Lisa Garland photographs people and sites that exist on the periphery, whether socially or geographically. Raw Backyard is a series of large-scale, black and white photographs of the windswept and rugged wilderness of the North West and West Coast of Tasmania. Through her masterful darkroom practice, Garland draws out the subtleties of tonality and texture, sympathetic to the subjects she is depicting. Mostly devoid of people—yet with the trace of human presence intermittently visible—Raw Backyard creates an intimate vista of Tasmania’s primordial landscape, depicting sites seldom documented.
Presented intimately in CCP’s Gallery 4, Garland’s expressive black and white photographs amplify the ecological singularity and precariousness of this little-known landscape. Gently haunting and intensely poetic, Garland’s images unveil the delicate Tasmanian landscape, sweeping across button grass plains, dense forests and haphazard shelters. Raw Backyard demands a focused look, that in exchange provides a contemplative space to consider this unique environment.
