Girt by Sea by Tony Hewitt and Denis Glennon

Red mud is exposed by the tides in King Sound, near Derby, captured soon after take-off in the Kimberley, during the early morning light. Image by Tony Hewitt and Denis Glennon.
Red mud is exposed by the tides in King Sound, near Derby, captured soon after take-off in the Kimberley, during the early morning light. Image by Tony Hewitt and Denis Glennon.

Tony Hewitt and Denis Glennon have spent 31 days following the nation’s coastlines by air. This unique showcase comprises a stunning collection of 100 large-format aerial images of Australia’s coastline. “Girt by Sea started as an ambitious dream and now it’s a lived experience," Hewitt says. “More than that, the collection means that we can now hold the understanding of those three words in our hands.”

“The collection expresses what Girt by Sea means to us – it’s the emotional response to what we saw a point in time captured in beautiful, large-format images,” says Denis Glennon. “It’s the result of our daily decision to focus on what we actually find, not on what we expect to find – that’s the spirit of exploration!”

Image by Tony Hewitt and Denis Glennon.
Receding tides leave behind familiar shapes in the mud near the most southern point of the
Gulf of Carpentaria in Qld. Photography by Tony Hewitt & Denis Glennon.

The 34,213km journey mirrors the exploration of the intrepid first explorers and their record of largely inhospitable regions. Because like those 19th century wanderers, Hewitt and Glennon did not set out with a neatly packed agenda – rather, they worked reactively, guided by what they discovered.

“I hope people share the same emotional response of ‘Wow – look at that!’ that we did when we encountered these places,” says Tony Hewitt. “It doesn’t really matter where it is. What is so striking is the texture, colour, and shape of our coastline. We have in our minds a hard line dividing land from sea, but it’s actually a much more fluid transition.”

The latest in a series of major collaborations for Canon Australia, Canon Australia’s Director of Consumer Imaging, Jason McLean says that they're extremely proud of what they have been able to achieve together with some of the most creative minds in Australia.

 

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November

Sydney: The exhibition delves into the State Library of NSW's vast collection of two million images, showcasing 400 photos – many displayed for the first time.

February

Ballarat: Scotty So is a Melbourne-based artist who works across media, using painting, photography, sculptures, site-responsive installation, videos and drag performance.

Melbourne: Jill Orr’s The Promised Land Refigured is an exhibition that reworks the original project created in 2012 with new insights that have emerged in the past eleven years.

Sydney: Curated by Lynn Smith, Urban Enigmas aims to unlock the subtle mysteries that lurk in out-of-the-way places in big cities: back lanes, river banks, street markets, abandoned factories, old bridges and so on.

March

Ballarat: Nan Goldin is an American artist whose work explores subcultures, moments of intimacy, the impacts of the HIV/AIDS and opioid epidemics on her communities, and photography as a tool for social activism.

Sydney: The Ocean Photographer of the Year Award, run by London based Oceanographic Magazine is in its 4th year and has quickly achieved recognition amongst photographers around the world.

Albury: The National Photography Prize offers a $30,000 acquisitive prize, the $5000 John and Margaret Baker Fellowship for an emerging practitioner, and further supports a number of artists through focused acquisitions.