Author(s): Andrew Chapman

THE ARTS

From Andrew Chapman, the best-selling author of Woolsheds, comes a stunning new photographic book exploring the world around the sheds - the shearers, the roustabouts, the dogs, the dunnies and the sheds themselves. On his photographic odyssey, Andrew Chapman takes us on a visual journey where much has changed from those early days, yet so much remains the same. Andrew has travelled to every state and taken a snapshot of an industry that has had its ups and downs, but like a punch-drunk boxer always manages to get back off the floor and go another round. Through Andrew Chapman's lens we meet farmhands, roustabouts, cooks, woolgrowers and even a one-armed shearer, all who share a common link - a declared passion for an aspect of Australian life that is in danger of disappearing altogether. Andrew Chapman's camera is just a tool; what really matters is his eye. He sees things: shed workers unconsciously replicating a scene from a Tom Roberts painting; the visual poetry in an arrangement of dilapidated chairs or tumbledown timber; abstracts constructed from wool-bale stencils; the patina of age on fences and gates; a wrist-watch suspended on a hook by its metal bracelet band. He works with a keen appreciation of the most crucial element in photography: the light. -- Alan Atwood