David Tatnall

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David Tatnall
Born1955
Melbourne, Australia
NationalityAustralian
OccupationPhotographer
Websitedavidtatnall.com

David Tatnall (born 1955)[1] is a Melbourne photographer, known for his representation of the natural landscape.[2] Tatnall began his career as an artistic photographer in 1975. He works with both large format and pinhole camera techniques.[2] His work is in the same tradition as Peter Dombrovskis and Olegas Truchanas – in the past, Tatnall has worked with Dombrovskis.[3]

"I tend to go with no preconceived idea of what I'm going to photograph, other than I'm going to this particular location and I'll see what's there. I go mainly to experience the location, to experience the wilderness area, to actually go there on a walking trip and I take my camera. If I see things to make photographs, I'll stop and make photographs."[3]

Selected works[edit]

His works are held in the collections of the National Gallery of Victoria,[1] State Library of Victoria[4] and the Australian Embassy, Washington USA.[5]

The Monash Gallery of Art holds a famous 1986 work, 'Forest, Crows Foot Track, Rodger River, East Gippsland, Victoria'.[6] In 2014, Tatnall explained how the work was made and its subsequent impact.[7]

"On this ten-day trip I returned with twelve negatives; Forest at Crows Foot Track was the finest."[7]

Awards[edit]

Tatnall has been awarded a Life Time Contribution Award by Parks Victoria, and an Honorary Life Membership of the Victorian National Parks Association for his lasting influence on nature conservation in Victoria through photography.[8]

His photographs have become emblems of successful Australian nature conservation battles.[3][5]

Projects and activities[edit]

  • ‘Land Bridge’: a series of photographs of the Victoria coast, Bass Strait Islands and Tasmania.[9]
  • ‘Woodlands’: a series of photographs of ‘ordinary’ bush (hard to photograph non-iconic or monotonous landscape).[9]
  • A close association with the Merri Creek. Tatnall has had three solo exhibitions based on Merri Creek photographs over the past 30 years.[9]
  • Artist in Residence at the Alpine School Campus[10] and the Snowy River Campus,[11] School for Student Leadership. The School for Student Leadership is a Victorian government Department of Education and Training (DET) initiative. Over a twenty-year period, Tatnall estimates that he taught around 6000 students film photography.[9]
  • Workshops in large format photography, pinhole photography and landscape photography at the Gold Street Studios.[5]
  • The Last Summer: A series of large format photographs made of Royal Park, Melbourne in the summer of 2013 – 2014. At that time the park was threatened by the planned construction of a major new freeway, the East West Link.[12]
  • Melbourne: Pinhole: A series of photographs of Melbourne made on an 8 x 10 pinhole camera. Funded by the Melbourne City Council.

Selected exhibitions[edit]

  • 2017 Time and Tide, Colour Factory Gallery, Melbourne, Australia.
  • 2015 Earth matters: contemporary photographers in the landscape, Monash Gallery of Art, Melbourne, Australia. Part of ART+CLIMATE=CHANGE 2015.
  • 2014 Royal Park – The Last Summer, FortyFive Downstairs, Melbourne, Australia.[13]
    • Review: Exhibition review by Christopher Deere: Royal Park – The Last Summer Archived 25 April 2017 at the Wayback Machine, Christopher Deere, Large Format Photography Australia, 19 March 2014.
  • 2014 Khem (group show), Strange Neighbour, Melbourne, Australia.
  • 2014 Wildcards: Bill Henson shuffles the deck (group show), Monash Gallery of Art, Melbourne, Australia. Curated by Bill Henson.
    • List of works, Monash Gallery of Art, 2014.
    • Review: Wildcards, Bill Henson Shuffles the Deck – review, Fiona Gruber, 12 February 2014, The Guardian Australia.
  • 2013 Coastal Pinholes, Gold Street Studios, Melbourne, Australia.[14]
  • 2011 The Quiet Landscape, Gold Street Studios, Melbourne, Australia.[15]
  • 2010 Field of View, Point Light Gallery, Surry Hills, Australia.[16]
    • Review: 'Visions of Steel, Flesh, Fire and Ice', Robert McFarlane, Ozphotoreview, 7 October 2010.
  • 2007 Melbourne: Pinhole, City Library gallery, Melbourne, Australia.
    • Review: 'Back to basics', Terry Lane, The Age, 16 August 2017.[17]
  • 2003 Seeing the Forest and the Trees, Castlemaine Art Museum, Castlemaine, Australia.
  • 2002 Himalaya, The Photographers' Gallery and Workshop, Melbourne, Australia.[9]
  • 1988 The Thousand Mile Stare (group show), Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne, Australia.
    • Review: 'On an escalator from the Inferno to James Bond', Beatrice Faust, The Age, 30 March 1988.

Publications[edit]

  • Wild places of greater Melbourne , Robin Taylor (text); Richard Weatherly (illustrations); David Tatnall (photographs) and others, 1999, CSIRO Publishing, ISBN 9780957747104.
  • Tracks through time: the Narracan walks book, John Wells (text); David Tatnall (photographs), 1988, Narracan Bicentennial Walks Book Committee.

Interviews[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b 2007 PIEA-IPT-AIMBI Biographies (M-Z)
  2. ^ a b c David Tatnall, quoted in "The Terry Lane Interviews – That Photograph", Radio National, Melbourne, 4 November 2007 5:00 pm. Retrieved on 16 May 2017.
  3. ^ State Library of Victoria Collection Search – David Tatnall
  4. ^ a b c Gold Street Studios: Instructors
  5. ^ a b 'The Photograph Explained: Forest at Crows Foot Track Archived 22 April 2017 at the Wayback Machine', David Tatnall, 29 July 2014, Large Format Photography Australia. Retrieved on 16 May 2017.
  6. ^ Photographer honoured[dead link], Wild: Australia's Wilderness Adventure Magazine, July 2001.
  7. ^ a b c d e "David Tatnall – On Landscape". www.onlandscape.co.uk. Retrieved 20 March 2022.
  8. ^ Alpine Lessons – Photography, Alpine School Campus.
  9. ^ Snowy Lessons – Photography, Snowy River Campus.
  10. ^ Royal Park – The Last Summer. Photographs by David Tatnall
  11. ^ News and reviews: David Tatnall
  12. ^ David Tatnall – Coastal Pinholes – Oct/Dec 2013
  13. ^ David Tatnall – The Quiet Landscape – April/June 2011
  14. ^ "Past Exhibitions". Archived from the original on 16 February 2017. Retrieved 17 May 2017.
  15. ^ Back to basics, Terry Lane, The Age, 16 August 2017. Retrieved on 16 May 2017.
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