Mark Kriedemann, Strataemontanous (LANDSCAPE & ENVIRONMENT 2026)

Ancient geology, weather and the scars of Tasmania’s mining history converge above Queenstown, where a rugged escarpment rises sharply above forested foothills. Expecting the morning cloud to lift and break around the ridgeline, I positioned myself beneath one of the most prominent sections of the range and waited for the shifting cloud to reveal its form. As the cloud moved rapidly across the mountains, fragments of rock appeared and disappeared, creating brief moments when the structure of the ridge became especially pronounced. Around one of those moments, I composed an image using the dark layers of forest at the mountain’s base to provide scale and contrast with the exposed, almost monochromatic rock above. Through composing the image as such, I intended to show Queenstown’s landscape as both sombre, grand and imposing.

Images have been resized for web display, which may cause some loss of image quality. Note: Original high-resolution images are used for judging.