Last Light, Hills of Beechworth
Shafts of dramatic light catch the top of a set of rolling hills in the Beechworth region, depicted here in black and white. PHOTO: Campbell Mattinson.
There was a time in my life when I’d get up every day, very early and head out into the north-east Victorian countryside around Glenrowan, Wangaratta, Everton, Eldorado and Beechworth, looking for landscapes to photograph. I had this thing about “rolling hills”, and about trying to capture the curves of them. I used to have a page of images called just that, Rolling Hills, as if they were my sentry or my ideal. Some people are crazy for giant mountains; others go chasing waterfalls; I had and have this thing for low, elegant, graceful hills.
In the years prior to the taking of the image above, I was an obsessive cyclist. As a cyclist, I loved hills too. I took this image while standing on the Wangaratta-Beechworth bike path, somewhere near Everton, just before the bike path rises up towards Beechworth proper. I watched the light come up and tip, just, the top of the hills there. It was just me, the cows, the kangaroos, the grasses, the hills and those slithers of light. I took this image on January 21, 2021, just before we left north-east Victoria to move back to Melbourne. We’d lived in the region since 2004. It was my final morning out. I could title this photograph Rolling Hills, Beechworth. I could title it Goodbye My Love. I could title it Last Light. I could look at it forever.
