The Australian Sand Dunes Project

how my passion for photographing sand dunes became the australian sand dunes project

When I first told family and friends about the Australian Sand Dunes Project, the inevitable question came up..."why sand dunes?". I have to be honest, initially I couldn't really answer it. How do I tell someone that I don't really know why, but somehow I just innately know that I'm meant to complete something that's uniquely mine that just happens to be this project.

Before I realised the true extent of the undertaking of such a project across this beautiful country, I'd put the project out into the world, announcing my intention to complete a photographic project capturing these desolate, isolating, arid landscapes...I just didn't have a plan, and I just didn't realise the logistics in undertaking such a project. But just as I had done previously when I decided to pack up and move to Tasmania on a whim almost seven years prior, I decided to trust my intuition completely, relinquishing the need to control and overanalyse the whys and the why nots and completely surrender to an unknown outcome.

In December 2022, I had something I hadn't had before - time. I'd been given a window of opportunity over the Christmas period and I got to work researching, and very quickly I realised that there would be so much more to this project than I could have possibly imagined. Instead of being overwhelmed and chalking this experience up as an unrealised photography project, I dug my heels in further, researched deeper and I mapped out my plan. Initially the intention was to photograph sand dunes across Australia, but the more I planned and researched, the more I realised I wanted this project to become something so much more than just a photo essay of Australian sand dunes. I wanted to learn more about the dunes - how they're formed, why each dune system can look so different in size, shape and colour. I wanted to learn about the animals, reptiles, birdlife and insects that inhabit the dune systems and how they endure and thrive in these arid landscapes. I wanted to learn about how we can experience and enjoy these unique landscapes from a sustainable tourism perspective, and I wanted to communicate all of this through a creative body of work through photography and writing.

Of course there are lots of incredible creatives who have captured sand dunes through photography and film, and certainly I am not unique or original in that regard, however as Julia Cameron so beautifully writes in her book The Artists Way:

"Each of us is our own country, an interesting place to visit. It is the accurate mapping out of our own creatives interests that invites the term original. We are the origin of our art, its homeland".

My hope is that when you look on the photos and words that form this project, that I'm able to transport you into my world and share with you the beauty and awe I experience when I'm standing amongst these magical mountains of shifting sand.

There was always something about sand dunes.

Whilst the project itself is still in its infancy, sand dunes have been in the sphere of my lived experience for quite some time.

I remember going on overnight camping trips in the sand dunes with my family and our friends when I was (much) younger. The excitement and anticipation of a weekend away in the outdoors with friends is such a fond, wholesome memory. Our mothers would pack us and the four-wheel drive up and off we'd go on our adventure driving up to the Stockton sand dunes. We knew we were getting close to the entrance to the dunes when our fathers would let the tires down, and very carefully, they would navigate driving through the dunes before reaching the beach where we would spend the day splashing around in the water and running with bare feet amongst the dunes - it was the ultimate outdoor playground for us kids. Our parents would set up camp amongst the dunes - not with tents, showers or solar anything - but with a pillow and sleeping bag each, carefully lined up between two four-wheel drives with a tarp on one side to protect us from the elements, leaving the other side completely open to surrounding landscape and the night sky. Back then there were no devices - we played hide and seek in the dunes, and used cardboard to slide down the dunes before climbing back up the top to do it all over again. We ran ourselves tired with sand covering us from top to toe, before heading back to camp for dinner, a little dancing under the stars and then it was early to bed to do it all over again the next day.

Fast forward to Year 12 when I was undertaking my HSC for my photography class, and my parents took me up to the sand dunes and click, click, click, I captured sand dunes, Tin City and animal footprints in the sand. I happily wandered the dunes and hit the shutter button in every direction - every dune was different. The anticipation of not knowing whether I had captured any decent photographs is something I truly love about film photography, and one of my favourite parts of the film photography process in high school was developing my film in the darkroom. Watching the images form on paper before my very eyes is something I will treasure for as long as my mind allows the memory. It was magic. There was such a beautiful slowness to the developing process, and there was something so profoundly special about the unknown of whether my images would come out blurry or sharp as a tack. What I captured was what I had to work with, and when those images appeared on the paper and they were sharp, my goodness me there was nothing but pure joy. Looking back on those photographs, it's clear to see the love I have always had for clean lines, and minimal landscapes.

Time passed, and during a creative slump last year, I decided to go up to the sand dunes again on a whim. I hadn't been up there for nearly 20 years, and when I saw them I was in awe of the landscape before me - just as I had been as a child, and as a teenager. Traversing through the dunes, I felt an immediate connection to these shifting masses of sand. I loved the curves, the colours, the contrast in light and shadow, the textures and patterns, and I loved how small I felt - it was as if I was standing amongst giants. In that moment, something had stirred deep within my creative soul and my intuition started the gentle whisper that would only get louder and louder the more time I spent in the dunes over the following months.

From a gentle whisper to a sound impossible to ignore...the Australian Sand Dunes Project begins.

So here I am, on the precipice of undertaking my first interstate leg of the Australian Sand Dunes project. In terms of the geographic location of these first interstate dune systems, honestly, it's pretty damn exciting, and a location I have never been before, and never imagined I would get to this early on in the project. When I'd planned this project, I'd intended to capture my "Everest" of sand dunes during the final stages of the project due to the sheer logistics of getting in and out...it turns out serendipity, synchronicity and coincidence would strike, and so I'm embarking on an adventure to central outback Australia to trek the East Simpson Desert. I couldn't think of a more fitting way to kick off the project.

Till next time,

Deb