National Library of Australia - Gateways

ISSN 1039-3498 | no. 63 | June 2003


Pictures Collection: Peter Dombrovskis Wilderness Images

Morning Mist, Rock Island Bend, Franklin River, Tasmania, 1979 by Peter Dombrovskis
Peter Dombrovskis (1945–1996)
Morning Mist, Rock Island Bend, Franklin River, Tasmania, 1979
col. photograph (digital print); 64.2 x 51.4 cm
Pictures Collection, nla.pic-an6631500

The Library’s record of Tasmanian wilderness areas has been enhanced by acquisition of 20 digital colour exhibition prints by eminent photographer and conservationist, Peter Dombrovskis.

Dombrovskis was born in Europe in 1945, and emigrated to Australia with his mother in 1950. He was influenced by Lithuanian–Australian pioneer conservationist and photographer Olegas Truchanas, and by landscape photographers of mid-century America, such as Ansel Adams.

Dombrovskis’ influential role in the conservation movement can be traced back to his Tasmanian Wilderness calendars and posters, which brought the beauty of the wilderness areas into many Australian homes (Nf 741.68209946 TAS).

His carefully composed photographic studies of the Franklin River, taken on several solo expeditions, were among the first and most significant studies of the pristine beauty of the river. One of the photographs recently acquired by the Library—Morning Mist, Rock Island Bend, Franklin River, Tasmania, 1979 (PIC/8076/21)—played an influential role in the campaign to prevent the damming of the river by the Tasmanian Hydro-Electric Commission. The photograph was reproduced by the Wilderness Society, and widely distributed during the 1983 federal election. The photograph made the Franklin River a household word, and became an icon of the environmentalist cause. 

Peter Dombrovskis died on 28 March 1996, while photographing alone in Tasmania’s Western Arthur Range. 
—Michael Proud

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