Guy Templeton, The Leaving (ART & CONCEPTUAL 2025)

Three years on from the floods – eighty homes, eighty departures. Each house pictured belonged to a family in Lismore who accepted a government buyout to leave the floodplain permanently. Empty and silent, the buildings remain as placeholders of lives already in motion — photographs of an absence. The image explores the scale and quiet emotion of managed retreat in the face of climate impacts. Together, these homes become a single portrait of a town in transition, where the past still stands while the future is rebuilt elsewhere. Part of a series on climate solutions.

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