The old adage of “If you want something done, ask a busy person” is definitely true in the case of our next guest curator: photographer and editor, Heidi Romano. Next week, Heidi will be presenting photographers from Australia, following previous weeks that featured Latin American photographers by Eleonora Ronconi and European photographers by Jacqueline Roberts.

Not only is Heidi a wonderful visual artist, she is the founder and curator of Unless You Will, a bimonthly online photography journal that celebrates the work of photo-based artists who work with the notions of play, honesty and craftsmanship.  She is an art director, designs apps, books and websites (she designed the beautiful Collect.Give catalog), her work has been featured world wide in magazines and journals and her photography is represented in collections in Europe and Australia.  Heidi was appointed to the Ballarat International Foto Biennale Board in April 2012 and is currently the editor of Ballarat International Foto Biennale’s new online photography magazine ‘BETA’. When I asked Heidi if she would be interested in sharing the work of fellow Australian photographers, I fully expected her plate to be too full, but this busy person was up to the task and I am incredibly grateful. Today I am featuring two of Heidi’s projects, Am waldes rand and Frozen Water.

Initially these images were part of a five-year investigation into the forests of the world. But over time they made me look differently, because behind their great complexity and careful composition, lies a secret.

Photographically I have always been interested in time and how we perceive change. These images illustrate the change of light, the changing direction of the wind and the force of the weather. We see a forest and imagine adventures – dream of discoveries, secret paths, laughter, or playing hide and seek. Yet sometimes a small piece of information dramatically influences the way we perceive, the way we look.

When I took these images I had no intention of documenting a crime scene, but when I unintentionally did, the forest transformed into a dark, mysterious place that spoke of hiding under rocks and escaping the country, of police searches, sirens and helicopters.

In its silence I thought of loss, heartbreak, and the crime committed by a friend – father of a little girl and partner to my best friend.

The micro environments found in “Frozen water” are an experiment in form finding. They are a challenge to the perceptions and expectations we have of water. The random beauty of the elements within these images create a landscape between reality and imagination for the viewer to ponder.