David Tatnall is best known for his large format photographic representations of the natural world, often made with the intention of bringing awareness of the beauty and fragility of the environment that he encounters. He has worked with environmentalists and activists such as Peter Dombrovskis, whose philosophy was, similarly, to show what might be lost should environmentalism not be pursued both at political and personal levels.
In 1986, old growth forests of East Gippsland in Victoria were threatened with plans to log the Mountain Ash from the area. Tatnall took a ten day camping trip into the forest with his large format camera, hoping to photograph and honour the trees and their surrounds in such a way that others might also see the importance of preserving them. This photograph, which shows ancient eucalypts that would have been felled to make way for a loading platform for trucks to carry the prized Mountain Ash, was reproduced on the covers of magazines, in newsletters and brochures in the campaign to protect these Mountain Ash forests, and was among a set of ten prints taken to show politicians in State Cabinet during the lobbying by conservationists. These efforts were successful and the forests were reserved as part of The Snowy River and Errinundra National Parks in 1988.
(2023)
Gelatin silver prints are black-and-white photographic prints that have been created using papers coated with an emulsion of gelatin and light-sensitive silver salts. After the papers are briefly exposed to light (usually through a negative), a chemical developer renders the latent image as reduced silver, which is then fixed and washed. This technique was first introduced in the 1870s and is still used today. Most twentieth-century black-and-white photographs are gelatin silver prints. They are known for being highly detailed and sharply defined prints with a distinguishable smooth, even image surface.
