CHASED BY WIND

CHASED BY WIND

Ngurunderi was married to two women. They evaded his rage by running across the Australian continent. Following them, the Ancestral Dreaming hero journeyed north to south, forming rivers and mountains along the way. He decided to cut their path since he was enraged by the runaways. He transformed into a storm, destroying the peninsula, and separating an island from the mainland, after becoming a squall and raising the waves. The women were drowned. Their spirits became two boulders that still stand against the winds, tragically sobbing amid storms. Backstairs Passage, a strait between Kangaroo Island and Cape Jervis, is a treacherous waterway. Winds disrupt these seas, causing currents that swept many sailors away, destroying their ships on the jagged cliffs. A land bridge linking the island was destroyed by the water and storms in the recent geological past. Two blown-over boulders exist between the mainland and the island. The images were shot during a polar storm that caused ferry services to suspend functioning, effectively cutting the island off from the rest of the world. I wasn't fleeing anyone, but like the two wives, I was stranded ashore with nowhere to stay for the next several nights and days after the storm cut off my probable route to the island. I peered into the stormy ocean, tears in my eyes and my camera clutched in my freezing fingers - a lost myth chaser on the raging coast. In a modern recreation of an ancient legend, images depict the danger and beauty of strong winds and waves at Backstairs Passage in South Australia.

FLYING FREE