By Callum Ludwig
A new exhibition at the Mont de Lancey Historic Homestead gallery is offering a chance to immerse yourselves in landscapes and nature from near and far.
Photographer John Hardiman has captured different trees everywhere from the Yarra Valley to Michigan over a number of years for his ‘Between Trees’ project.
Mr Hardiman said he feels that unless you perhaps work in gardens or parks, we miss out on nature often.
“The stories that you find in nature, like life, are beyond just what’s there, it’s out of your man-made world, it’s good to explore things that perhaps seem out of reach or away from what you expect,” he said.
“The earliest photo is from when I got out of work after a hard day at an engineering job, and there were just clouds over a tree which I’d never noticed before until that day. I ended up just watching it go through the seasons, that was where I reflected the most.”
Some of the stunning pictures captured by Mr Hardiman include how time has changed a landscape and the challenges of the life of a tree, such as one which had been devastated by a storm and another standing among a burning paddock.
Mr Hardiman said he had also been inspired by someone who he spoke to on a walk who said ‘I need more green in my life.’
“I thought there was something behind that, and I would go out to a remote place and try to capture the character that was there. I look at this Twisted Tree picture, and think of it almost like a person, it’s like imperfect and you see that it’s trying to survive there and do the best it can,” he said.
“A lot of my photographs come from here, so I’m really thankful that they could have my work here, and it definitely adds to the experience to see it larger in size.”
