In a previous post on this archival blog I  had mentioned my shift from street photography to topographics during the 1980s. This shift  emerged whilst  I was photographing around Osborne, Gillman  and Outer Harbor  along the Port River estuary on the Le Fevre Peninsula.

This is an example of my  topographic approach to industrial type urbanscapes—a wasteland, if you like– that was made  in the 1980s:

Another version of the topographical approach to this wasteland or ravaged landscape  that was made in the same photo-session is here.

The shift from street photography to topographics is how I have structured  my portfolio in  the Adelaide Photography 1970-2000 book, which  is to  be published by Moon Arrow Press in 2019.  It is part of the independent photobook  movement. 

I haven’t been back to this particular part of Gillman   for quite a while,  so I do not know  what it looks like today. There was a lot of commercial landfill –in reality chemical  waste (white mounds of calsilt) from  the Penrice Soda Products plant that produced soda ash  when the waste was no longer allowed to be dumped into the Port River after  2002.

It is contaminated land that is owned by the state government and it is their responsibility to clean up after after the Penrice Soda Products plant closed in 2013.

Gillman is earmarked for industrial development in that the Gillman/LeFevre Peninsula area is consistently mentioned in State economic development strategies as being a key area for future industrial growth and investment.