It started with the fires.
During the summer of 2019-2020, I would jolt awake at 5am. Bushfires had been ravaging Australia since winter, and I found myself in a heightened state of anxiety at the loss of the Australian landscape I once knew.
Faced with this, I began experiencing what’s known as eco-anxiety, chronic fear of environmental doom.
Humans and the natural world are inextricably linked. I didn’t just love our land and its creatures – I was connected to them. Humans have evolved for thousands of years in symbiosis with the natural world, not in spite of it.
When the global pandemic hit, we couldn’t go outside and experience nature. My depression started to rear its ugly head, and panic attacks ensued.
These crises tell us that we are fragile, and that need we nature – to feel the dirt under our feet, a breeze on our face and gaze at vistas of desert, forest, and ocean. This series explores my eco-anxiety at Australia’s environmental crisis followed by the COVID-19 lockdown; it’s a timely and final call for change and hope.
This exhibition is outdoors. Please check what COVID-19 restrictions are in place before you visit.
Annette Ruzicka is an award-winning visual storyteller based in Melbourne, Australia.
Following a career in conservation, Annette developed a deep affinity with the natural world. She has dedicated herself to telling stories of those trying to save it, including the lands’ ancestral owners. Annette’s work has been featured by the BBC, the New York Times, Australian Geographic, the Guardian Australia, and more.
She has been a finalist in various prizes, including both the CLIP award and the Australian Photography Awards in 2020. She won silver for the 2020 BIFAs (landscape) and the 2017 Sun Studios Emerging Photographers Competition.
Annette is a member of the Many Australian Photographers Group, a national collective of documentary photographers dedicated to exploring Australian regional and suburban issues.
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