- It was there and now its gone

IT WAS THERE AND NOW ITS GONE

This is a digital collage series dedicated to my family home in Wandella NSW, which was lost in the 2020 bushfires. These works explore how new forms of existence can be created through the process of re-imagining a past experience. By digitally deconstructing and then reconstructing the photographs of my family home there is the intention of re-visualising this past into the present. As the landscape and place have since been destroyed, how can I make the photograph speak truth of this significant change? The works are collaged together with a digital representation of the landscape found on Google Earth. Google Earth shows this landscape as it looked before the fires burnt the land and surrounding forests. Much like how a photograph is used as a window into memory and into the past, Google Earth is creating a similar impact by showing this place as unscathed from the fires. By combining these images, I am asking ‘how does this place exist now that it is physically gone? and what does this memory of place look like?’