David Tatnall (born 1955)National Gallery of Victoria Collection Online - David Tatnall
/ref> is a

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

photographer A photographer (the Greek language, Greek φῶς (''phos''), meaning "light", and γραφή (''graphê''), meaning "drawing, writing", together meaning "drawing with light") is a person who makes photographs. Duties and types of photographe ...

, known for his representation of the natural landscape.2007 PIEA-IPT-AIMBI Biographies (M-Z)
/ref> Tatnall began his career as an artistic photographer in 1975. He works with both

large format Large format refers to any imaging format of or larger. Large format is larger than "medium format", the or size of Hasselblad, Mamiya, Rollei, Kowa, and Pentax cameras (using 120- and 220-roll film), and much larger than the frame o ...

and

pinhole camera A pinhole camera is a simple camera without a lens but with a tiny aperture (the so-called ''pinhole'')—effectively a light-proof box with a small hole in one side. Light from a scene passes through the aperture and projects an inverted image o ...

techniques. His work is in the same tradition as

Peter Dombrovskis Peter Dombrovskis ( lv, Pēteris Dombrovskis; 2 March 194528 March 1996) was an Australian photographer, known for his Tasmanian scenes. In 2003, he was posthumously inducted into the International Photography Hall of Fame, the first Australia ...

and

Olegas Truchanas Olegas Truchanas (22 September 1923 – 6 January 1972) was a Lithuanian- Australian conservationist and nature photographer. He was a key figure in the attempt to stop the damming of the ecologically sensitive Lake Pedder in South West Tasm ...

- in the past, Tatnall has worked with Dombrovskis.

"I tend to go with no preconceived idea of what I'm going to photograph, other than I'm going to this particular location and I'll see what's there. I go mainly to experience the location, to experience the wilderness area, to actually go there on a walking trip and I take my camera. If I see things to make photographs, I'll stop and make photographs."David Tatnall, quoted i
"The Terry Lane Interviews - That Photograph"
''
Radio National Radio National, known on-air as RN, is an Australia-wide public service broadcasting radio network run by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). From 1947 until 1985, the network was known as ABC Radio 2. History 1937: Predecessors an ...
'', Melbourne, 4 November 2007 5:00 PM. Retrieved on 16 May 2017.

Selected works

His works are held in the collections of the

National Gallery of Victoria The National Gallery of Victoria, popularly known as the NGV, is an art museum in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1861, it is Australia's oldest and most visited art museum. The NGV houses an encyclopedic art collection across two ...

State Library of Victoria State Library Victoria (SLV) is the state library of Victoria, Australia. Located in Melbourne, it was established in 1854 as the Melbourne Public Library, making it Australia's oldest public library and one of the first free libraries in the ...

State Library of Victoria Collection Search - David Tatnall
/ref> and the Australian Embassy, Washington USA. The

Monash Gallery of Art The City of Monash is a local government area in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia in the south-eastern suburbs of Melbourne with an area of 81.5 square kilometres and a population of 200,077 people in 2016. Demographics Monash has a diverse pop ...

holds a famous 1986 work,
Forest, Crows Foot Track, Rodger River, East Gippsland, Victoria
.Monash Gallery of Art - David Tatnall
/ref> In 2014, Tatnall explained how the work was made and its subsequent impact.The Photograph Explained: Forest at Crows Foot Track
, David Tatnall, 29 July 2014, ''Large Format Photography Australia''. Retrieved on 16 May 2017.

"On this ten-day trip I returned with twelve negatives; ''Forest at Crows Foot Track'' was the finest."

Awards

Tatnall has been awarded a Life Time Contribution Award by Parks Victoria, and an Honorary Life Membership of the Victorian National Parks Association for his lasting influence on nature conservation in Victoria through photography.Photographer honoured
Wild: Australia's Wilderness Adventure Magazine, July 2001. His photographs have become emblems of successful Australian nature conservation battles.Gold Street Studios: Instructors
/ref>

Projects and activities

* ‘Land Bridge’: a series of photographs of the Victoria coast, Bass Strait Islands and Tasmania. * ‘Woodlands’: a series of photographs of ‘ordinary’ bush (hard to photograph non-iconic or monotonous landscape). * A close association with the

Merri Creek The Merri Creek is a waterway in southern parts of Victoria, Australia, which flows through the northern suburbs of Northcote. It begins near Wallan north of Melbourne and flows south for 70 km until it joins the Yarra River at Dights Fa ...

. Tatnall has had three solo exhibitions based on Merri Creek photographs over the past 30 years. * Artist in Residence at the Alpine School Campus Alpine Lessons - Photography
Alpine School Campus. and the Snowy River Campus,Snowy Lessons - Photography
Snowy River Campus. School for Student Leadership. The School for Student Leadership is a Victorian government Department of Education and Training (DET) initiative. Over a twenty-year period, Tatnall estimates that he taught around 6000 students film photography. * Workshops in large format photography, pinhole photography and landscape photography at the Gold Street Studios. *
The Last Summer
': A series of large format photographs made of

Royal Park, Melbourne Royal Park is the largest of Melbourne's inner city parks (). It is located north of the Melbourne CBD, in Victoria, Australia, in the suburb of Parkville. Many sporting facilities are provided including the North Park Tennis Club, Royal P ...

in the summer of 2013 - 2014. At that time the park was threatened by the planned construction of a major new freeway, the East West Link.Royal Park - The Last Summer. Photographs by David Tatnall
/ref> * ''Melbourne: Pinhole'': A series of photographs of

Melbourne, Australia Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a metropol ...

made on an 8 x 10 pinhole camera. Funded by the

Melbourne City Council The City of Melbourne is a local government area in Victoria, Australia, located in the central city area of Melbourne. In 2018, the city has an area of and had a population of 169,961. Estimated resident population, 30 June 2018. The ci ...

Selected exhibitions

* 2017
Time and Tide
', Colour Factory Gallery, Melbourne, Australia. *2015
Earth matters: contemporary photographers in the landscape
', Monash Gallery of Art, Melbourne, Australia. Part of ART+CLIMATE=CHANGE 2015. ** Review:

', Dylan Rainforth,

Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper i ...

, 17 March 2015. *
Catalogue essay and list of works
Monash Gallery of Art, 2015. * 2014 ''Royal Park – The Last Summer'', FortyFive Downstairs, Melbourne, Australia.News and reviews: David Tatnall
/ref> ** Review:
Exhibition review by Christopher Deere: Royal Park - The Last Summer
', Christopher Deere, Large Format Photography Australia, 19 March 2014. * 2014 ''Khem'' (group show), Strange Neighbour, Melbourne, Australia. *
Catalogue essay
Linsey Gosper, curator. * 2014
Wildcards: Bill Henson shuffles the deck
' (group show), Monash Gallery of Art, Melbourne, Australia. Curated by

Bill Henson Bill Henson (born 7 October 1955) is an Australian contemporary art photographer. Art Henson has exhibited nationally and internationally in galleries such as the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Venice Biennale, the National Gal ...

. *
List of works
Monash Gallery of Art, 2014. ** Review:
Wildcards, Bill Henson Shuffles the Deck – review
', Fiona Gruber, 12 February 2014, The Guardian Australia. * 2013 ''Coastal Pinholes'', Gold Street Studios, Melbourne, Australia. David Tatnall – Coastal Pinholes – Oct/Dec 2013
/ref> * 2011 ''The Quiet Landscape'', Gold Street Studios, Melbourne, Australia. David Tatnall – The Quiet Landscape – April/June 2011
/ref> * 2010 ''Field of View'', Point Light Gallery, Surry Hills, Australia. Past Exhibitions
/ref> ** Review:

, Robert McFarlane, Ozphotoreview, 7 October 2010. * 2007 ''Melbourne: Pinhole,'' City Library gallery, Melbourne, Australia. ** Review:

, Terry Lane, The Age, 16 August 2017.
Terry Lane, The Age, 16 August 2017. Retrieved on 16 May 2017. * 2003 ''Seeing the Forest and the Trees'',

Castlemaine Art Museum Castlemaine Art Museum is an Australian art gallery and museum in Castlemaine, Victoria in the Shire of Mount Alexander. It was founded in 1913. It is housed in a 1931 Art Deco neo-classical building constructed for the purpose, heritage-listed ...

, Castlemaine, Australia. * 2002 ''Himalaya,''

The Photographers' Gallery and Workshop The Photographers' Gallery and Workshop (1973–2010) was an Australian photography gallery established in South Yarra, a suburb of Melbourne, and which ran almost continuously for nearly forty years. Its representation, in the 1970s and 1980s, of ...

, Melbourne, Australia. * 1988
The Thousand Mile Stare
' (group show)'',''

Australian Centre for Contemporary Art The Australian Centre For Contemporary Art (ACCA) is a contemporary art gallery in Melbourne, Australia. The gallery is located on Sturt Street in the Melbourne Arts Precinct, in the inner suburb of Southbank. Designed by Wood Marsh Architects ...

, Melbourne, Australia. ** Review:
On an escalator from the Inferno to James Bond
, Beatrice Faust, The Age, 30 March 1988.

Publications

*
Wild places of greater Melbourne
', Robin Taylor (text); Richard Weatherly (illustrations); David Tatnall (photographs) and others, 1999, CSIRO Publishing, . *
Tracks through time: the Narracan walks book
', John Wells (text); David Tatnall (photographs), 1988, Narracan Bicentennial Walks Book Committee.

Interviews

Interview with Amanda Smith
'Artworks', ABC Radio National, 16 September 2007.
Interview with editor
'Interview with David Tatnall', Large Format Photography Australia, 21 May 2013.
Interview with Michéla Griffith
'David Tatnall, Featured Photographer', On Landscape, 8 December 2021.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tatnall, David Living people Australian photographers Photographers from Melbourne Nature photographers 1955 births