My interest in the mountain peaks and high plains of Australia is scientific and symbolic. For several years, I have engaged in photographic research documenting the endangered ecological communities found across the Kosciuszko and Alpine National Parks. This work is part of a botanical series created en plein air – outside the confines of a darkroom and without the use of a camera – by bringing a sheet of black and white film into direct contact with the plant. This elemental process produced a photogram, one of the earliest photographic forms to emerge from experimentation with light, chemistry and substrates. The photogram negative was then printed by hand in a colour darkroom, reanimating the plant in monochromatic colour.

The plant pictured here is Xerochrysum subundulatum, known as the Alpine everlasting daisy. It is a member of the powerful Asteraceae family, the most populous flowering plant to be found on every continent apart from Antarctica. Across the alpine and sub-alpine regions it grows in abundance; defiant and resourceful in the face of climate change.