That is about as far as I have got in the process of reconnecting. At the moment the reconnection to the project is a fragile one. The impetus has been lost. Currently I do not have any sense of working towards a particular end –eg., an exhibition or book. I did mention a third photobook in the Photographing the Mallee series in the previous post, but the momentum has been lost due to the pandemic since I do not have enough snapshot photos in the archives for a Photographing the Mallee 2020 or 2021.

Maybe I should just do a simple phototrip in April and see what emerges.

The above image is from a photo trip in 2020 within South Australia when South Australia’s borders were closed and it forms part of the absent history section of the project. These ruins of the cuttings are all that is left of many of the railway lines in the South Australian mallee. It is a history of traces.

Another phototrip option would be to photograph the remains of old railway lines in South Australia with a large format camera. I could retrace what I’d scoped in 2020. It would mean less traveling.

Now that the new normal is being vaccinated and ‘living with the Omicron variant of Covid-19 either option — the Calder Highway in Victoria or the railway lines in South Australia — would certainly help to get the project moving again.