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Friday, August 25, 2006

FIRST RELEASE OF OLEGAS TRUCHANAS IMAGES - PUBLIC LAUNCH TODAY

Source: Melva Truchanas

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Comments: Leave your comments at the end of the article. There are currently 4 comments for this article.

photo: ©Olegas Truchanas [click image to enlarge]

Olegas Truchanas photographs feature on two new greetings cards to be launched this week by Senator Bob Brown and Olegas’ wife, Melva Truchanas.

Truchanas’ work has been widely praised by photographers, artists and environmentalists, but until now the images have rarely been seen and never before published in significant quantity. Melva Truchanas has released two of them to promote awareness of the possibility of restoring the lake to its original state.

An informative text on the back of the cards encapsulates the story of Lake Pedder and provides a brief background on Truchanas.

For Tasmanians, the name of Olegas Truchanas is synonymous with the lost Lake Pedder. Slide shows of his haunting photographs of the lake before its inundation by the Hydro Electric Commission played to standing-room-only audiences in the late 1960s.

©Olegas Truchanas [click image to enlarge]

Truchanas, for some time a clerk at the Hydro, was prevented from speaking out about the destruction of what he saw as one of the jewels of Tasmanian landscape. Instead, he let the pictures speak for him. So powerful were the images that a campaign to save the lake sprang up; it did not succeed, but it formed the foundation of a robust environmental movement.

He had spent many years exploring and photographing the wilds of Tasmania and was often the first non-indigenous person to traverse many parts of the rugged interior of the island. In 1967, the Hobart bushfires destroyed his home and with it virtually his entire collection of images.

He set out to retrace his exploration and recording of the wilderness, but in 1972, while photographing the Gordon River on a mission to replace his lost slides, he was tragically drowned. The cards are published as a tribute to his memory and to his pioneering work in raising consciousness of Tasmania’s threatened natural beauty.

There will be a public launch by Bob Brown and Melva Truchanas:

The Green Shop
83 Harrington Street
Hobart
Friday 25 August at 5:30pm

View a remotely sensed image of the now flooded Lake Pedder from GoogleMaps.

Posted by The Skipper on Fri, August 25, 2006 at 07:56 AM

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Comments from (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) in Hobart, Tasmania

. . . PEDDER LIVES!

Posted by (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 08/25 at 01:15 PM

Comments from (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) in temporarily in Turkey - formerly Lauderale, TAS &

If Lake Pedder is indeed retreivable, then maybe pursuit of such a goal would be best put on the back burner for a while. Such an iconic victory would be extremely hollow if the current set of attacks on Tasmania’s environment are allowed to proceed. Imagine a beautiful Lake Pedder in 20 or 30 years time but with a foul pulp mill spewing organochlorines into the sea and inappropriate developments sprawling along the coast and intruding into the former public space of our bays.

We also need to be realistic. This is a very long term project with the removal of water being only one step. In such a fragile area, the “jewel in the crown” could well be a moonscape for a very long time - maybe an eternity if it’s not handled right. If the lake remains restorable at this stage, then a few more years of careful planning wouldn’t do any harm.

Gregor Watson from temporarily in Turkey - formerly Lauderale, TAS

Posted by (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 08/28 at 04:44 PM

Comments from PAMELA DONEGAN in CENTRAL COAST NSW

YOU TASMANIANS LIVE IN HEAVEN WILDERNESS COUNTRY.
I WILL BE BACK FOR ANOTHER VISIT. SOON I HOPE AND OLEGAS & PETERS STORY LAST WEEK WAS INSPIRING.
THANKS MELVA FOR SHARING.

Posted by PAMELA DONEGAN on 12/06 at 05:40 PM

Comments from (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) in Queanbeyan NSW

I would like more information on where I could buy , OLEGAS TRUCHANAS photographs or view them. There seem to be more of Peter Dombrovkis photos in the articles about Tasmania.

Posted by (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 12/20 at 11:42 PM

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