Shooting the Sunburnt Country, the Land of Sweeping Plains, the Rugged Mountain Ranges: Australian Landscape and Wilderness Photography

Terrifying prospects and resources of hope: Minescapes, timescapes and the aesthetics of the future

“…In the almost 20 years since Williams made these comments it has become almost de rigueur for sport stars who have season-ending injuries, or have been caught as drug cheats, or for chair-sniffing politicians, to cry in public as a sign of their 'new age sensitivity' or as a marker of the sincerity of their confessions. These seem to me to be epiphenomena spun off from a much more profound and thoroughgoing deconstruction, decolonization and reconstruction of the gendered construction of reality and the gendered poetics of matter which I and others have been attempting more recently (see Giblett 1996Giblett , 2004Giblett , 2008aGiblett , 2008b. (5) A new kind of political ecology: in the paper 'Between country and city ' Williams (1989, 233) argues for 'a new kind of political ecology'.…”

“…For Williams the only way to mount a revolution against the capitalist conquest and mastery of nature is to produce 'a new social and natural order' via the concept and practice of 'livelihood'. Livelihood entails sensing and living the connection and interaction between the human body and the earth (including mining) in gratitude for its generosity (as I and others have explored elsewhere; see Giblett 1996Giblett , 2004 (especially chap. 9 on mining), 2007a).…”

“…Ecology in my sense questions the whole of subjectivity and capitalistic power formations', including the whole of corporeality, I would add, for capitalism is corporeal. The body of capital is an orally and anally sadistic monster that consumes good things from the earth and produces goods and bads (see Giblett 2004). The body of the earth is inscribed with and by the body of capital as in Burtynsky's photograph of Lake Lefroy where roads and the mine hole mark the surface of the earth with scarified wounds and the depth of the earth with suppurating wounds.…”

“…For Williams (1989, 242) 'a new theory of socialism must now centrally involve place' as 'place has been shown to be a crucial element in the bonding process' of people with people into a viable and vital society through economic and political ties. I have attempted to do this in the place where I live (see Giblett 2006b). (4) A new kind of gender politics embracing the women's, men's, environmental and pacifist movements.…”

Education for Sustainability through a Photography Competition

“…Photography students were not obliged to enter the competition but by doing their assignment they had produced a photograph suitable to be entered in the competition. Giblett's research into the influence of landscape and wilderness photography and how visual images shape modern thinking underpinned the competition as part of an academic program [17][18][19]22,23], while providing a scholarship perspective and encouraging discussion amongst students and staff about how sustainability related to several disciplines of creative arts.…”