy. There is something unspeakably special about being able to physically experience an ancient rainforest in such a way.

At the least, I hope you enjoy looking at these images. At the most, I hope you're left inspired to side with nature, from which humanity seems to be ever-drifting further away. 

“It is not so much for its beauty that the forest makes a claim upon men’s hearts, as for that subtle something, that quality of air that emanation from old trees, that so wonderfully changes and renews a weary spirit.” - Robert Louis Stevenson

If you think these rainforests are worthy of continued protection, or if you would like to support other areas that are under direct threat, head to one of the links below and see how you can get involved with their many environmental protection campaigns. 

Bob Brown Foundation
The Wilderness Society
Greenpeace Australia Pacific