Hillary Younger returned to her native Tasmania after an extended period of travelling and living overseas. Drawn back by the island’s wilderness areas which she had previously explored on horseback and on foot, a new passion for photography emerged. Remote places and their people still call to her, and have started to open up new avenues.
Can you start by telling me a little about your background – your education, childhood passions and vocation?
I was born and grew up in rural Tasmania. Obsessed with horses from the outset, and totally at home in wild places. Riding almost before I could walk. Given my first horse just before I turned four years old. And even then, loving to be alone in the bush, on my horse. And so an intimacy with the natural world developed and was nurtured from an early age. Wild places were easy to access for me then. There were temperate rain forests, beaches, coastal moorlands, where I could ride. And it was a world where there was also less paranoia, with parents who were not afraid to let their child explore even if that meant the bruises that went along with the risks.
And so the natural world, wilderness, became for me a place where I am at peace, and from which I derive intense joy. It is not surprising then, that my ‘other’ passion, alongside landscape photography, is hiking in the wild, sleeping on the ground, hearing the sounds of birds, wind and sea.
I also grew up an idealist. In the wake of the 60’s, which came ten years late to Tasmania, being behind the times as we have tended to be. So my adolescence and early adulthood was informed by an aura of optimism, and a belief that we could change the world for the better. In that atmosphere, I embarked on a journey of both self and world discovery.
In 1982, I decided to experience life in a different, non-western culture, and lived in Nepal for a year. This was a life-changer. I developed a love of the mountains, the himalayan people and cultures, particularly the Tibetan culture. It is when I first heard of ‘Little Tibet’ or Ladakh, as the enclave of Tibetan culture not ravaged by the Chinese. And it is when I became a Tibetan Buddhist, which I remain.
On my return to Tasmania, I studied nursing…caring and healing are part of my nature, and also compatible with moving around, a nomadic restlessness, which was intrinsic.
Photography came slowly, much later. The passion for photography was not ignited until a 5 month trip through the deserts of central Australia, with my then partner. Just us, plus my border collie, in a 4 wheel drive, very remote. My partner was an avid amateur photographer who had learnt from a wildlife photographer in Israel. From him, I began to ‘see’ in a different way. And that year was a remarkable one in the desert : once in twenty year flooding rains, coupled with successful rabbit control, saw the desert abundant with life. Wildflowers, and wildlife abundant, and so vivid.
Each life in the desert is quietly miraculous, and stands out so completely because there, life is not crowded upon life, but stands out against the bright red earth. Being immersed there for 5 months, ignited the fire of inspiration to learn photography in a serious way.
You’ve been something of a nomad – I read that you have moved 24 times in 30 years?
Nomadic restlessness ~ yes, it is part of who I am.
Fuelled by a curiosity for and about life. Other cultures, places. The need to get to know places beyond the surface, which means living for a while in them. I realised when I spent the year in Nepal, that my understanding of that place and culture deepened and changed over time, and to visit for only a week or two, would to me have been frustrating and superficial.
The constant moving, the need for motion, for change, is part of my embrace of life. To continue to put myself outside my comfort zone, is to stay alert, to stay truly living.
But the constant moving, the need for motion, for change, is part of my embrace of life. To continue to put myself outside my comfort zone, is to stay alert, to stay truly living. Nomadic living to some extent, does that.
When I was in Ladakh a few years ago, trekking for 6 weeks with just myself, two Ladakhis who spoke almost no English (my guide/cook and pony man), plus six ponies carrying our gear, the combination of walking every day, sleeping on the ground in a tent, moving in that rhythmic and constant way, felt inherently ‘right’ in a deep place in my soul.
You have a special – even spiritual - relationship with the Ladakh Himalaya and its people in particular?
As both a Tibetan Buddhist and one who enjoys nomadic wandering, tent living and the high altitude desert, Ladakh is a place I love.
And something else, inexplicable. A feeling of deep relief and belonging whenever I am in Tibetan culture. When I first flew into Nepal in 1982, as the plane was descending into Kathmandu valley, I had an overwhelming, and totally unlooked-for sensation of coming home. This seems to be repeated in my journeys to Ladakh. The Nepal I knew no longer exists as it was then. Ladakh has become less overrun with tourists than Nepal , and so it is easier to form strong connections with the local people. For me, it is certainly a deep spiritual connection. Friendships and experiences with Ladakhi people and places that are part of the deep current in my life.
What drew you back to Tasmania?
In 2004, my long-term relationship ended, and to some extent my life as it had been, fell apart.
The natural world has always been where I find joy; photography at that time, was rekindled as the path to finding the joy in life again.
I was living in rural central Victoria, where I was land-locked. The closest wild beach a 3 hour drive away. The closest wild mountain a similar distance (in the opposite direction). I wanted the freedom to be on a mountain in the morning, a beach in the afternoon, and to be nowhere near the population density of a major city. Tasmania was suddenly the obvious place to be. I wasn’t rich enough to travel constantly. So, in Tasmania, I could hone my photographic skills with wilderness areas, low population, and minimal travelling costs.
How and when did your relationship with the camera start?
The ongoing relationship began in the deserts of central Australia.
Then, I was left an old film Nikon FM with a 105mm Nikon lens, and a Tamron 24mm. And I found where the local wedge-tailed eagles were nesting, near where I lived in central Victoria. I would climb above their nest every day, to a spot where I could look down into the nest. I watched them grow from fluffy white chicks to magnificent eagles. And they became used to me. I finally climbed the tree next to theirs trying to get photos with my little 105mm lens. Nowhere near long enough. But that’s where it really started. The joy in witnessing those moments, and trying to capture that and share it.
Which photographers, artists or individuals have most inspired you - now or in the past?
First and foremost, Galen Rowell. For his photography, but also his eloquence, his knowledge of light, his integrity, and his courage. Every artist, to be original, has to have the courage to risk failure. And landscape photographers must have the commitment to push themselves, to challenge themselves in the natural world. Galen, as both a supreme outdoor photographer and world class mountaineer, exemplified that.
Marc Adamus, whose photo tours I have attended, in both the Tombstones (Yukon) and Glacier National Park (Montana). Mark is, in my opinion, the best landscape photographer in the world today. Original, creative, technically incredibly adept, frequently exploring areas others have not, and with a genuine love of the wilderness. Not to mention that he is a great teacher. With a knack of pushing you beyond your comfort zone, not giving compliments that are undeserved, and yet instilling in you a confidence, a self-belief, that brings you to a higher level. And did I say that he’s also a great cook? Marc was chef in a previous episode of life.
Peter Domrovskis and Olegas Truchanas. Two pioneers of Tasmanian Landscape Photography, whose images were used to help conserve Tasmanian wilderness. ‘Rock Island Bend’, is an image by Peter Dombrovskis which was credited with being pivotal in saving the Franklin River from being dammed for electric power, by bringing it to the attention of the wider world, back in 1982, before we had the benefit of the World Wide Web. The Franklin is one of the last truly wild rivers, which flows through the Southwest Wilderness area in Tasmania.
Paul Nicklin, for his amazing images of the Arctic and his commitment to trying to save that ecosystem in the face of climate change.
Writers Barry Lopez and Wade Davis. Barry, for his insights and humility in his literary explorations, particularly of the Arctic. Wade Davis for his insights into the values and wisdom of indigenous cultures and their value to the modern world. And the risks inherent in us not realising and embracing the diversity of the human spirit, the knowledge and expertise, the catalogue of imagination, within these cultures which are rapidly disappearing from the planet.
Have you had any moments where things become clear, or new directions were formed? How did they change your photography?
A photographer friend in Mumbai invited me to ride a motorbike with him from Mumbai to Leh. That was back in 2011. I realised that I didn’t really want to ride the bike, but I did want to go to Leh, and explore Ladakh. That has led to a whole wonderful himalayan episode and direction which is ongoing.
I have now been there twice, over a total of ten weeks, crossed 21 high passes (most around 18,000 ft altitude), and have plans for much, much more!
Next year, the dream evolves another step when I am scheduled to co-lead a twelve day photo workshop in Ladakh.
My photographic direction is also evolving with this Ladakhi connection. From pure landscapes, into travel and more specifically, documentation of the connection between people and the landscape. The ongoing connection between cultures such as the Ladakhi nomads, still living in close relationship with the land - albeit with the changes inherent in contact with the western world - is of intense interest to me. And is also under threat through climate change: the glaciers, whose meltwaters are essential to their existence in what is a high altitude desert - these glaciers are retreating rapidly.
It is predicted that the Ganges will be a seasonal river within my lifetime. The consequences for the whole of India are extreme. And will be felt first in Ladakh. I hope my photography can document their lives and culture while it exists, and even more, perhaps be of some value in bringing their plight to the world.
What is, for you, the appeal of landscape photography?
to share some of the magic that I see and feel, to others. Inherent in the desire to share this, is a motivation that others will then see or feel the value in these places and be motivated to protect them.
To some extent, I have given the answer to this: the appeal is in the joy I find in the natural world. Landscape photography allows me to create visions motivated by this joy, and thus to share some of the magic that I see and feel, to others. Inherent in the desire to share this, is a motivation that others will then see or feel the value in these places and be motivated to protect them.
Tasmania has a strong history of using landscape photography towards conservation.
Which cameras and lenses do you typically take on a trip and how do they affect your photography?
I have always been a Nikon shooter. Ever since my first old Nikon FM film camera.
These days, I have a Nikon D810 and my back-up second camera is a Nikon D800E.I love wide angle landscape photography, so my most-used lens is my Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8 zoom.
Now I have the Fotodiox Wonderpana filter system for that lens, which is brilliant, allowing me to use ND filters, Graduated ND’s and a circular polariser with this lens which traditionally was not made to accommodate filters at all.
The huge resolution of the D810 and D800E sensors has expanded the dynamic range possible, as well as magnifying any issues with image sharpness.
The graduated ND’s I hardly use any more, due to advances in processing techniques, as well as the advanced digital sensors. So I can now capture greater dynamic ranges in a single shot, and if I do need to capture a greater dynamic range, I can hand blend images in Photoshop, almost negating the need to used Graduated ND’s.
The other change in my shooting technique has been to take multiple images at different focal points, to blend together for increased depth of field - without sacrificing sharpness by narrowing the aperture and introducing the softening effects of diffraction.
I’m looking forward to being able to afford a panoramic tripod head, and expanding in the area of both horizontal and vertical panoramas.
I have a Macro lens, the Nikkor 105mm Micro, and a medium telephoto zoom, the Nikkor 70-200mm, f/4. I need a 24-70mm and I would love the relatively new 80-400mm Nikkor zoom to have a bit more reach, particularly when in the mountains.
What sort of post processing do you undertake on your pictures? Has your workflow changed over time?
My post processing workflow is constantly evolving as I’m constantly learning.
I use Adobe Camera Raw for my RAW conversion. And the extent of the changes I make in ACR has evolved. I now do more with colour management and some de-convolution sharpening. Basically the aim is to bring the maximum useable information into Photoshop. Frequently the same file will be processed more than once in ACR to be hand-blended in Photoshop for various reasons (dynamic range, colour, etc.).
I use Photoshop to blend images with different focal points for depth of field. But I never use the HDR auto blending. All tonality and blending for dynamic range, I do by hand, using masks and layers. Tony Kuyper’s Luminosity Masks are an integral part of my workflow. I tend to work on an image for a long time, making minor, localised adjustments. I frequently get up and walk away, and I’m getting better at being patient: at leaving an image over night , and returning to it the next day with a fresh eye. It is so easy to overlook obvious problems when you continuously stare at an image on the screen!
I have just started teaching Skype workshops on request, after being asked by several photographers. Generally, they send me RAW files, and any specific learning requests, and then I run them through processing their images. I’m enjoying that!
Do you print many of your images? If so, how do you choose to print and present these?
I print images for exhibitions and for clients. The mediums vary.
I am switching from exhibiting framed prints, to canvases, at fairly large sizes. I am currently preparing an exhibition which will contain canvases at A0 (84 x 119 cm) size and A1 ( 56 x 84 cm).
Clients can order images printed ( Archival inks) on Hahnemuhle cotton photo rag, on canvas, or on aluminium. The aluminium option has only recently become available in Tasmania - a client has ordered one of these very large, which I’m excited to see!
I am lucky that in Hobart we have an accomplished printer (who is also an excellent photographer) who will work closely with me to achieve my visions in print.
Can you choose 2-3 of your own images that have particular resonance for you and tell us a little about them?
All my images have stories. It is the nature of landscape photography that we have experiences, adventures, challenges with nature, in the pursuit of our craft. But a few stand out.
Release
The only black and white image in my portfolio. An image of an old, twisted Whitebark pine on Blackfoot land in Montana. I was there on a tour with Marc Adamus and half dozen other photographers. We arrived in the pre-dawn darkness to this hillside, and as the darkness gradually lifted, we were greeted with no colour, no exciting clouds, just a bland greyness covering everything which looked so unpromising.
Not to waste the time, we were using it to scout the area for a future shoot with better conditions. I became fixated on this particular tree. The others disappeared over the hill and I just kept playing around with this tree. To me, landscape photography evolves and is an expression of a connection I form, spiritually and emotionally, with the land. When the group moved on, I was free to form a relationship with that place, and the twisted tree.
Suddenly, a cloud, or a series of wonderfully textured clouds appeared from behind me moving directly over my head transforming the dull sky into something quite magical. With 7 stops of ND filter I could get a 90 second shutter speed which created the most wonderful flowing and textured pattern symmetrically around the tree, backlit by the sun. In that image, the cloud, sun and tree combined in such a way, that the character of the tree is powerfully present in the final image. ‘Released’ for all to see.
Elevated
One of my latest images from my last Ladakhi trip. A special time, and a moment of vision. This was only a few days into a 4 week traverse in the Zanskar region of Ladakh. At the base of the first high pass, unwell from altitude sickness, in a terrain of unstable rock after a night of storm and hail.
At sometime through the night, the storm abated, and in the darkness pre-dawn I rolled out of my tent to see a starry sky, and immediately pre-visualised this image. I was camped only a short distance from this river, and with head-torch, camera and tripod, I made my way here in the dark. Sometimes you feel the magic of the world in tangible way, and this was one of those moments, as if from a dream. Perhaps it was heightened by the effects of altitude.
Perhaps by the solitude - besides myself, there was my Ladakhi guide/cook, donkey man, donkeys, and no-one else. And they were still sleeping. We were several days into a route not commonly used across Zanskar. An almost mythical place. This image reminds me always of crossing into another world. Of being elevated into another reality.
If you couldn’t do anything photography related for a week, what would you end up doing? Do you have hobbies other than photography?
Writing, particularly poetry, is also something I do, and am trying to develop. And I’d read. I’m an avid reader. Fiction, non-fiction. Mountaineering adventure; travel; nature writing.
I’d try to play the native American flute, which I am attempting to learn. One of my best friends is a renowned musician who plays didgeridoo and native American flute. It is a beautiful instrument, and I’d love to be able to make it sing!
And of course hiking, walking in the bush, in a wild place, along a coastline. Sometimes it’s essential to do that without a camera!
Have you any photographic - or other - achievements of which you feel particularly proud?
To have my photographs used to help protect wilderness areas gives me
There is a progression in several directions at present that I hope to evolve........to broaden my photography from purely landscape photography, to travel but more specifically story-telling.
pride. I belong to a Tasmanian photographic group (Nature Photographer’s of Tasmania) whose aim is both to support nature photography and to use our images for conservation.
As I’ve said, this is a strong element in Tasmanian landscape photography, and I’m very proud to be part of that, and instrumental in helping to save the places I love.
How do you see your photography developing in the future? Are there particular projects, locations or techniques that you want to explore?
There is a progression in several directions at present that I hope to evolve.
A major direction is, as I’ve mentioned, to broaden my photography from purely landscape photography, to travel but more specifically story-telling. I would like to explore, photographically, the relationship between people and landscape, particularly indigenous people who live in an unbroken tradition in close relationship with the land. Beginning with an in-depth look at Ladakhi people and Ladakhi nomads in particular.
Another major development is in teaching. Both online, teaching processing in Skype workshops. And in the field, doing photo workshops. I’ve found I enjoy both. While I like to do my own photography alone, where possible, I find that taking others on workshops, helping them get the shots, is incredibly rewarding as well as lots of fun!
There will, of course be growth in other ways. More night photography, creative processing techniques, panoramas.
And many more corners of the earth to explore. I’m less drawn to the places photographed already by so many. More to lesser known corners, less frequented.
You’re involved in the ‘Tarkine in Motion’ project which aims to have 450,000ha of land in Tasmania declared a national park and a World Heritage Area. Tell us a little about the project and what you find particularly special about the Tarkine? What was your experience – and the outcome – of the time you spent there earlier this year?
The Tarkine is a unique and wild landscape, encompassing rugged and serene rainforest,vast button grass plains, to the ragged rocky shore that shreds the wild Southern Ocean. It is currently unprotected and under imminent threat from logging, mining, and recklessly destructive recreational 4 wheel drive users.
Tarkine In Motion is a collaborative artistic endeavour. Over the Easter period, April 2-6, 2015, 70 artists from many fields gathered in this remarkable landscape to create. They were dispersed through the many environments that is the Tarkine, moving through it and being engulfed by it.
Taking inspiration from this place and interpreting their thoughts and feelings in their chosen field. The results will come together in a film, but are also being reworked into any number of visions. We don't know yet what they all are, but whatever they are, they will represent a vision of the Tarkine never seen before and will be used by the Bob Brown Foundation in their efforts to have vast swathes of this special place protected from mining, forestry and those that disrespect the natural and cultural landscape.
My experience there was not limited to Easter. The wild, rugged, sparsely inhabited west coast of Tasmania is a place where you feel nature magnified around you. From the intensity of the temperate rainforest, to the wildness of the coastline, the constant winds, and the huge ocean swells; the sea eagles, and the Tasmanian devils; the nocturnal wildlife.
On the night of the full moon and the lunar eclipse, on that easter weekend, I walked alone along the coast from 1.30 am until dawn, which I witnessed on a rocky beach in solitude. My companions that night were the myriad nocturnal Tasmanian natives: devils, quolls, wombats, wallabies. I shared the dawn with a sea eagle. There was no sound of human intrusion. Only in some places, reminders of the original inhabitants, the indigenous people. Middens of shells and bones. Hut depressions. In one place, petroglyphs.
My wanderings help me to feel this place, to form a relationship with it. To be alone with the land is also to open awareness to it. To allow an emotional reaction to evolve, become focused, and inform my photography.
There is, as has been mentioned, a Tarkine in Motion film being made. In addition, there has been an exhibition in Sydney as part of the Head On Photo Festival, music created for Tasmania’s Festival of Voices, and there will be a large exhibition in Hobart in August. The project continues to evolve as artists from different fields collaborate. It has not yet become a National Park. Until we succeed in gaining that protection, the Tarkine in Motion Project aims to continue in any number of artistic collaborations and creations.
Which photographer(s) would you like to see featured in a future issue?
A true artist and wonderful photographer with a unique vision who I would love to see featured, would be Romanian photographer Zsolt Kiss.
Another female photographer whose work I admire is Erin Babnik. Erin explores the mountains of Europe, North America and Canada and has a great compositional sense, combined with exemplary processing skills.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts with us, Hillary. You can find Hillary’s images at https://500px.com/hillsee and follow her journeys on social media.
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