THE PHOTO OF the Weld Angel brought the fight to protect Tasmania’s Southern Forests to the world. It appeared in a number of international television broadcasts and the pages of major newspapers and magazines such as Le Figaro and Vanity Fair Italia, well before the issue was covered by Australian media.
Photographer Matthew Newton has been documenting the ongoing struggle for Tasmania’s forests for 20 years (see page 42) and the 2007 Weld Angel image demonstrates the power of high‑quality photography when it’s combined with theatrical activism.
Photography played a pivotal role in earlier campaigns to protect Tasmania’s wilderness: Olegas Truchanas’s slideshows celebrated Lake Pedder before it was flooded; Peter Dombrovskis’s iconic image Rock Island Bend, Franklin River, Tasmania, was critical in saving the river from being dammed; and Matthew’s two decades of reportage from the frontlines of the so‑called forest wars have been published in books and won photographic competitions.
This story is from the May - June 2023 edition of Australian Geographic Magazine.
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This story is from the May - June 2023 edition of Australian Geographic Magazine.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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