This was published 5 months ago
‘I had to stop’: An Adelaide photographer on his home state’s striking landscapes
6 ImagesFrom the country’s biggest windmill and one of its loneliest roads to Henley Beach in high summer: a collection of Alex Frayne’s most-loved landscapes. Frayne’s new book, Distance and Desire (Wakefield Press, $80) is out now.
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COMET. PENONG, 2021. I came across the impressive sight of the biggest windmill in Australia – a Comet wind pump known as Big Bruce – in Penong, on the edge of the Nullarbor Plain in the state’s far west. The Comet occupies the foreground of this photo, towering over a clutch of other windmills in an outdoor museum the locals created to preserve an important part of our farming heritage (windmills have been increasingly superseded by solar pumps). I’d heard about the museum but stumbled across it by accident, the utilitarian beauty of the blades spiking my curiosity.Credit:Alex Frayne
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THE CHURCH STATE. KAPUNDA, 2021. Adelaide is the city of churches, say my eastern friends when they visit for secular arts festivals like Mad March and WOMAD – as if this is breaking news to locals. This photo of a church in Kapunda was taken at the photographer’s “magic” hour, before the sun disappears under the horizon. I had to stop when I saw that crisp, stark shadow.Credit:Alex Frayne
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THE GIRL IN THE PINK HAT. HENLEY BEACH, 2021. Everything was in a state of motion when I took this photo at Adelaide’s Henley Beach in exuberant high summer: the ocean, the swimmers, the woman clutching her hat; only the jetty is solidly stationary. This wasn’t a moment frozen in time by a still photo but a 10-second exposure with a black filter in bright sunshine, capturing the movement of swimmers and people on the foreshore. I love this photo for its painterly qualities.Credit:Alex Frayne
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EN PLEIN AIR. MIDDLETON BEACH, 2022. When I see a lone figure staring out to sea, I often wonder whether they’re stewing on some worry or just absorbing the sense of place. My wife and I have owned a house on the point near Middleton Beach for more than 20 years. The view through the binoculars is blurry, so visitors are inclined to take in the view unaided.Credit:Alex Frayne
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THE BACK ROAD TO CAVENAGH. YUNTA, 2022. I’ve loved maps since I was a kid, the main roads stretching like veins across the unfolded page. I’d look at a place and imagine what it’s like being there. Here I am at a junction along the Barrier Highway, one of the loneliest and most remote roads in the country. It stretches across the eastern part of South Australia, deep into NSW.Credit:Alex Frayne
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10. ADELAIDE, 2020. Night photography can endow even the most pedestrian of locations with a moody, dream-like quality. I took this shot at twilight outside a hardware store in Payneham, in Adelaide’s eastern suburbs, as a solitary woman waited for the bus. I love the strange, surreal light that illuminates industrial precincts at night.Credit:Alex Frayne
