About the exhibition
Most Australian children under 10 do not know life without water restrictions—without the guilt-free joy of running through the sprinkler or having water fights for hours on a hot afternoon. With growing consensus that the drought of recent years is linked to climate change, we have to wonder whether children will ever have such fun again.
Our nation was formed at the height of the devastating 1895-1902 drought, which became known as the Federation Drought. Dry periods of varying intensity have been experienced since then. So often and severe are these droughts that they have become entrenched in our national image and consciousness. Most Australians would immediately recognise and feel a sentimental attachment to the line ‘I love a sunburnt country’. Likewise, many perceive people of ‘the bush’ as stoic and hardy, shaped by harsh conditions over generations. Their perceived strength and tenacity are broadly accepted as being part of our national character, and this is reflected and explored in our popular culture and art.
We anticipate and prepare for an irregular cycle of good and bad times, but the current conditions go beyond what we reasonably expect. The severity and duration of this drought has affected the prosperity, social fabric and political landscape of Australia. We find ourselves simultaneously unified and divided as we search for solutions and consider their effects on businesses, farmers, communities, the environment and our daily lives.
“The severity and duration of this drought has affected the prosperity, social fabric and political landscape of Australia.”
Over the past 10 years, the Many Australian Photographers Group has voluntarily recorded the impact of the drought on the land, individuals and the national psyche. This exhibition presents a glimpse of more than 2000 images compiled through this extraordinary initiative. They document the way we work and live during drought. They present the seemingly contradictory combination of beauty and desolation to be found in our parched continent. And they pose questions to us about our attitude to water use, our national and personal priorities, and the durability of our national character as we go beyond reasonable drought.
The MAP Group is a non-profit association of about 50 photographers with a shared passion for and commitment to high-quality, independent documentary image making. The group is led by Andrew Chapman, who has a long history of initiating rural-based projects. The MAP Group donates all imagery to the towns and people involved—a gift that enriches their historical archives in a unique and substantial way.
For this project, MAP sought inspiration from the work of the highly acclaimed Farm Security Administration (FSA). During the 1930s, when the American mid-west faced crippling drought and economic collapse, the FSA (as part of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s ‘New Deal’) brought that situation to the attention of the wider world. The FSA photographers achieved that by creating serious, compassionate imagery which, 70 years later, is still incredibly powerful.
MAP Group members have paid homage to the FSA with Beyond Reasonable Drought. Although not comparing their efforts to the extraordinary achievement of the FSA, they have aspired to produce a comprehensive, sensitive, ethically sound and powerful body of work that is a permanent, diverse and valuable interpretation of Australia’s current long-term drought.
The book Beyond Reasonable Drought has been published by Five Mile Press and the MAP Group with the assistance of the State Library of Victoria. The book is available for purchase from the Old Parliament House shop (tel 02 6273 4744) or Five Mile Press for $39.95 (size 210 x 280mm; full colour hardback with jacket).
Beyond Reasonable Drought is a Museum of Australian Democracy travelling exhibition in association with the MAP Group.