Ancient rainforests, beachfront pandanus sentinels and sociable blue soldier crabs … Behind the sheer beauty and wonder of Barney Maple’s photographs is a message as powerful as it is simple.
“Planet Earth is our global home and we need to appreciate it.”
It’s a guiding principle for the sustainability expert and landscape photographer, who combines his twin passions “to create positive change” through imagery and conversations.
“Our lives are linked to the cycles of nature,” Barney says. “It’s only relatively recently that we became divorced from that. Through my photography I try to reconnect people with nature, because as soon as you love something, you will naturally want to care for it. And that is not just good for the environment but good for our souls.”
Barney had been working in the sustainability space for 19 years – first championing residential energy efficiency and carbon trading, and then working as a sustainability consultant to the building industry – when he began studying a Bachelor of Sustainability at UNE in 2019.
“UNE’s degree caught my attention because of its global focus on how humans interact with the environment – how it considered the social, political and economic aspects,” Barney says.
Barney's graduation with children Iluka and Oliver (left) and partner Claire and mother Gwynnyth (right).
It would take five years, and a mix of full-time and part-time study, for him to complete his studies, but during that time Barney worked as a corporate sustainability planner for Coffs Harbour Council. There, he used his expanding skillset to help develop and implement the council’s Renewable Energy and Emissions Reduction Plan for 2030-31.
“Our response to climate change needs to involve mitigating and reducing emissions, as well as adaptation”
“Our response to climate change needs to involve mitigating and reducing emissions, as well as adaptation,” Barney says. “Economically, the two things overlap and it’s a win-win. There’s no downside for business: it’s the smartest economic decision to go down this sustainability path because it costs you more now to do nothing and increases your future risk profile.”
Things have come a long way since Barney started working in this space 20 years ago. “Back then, people didn’t know what climate change, a carbon footprint or emissions were. I was educating as well as providing environmental services, plus advocating politically. It’s still really challenging to get the environment to the top of the agenda, but we have seen huge amounts of change and that keeps me motivated and excited.”
Jetty Woman - Photo by Barney Maple
This year Barney has dusted off his grandfather’s prized 1959 Nikon F to return to shooting (and developing) film and intends exploring how he can marry his sustainability career more neatly with his photography.
“It’s an absolutely gorgeous piece of equipment and fully manual,” Barney says. “Shooting with it, you are more aware of the available light and where it’s coming from. It’s mechanical and visceral and connects you more intimately with the scene before you.”
And when global environmental challenges threaten to overwhelm us, Barney recommends restoring such connections. “The melting icecaps and wildfires can seem such big and insurmountable problems, but what we really need to do is to keep gathering as local communities and connecting with the places we love. Grassroots movements enable us to ‘think local, act global’.
“I encourage people to get out and experience nature themselves. There is a lot of doom and gloom on our screens, but still a lot of beauty out there if we allow ourselves to slow down and appreciate it.”
