Beyond Reasonable Drought is a Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House travelling exhibition in association with the MAP Group — Many Australian Photographers. It features images by some of Australia’s best photographers, documenting the impact of the drought on the land, people and psyche of rural and urban Australia.
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.
Image credit
Rodney Dekker, Girl in the reservoir, Bendigo, VIC 2007