Photography

In Late 2010, Murray Fredericks made an initial visit to Melville Island situated in the Arafura sea North of the Australian mainland. During the ‘build-up’ season, prior to the monsoon, a huge storm event known as ‘Hector’ occurs almost daily over the Tiwi Islands.

Theses storms are known as the worlds largest thunderstorm which, given the right conditions, can merge into a ‘super-cell’ or a giant storm known as a ‘Hector’. Hector is the colloquial name or rhyming slang for a convection thunderstorm…’Hector the Convector’.

As with the Salt Project, the process for Hector commenced with finding a location where the storms could be photographed over a flat horizon. This is a ‘minimal’ approach, intending to deny the elements or language of a traditional ‘landscape’. The subject becomes the storm itself rather than scene it sits within.

Special thanks must be made to L and P Photographics in Sydney and to Phase One who loaned a Phase One P45+ Apochromatic Plus medium format digital back for the production of the photographs.

Thanks also to the Tiwi Land Council who represent the traditional owners of Melville Island for granting access to their country for the project.

Time-Lapse

Hector is a time-lapse assembly from footage produced over the first two visits to the Tiwi Islands in 2010/11. The original music is written and produced by Tommy Shutzinger and the editing is by Lindi Harrison.