Secret landscapes captured in photo

Sydney photographer Michael Gormly has spent over five years visiting the “secret landscapes” of Yoorun in rural NSW.

Yoorun Magic: rock, rainbow and the silver river will feature a palette of images by Mr Gormly, who spent countless hours on the Turon River, near the small town of Sofala in the Murray–Darling basin.

“A theme of this series is connectedness, in the Aboriginal sense of being connected to the land, and in the spiritual sense that all things in the universe are connected,” said Mr Gormly. “I have tried to understand and illustrate that.

“Going there gradually became an obsession until I began spending three days a fortnight camping there at all times of the year over several years. This gave me the opportunity to photograph the landscape in all seasons, all lights and all weather conditions.”

Sofala – once a gold rush town inhabited by 10,000 people – has attracted artists Margaret Ollie, Donald Friend and Russell Drysdale in the past.

“I have discovered that, by total coincidence, this land is precisely where my great-great grandfather and two of his brothers based their gold-digging venture during most of 1851,” said Mr Gormly.

The exhibition will capture one of the only surviving Indigenous tree carvings  of the Aboriginal Yoorun people who once lived there.

“Links between waterholes and Aboriginal spirituality have been frequently noted when clear renditions of fish and turtles appear in the symmetries created by rock strata and their reflections,” said Mr Gormly.

As the winner of the Kings Cross Photography prize, Mr Gormly was shortlisted for several national photography competitions.

The exhibition will feature at Kerrie Lowe Gallery in Newtown, opening on Friday, June 21 at 6pm. Kerrie Lowe said they were “delighted” to be showcasing Mr Gormly’s photographs.

“Michael’s deep link with the Sofala area is mirrored by the passions of Australian wood-firers, many of whom work around Gulgong – another historic gold mining town in the area,” she said.