Australia’s image of mining towns is most often glorified by a strong sense of tradition, achievement, and nostalgia. Towns like Kalgoorlie, Broken Hill, and Cobar stand as symbols of resourcefulness amongst an otherwise harsh landscape. But lesser known about this extraction industry are the towns that failed. The mines that didn’t deliver. And the lives of those that were left behind in the wake of desertion.
While Brisbane photographer Chris Bowes was studying at the Queensland College of Art, a wayward weekend road trip and a tip-off from a fellow student led him to one of these towns. Over a period of six months, and several follow-up journeys to this ghost town in Central Queensland, Leftovers would become Bowes’ first major body of work.
For Bowes, the discovery of what was such an ephemeral community provided a great opportunity for a visual artist whose practice focuses on “the places between places”. As he describes it: “I like areas with traces of previous human habitation as this allows me to create my own story based on the evidence that I find. I consider myself more like an archaeologist than a photojournalist.”
And like any good archaeologist, for the success of this project, Bowes' immersion within the remnants of the town was the clue to connecting with its previous inhabitants. “I need to spend a lot of time in a place to get some sort of sense of it, and there is always something to discover that you had not seen before,” he says. “I think you need to create a connection to get emotionally involved with the project, which then allows you to craft the rhythm and tone of the narrative.”
In further communicating the narrative, Leftovers utilises a combination of photographs and scanned documents found throughout the town which become “clues to the lives of people who were once the town’s inhabitants”. In addition to the images of decaying material and emptied cupboards, the collection of letters, calendars and drawings scattered throughout Leftovers helps to evoke an almost dystopian theme – a sentiment that Bowes says reflects our current relationship with mineral extraction. “Such a situation is the future scenario for our planet if we destroy its habitability through the ramifications of over mining,” Bowes says.
About Chris Bowes
Chris Bowes is an Australian artist based in Brisbane, Queensland. His practice incorporates photo-media and found objects, exploring their potential as a documentary device, and their ability to form narratives.