2009

My fascination with the Australian landscape arose from childhood experiences when, at the age of seven, I was transplanted from a grey post-war German city to various rural Australian locations. This experience generated an enduring curiosity in the Australian landscape; a curiosity undiminished after 50 years. I do not consider myself a landscape photographer but a photographer who chooses to photograph the landscape.

My current work is a cathartic departure from my longitudinal landscape photography project. The catalysts were three-fold: My father approaching death; Recurring recollections of Andrew Lloyd-Webber’s emotionally charged “Requiem” – written for his father’s impending death; The sudden realization that images can be produced directly through the interaction of oxidized developing agents and couplers already present in contemporary photographic media.

Requiem attempts a visual articulation of the soaring emotional highs and deepest emotional abyss we experience as death approaches and passes. Forest of Dark Desires acknowledges that – even as we approach death we remain sexual creatures. While the body deteriorates our deepest emotions remain.

Siegfried Manietta

Siegfried Manietta (1947) was born in Germany and spent his formative years in Northern NSW and South-east Queensland. In addition to lecturing in photography at Queensland College of Art, Griffith University, Siegfried’s research interests include evaluating photographic systems performance, holography and documenting the Australian landscape. His work has been collected and exhibited mainly in Australia and China.