Now on display at the Australian War Memorial (AWM), WW1 Avenue of Honour is a series of twenty-two images by Trent Parke. The exhibition will run until early next year and was previously exhibited as part of The First World War Now in Bruges, Belgium presented by Magnum Photos.
Produced after a period of time spent understanding and researching the Ballarat Avenue of Honour, a site in which since 1971, 3,801 trees have been planted to honour the service of an local individual. The Avenue of Honour is the largest of it’s kind and now stretches 22kms.
“In selecting and photographing a particular tree he sought to explore both tangible and abstract parallels between the natural forms as he encountered them and the fate of the individual whom the tree commemorates. Parke undertook detailed research drawing on the Red Cross Wounded and Missing files to find links between biographical records and the appearance of the corresponding tree in planting position, size, shape, texture, irregularities of growth, setting in the landscape or it’s silhouette against the sky. His photographs capture these visual forms as an act of contemporary commemoration. “
For more details and information about this exhibition, visit the Australian War Memorial website here.