A collaborative exhibition with Anna Kaineder at Outback Arts – Coonamble NSW; July 2017.
Is a collection of images captured by Viki Murray along the Castlereagh Highway since 2010.
Spanning areas as far south as Parkes and as far Nth as Dirranbandi, the images include landscape by the roadside around Lightning Ridge, Coonamble, Walgett, Gulargambone, Angledool, Hebel and side roads and tracks in between.
Using a DSLR and an iPhone, Viki has artfully recorded the dramatic shifts in a landscape that is prone to extreme cycles of drought and flood. Her compositions reflect the resilience of the trees, grasses and birdlife that abound in the semi arid conditions. The collection also serves as a visual diary of her road trips and the evolving methods of her photo artistry.
“These compositions are like memento’s I have gathered, frozen moments of my tracks and the natural beauty on either side of the highway that strikes me as I amuse myself on long and sometimes monotonous road trips. Photo vignettes of a day in the life of me; trading boredom for discovery as I move between worlds along the Castlereagh Highway.
Certain trees stand apart from their peers, like Whitewoods, that are so gnarly and twisty and irresistible to me in the early morning or late afternoon light. If I drive by that moment is gone forever.
These days I make a point to let the schedule slide and allow five or ten minutes to stop and absorb these moments nature throws my way. It can be left hand turn down the Eumungerie road when presented with a flock of Carella’s ducking and weaving, with the light playing on their wings. Or climbing the odd fence between Walgett and Coonamble to tiptoe through a budding, recently sowed wheat crop to capture the elegant Myall tree, perfectly pruned into a neat umbrella shape by stock.
Some of the images have been considered, planning the shots ahead and staying nearby overnight so as to be up at very first light as the landscape takes on that magical quality. Others spontaneously, on the fly with the iPhone camera, edited along the way using mobile editing apps with creative abandon.
Along The Way is about me finding new ways to look at the same road, and quite inadvertently it has also marked the seasons and cycles of the very adaptable and changing landscape as I have moved through it over time.”
