XYZ turns lens on Victorian landscape in new exhibition

Docklands’ hidden photo gallery XYZ is turning its focus to the Victorian bush with a new exhibition exploring landscape, process and place.

After the Gold Rush: Victorian Landscape brings together the work of 10 photographers whose relationships with the natural environment vary across subject matter, style and technique.

The exhibition, now showing at XYZ Photo Gallery at 312/757 Bourke St, continues the gallery’s commitment to showcasing a diverse mix of photographic work from both established names and emerging voices.

Located above the Nixon Hotel off Batmans Hill Drive, XYZ has become one of Docklands’ most unique cultural spaces since opening in 2021. The gallery has built a reputation for presenting photography across genres, periods and perspectives, often showing multiple bodies of work at once.

Its latest exhibition examines landscape as one of photography’s foundational genres, with a contemporary survey of work made in and of the Victorian bush.

The exhibition features work by John Gollings, Harry Nankin, David Tatnall, David Rosendale, Aldona Kmieć, Indya Connley, Shane Booth, Ian Kemp, Jackson Low and Garrie Maguire.

As well as presenting different perspectives on the landscape, the exhibition highlights a broad range of photographic processes. Works span 19^th-century techniques such as cyanotype and photogravure, through to 20th-century silver gelatin and lith printing, as well as contemporary giclée printing.

The result is an exhibition that considers not only the beauty of the Victorian landscape, but also humanity’s relationship with nature, land and environment.

Some works seek to capture the beauty of the bush, while others question the way people interact with the natural world and respond to its extremes.

For XYZ, which describes itself as proudly based in Docklands, the exhibition adds another cultural offering to a precinct still often overlooked for its creative spaces.

After the Gold Rush: Victorian Landscape is open from 1pm to 5pm, Thursday to Sunday, until June 21.