Statement
Sel Rose 5 (Pink Salt), 2017 series of images was photographed flying above the Western Australian’s Coral Coast Hutt Lagoon. During dry season the lagoon leaves a unique palette of colors bleeding along the water’s edge. The striking pink color from the salt lake arises from a bacterium producing a pigment and is harvested for colorant.
Artist Bio
Martine worked as a peacekeeping mission photographer for the United Nations for over ten years. Now based in Margaret River, her focus is on aerial photography of WA and visual story telling.
Martine was born in Paris, raised in Bordeaux and moved to Sydney in 1997. She began her professional career at the photo desk at The Australian Financial Review. Her interest in photojournalism took her to Timor-Leste where she developed a working relationship with the United Nations. For the next decade Martine covered UN peacekeeping missions in conflict zones such as Burundi, the Democratic Republic of The Congo, and most recently in South Sudan and West Africa.
Living in Margaret River, Western Australia since 2014, Martine initiated a new project flying over Western Australia’s Goldfields. This series of photographs is called Gungurrunga Ngawa (Look Above). These images were exhibited as part of the broader body of work Ngala Wongga (Come Talk), a project documenting the speakers of the Goldfields, their connection to the land and the cultural significance of Australia’s endangered languages. The exhibition toured with ART ON THE MOVE in WA and at the Australian Embassy in Paris for the launch of activities for the International Year of Indigenous Languages in 2019.
Martine recently started a new project Wuyurpa collaborating with Indigenous women – speakers of Languages from Western Australia and Northern territory.
Martine work can be viewed: www.martineperret.photoshelter.com