Outback: The term Outback came about in the 19th Century. It was used to refer to places that were 'out the back of X (insert a place name). A similar term is 'back of beyond'. Basically, it's somewhere inland in Australia, a long way from the sea.
Text and images © Michael Klinkhamer.
"Warning, this article contains photographs of indigenous persons who have might have passed away”.
“A journey is a fragment of Hell.”
― The Songlines
Normally I don't hark back to old memories much. It's just not that time for me yet.
Cambodia is my home since 2013 and this is where I do my photography projects and photo tours until now, enjoying every day of it.
But recently I was following a Hasselblad camera group on Facebook about the legendary camera brand that took me back some years and made me revisit my work with that camera from 33 years ago.
Using the Hasselblad on location in the desert and shooting reportage with it, on Kodak negative film.
I believe these pictures do stand the test of time in this digital age.
They also make me wonder how are the people in the pictures I photographed back then some 33 years ago?
Did their lives improve after the 1988 Bicentennial movement?
"Recently I was thinking back about my first attempts to find some truth in my photography."
After a period of learning my skills, first as an aerial and studio photographer, then getting into the magazine publishing business.
My ambition was unlimited and somehow I understood by acquiring a Hasselblad camera I would get the trust of the "art directors" to shoot glossy cover images and full spread publications at the time.
Around 1987 it was time to put all of that on hold- "Remember, there is time- take it easy"
In November 1987 I set out to Darwin in Australia for an Outback photography expedition.
My life was quickly what a successful photographer looked like in the mid-'80s.
To explore and understand Australia I was fascinated by the first Australians, the Aboriginals.
I needed to find out how they lived and functioned in the modern world.
People who are self-reliant and have a deep knowledge of the land are the true survivors.
What I found in the Outback in '87 was nothing less than utter despair and disconnect to the world they lived in and what Australia had become to the Aboriginals.
The full reasons for the demise of the Aboriginal people is basically a story of genocide, poisoning, abuse, and land grab over a period of two hundred years.
Of course, the traditional life of the Aboriginals is not to be found along that highway. It's only a black line on the red earth.
This story only shows a fraction of the complex story in a very big country.
For me, it was the first look into their world from my car making different stops along the Stuart Highway that started in Darwin and ended in Sydney, which was then in January 1988 in the midst of the Bicentennial celebrations and counter-demonstrations of the Aboriginal community not celebrating the 200 years of colonial oppression.
G'Day on the Stuart Highway.
From Darwin, in the Nothern Territory, I traveled the Stuart Highway that connects the North of Australia all the way to the South 2834 kilometers long and hot black bitumen.
"The Track" as they call it.
A hot and dusty 2834 km's leading line to explore and drive across the continent.
The first Australians knew their land inside out and have a sacred connection deeper into the country, but since it's all desert and full of hardship and the traditional lands are not sustainable to them anymore.
Because of big company mining and ultra-large cattle companies, people are displaced and hanging on along those small settlements along the highway to get money, medical treatment and in many cases alcohol to help to forget in places such as Tennant Creek and Alice Springs.
At the time I was learning this and looking for images and experiencing such a dramatic world that felt like a time travel in another world.
I stayed in the old mining town of Tennant Creek for a week and was welcomed by the locals living in the hot and very basic housing that was available.
My first move was to locate the local village council or elder and ask for permission to look around and take a few shots.
Remember these pictures are made in modern Australia, 33 years ago, not an underdeveloped third world country.
The heat, the flies the misery was unbelievable.
So, this is what happened to the proud first Australians living off the land and migrating in thousands of clans and tribes all over the huge continent 60.000 years before the white man's invasion in 1788.
Why? Well, that is a complicated long story but in short, it's because of greed and a totally different mindset from Europeans to the indigenous people in regard to what's theirs and ours.
Imperial colonialism and the penal colony implementation of those days and the disrespect for people living as hunters and gatherers. Similar happened to the American Indians.
The same happens today to people around the world living a traditional life independent from industry and corporations.
During my expedition, I realized that I only scratched the surface of this history.
In hindsight, it was a spectacular learning journey that ended in the first European settlement of Australia, Sydney. Exactly 200 years later on Australia day 26th of January 1988.
The streets and parks of Sydney were packed with ten thousand people demonstrating and protesting the fact that it was to the account of the Aboriginal people of Australia, who suffered the most and lost it all.
Michael Klinkhamer is a Dutch photographer and journalist working mostly in Asia for the last 10 years. Michael lives due to the COVID crisis back in Amsterdam and is available for assignments and photography adventures in Cambodia, Thailand, Australia, Hawaii and his native Holland once this is possible again.
tel: +31(0) 616662813 or email: klinkhamerphoto@gmail.com
email: info@cambodiaphototours.asia
About Cameras:Many photographers are re-discovering the magic of a fully mechanical camera, vintage lenses and a fresh or expired roll of film. On Facebook, there are many listed camera brand groups that inspire and advise & share their love for all kinds of old camera's and how to process film and get spare parts and show off the results.
Hasselblad cameras are there with perhaps Leica as the milestone reference to some of the best tools that professional photographers used to shoot the iconic images of our recent history before digital.
For this series of images from Australia in 1987-'88, I used a Hasselblad CM with an 80mm lens. Kodak negative color film 120 rolls.
Gossen light meter with a spot meter adapter.
Also a Nikon FM2 with Tri-X film.
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