Tasmanian photographers forest wars work put on display at Head On Photo Festival

After documenting the reality of the forest wars for more than 20 years, Tasmanian photographer Matthew Newton’s work will be put on display at Australia’s biggest photography event.

Tasmanian photographer Matthew Newton. Picture: Chris Kidd

For over 20 years, the clash between environmentalist advocates, loggers and police has been documented by Tasmanian photographer Matthew Newton during the forest wars.

From peaceful protests to arrests, the renowned photographer has seen it all.

And the worst part is, he says, is that it keeps going around and around.

“It’s kind of like the Uni Review – it’s the same people just doing the same story. It’s bizarre that it has not been resolved and it just keeps going on,” he said.

“This whole idea of eco terrorists – I mean, haven’t seen anyone blow themselves up yet – but the idea that you can call nonviolent direct action terrorism is pretty ridiculous.”

Some of Mr Newton’s most famous photographs capture more than 30 police guard logging trucks during the height of the forest wars.

Tasmanian photographer Matthew Newton. Picture: Chris Kidd

“During the Florentine Valley years before it was declared a World Heritage area, the use of the police to facilitate loggings was quite extraordinary,” Mr Newton said.

“I’ve got photos, we have 30 or 40 police officers in it and you just think about how much that was costing the taxpayer to chaperone a log truck out of the forest. There’s all those sorts of crazy kinds of things that go on and sort of keep going on.

“When you show it to people in the rest of the world they can’t believe it and they all generally think it’s incredible that it even happened but they always think that happened back in the day. No, this is still going on today, there’s still people in the forest getting arrested on a weekly basis.”

Some of Mr Newton’s works that capture extraordinary moments from forest logging will be showcased at Bondi at The Head on Photo Festival, the biggest photography event in the country from November 10 to December 3.

“It’s funny because you don’t set out to cover something for that long,” he said.

“The idea of documentary photography is this notion of giving the future a view of the past so people can see these images and see what actually happened.”