The gifted Fuji Pro 400H  is expired  because the  film was introduced in 2004 and discontinued in 2021.  Fortunately,  the 85mm pro-Tessar lens, which has been generously loaned to me,  does not suffer from the key problem of  the front elements separating,  due to the early optical cement that Zeiss used deteriorating, resulting in a sort of "rainbow" appearance behind the front element. So I could experiment and explore the unstable boundaries of nostalgic pleasure by experimenting  with photographing  the coastal rocks in my local area.  Hopefully this probing would generate  some possibilities  for a more conceptually orientated large format photography. 

The soft pastel appearance  of Fuji Pro 400H did not happen. The rocky headland of Kings Head with its resistant outcrops was the wrong subject matter.  What did emerge  in the picture field was the vibrant colours and the blue/green tinge making the quartz and rock forms look rather strange,  if not other worldly. The colour tinge as an embellishment,  refers to what is usually unspoken.   

What the  other worldliness of the rock formation provokes  is the oldness  of the Cambrian rock formation with its eroded Permian glacial sediments. These sediments  are  protected by the  headland of resistant rock, which is also sheltered from the full force of wave attack by West Island, whilst  the sand on Kings Beach and the pocket beaches east to Petrel Cove is derived from Permian glacial sediments that includes the large granite boulders on Kings Beach, next door to the headland.   

What is foregrounded is a visual thinking  about these  rock formations. triggered  my vague understanding  of  the deep earth  history of this part of the southern Fleurieu Peninsula.The Permian geological period is between 300-250 million years ago,  when Australia was part of the  Gondwana land mass, that in turn, was  part of the supercontinent  Pangaea. Pangaea, which was  surrounded by a superocean Panthalassa,  began to break  apart 200 million years ago, whilst  Gondwana began to splinter about 180 million years ago.

Gondwana's  eastern half — which included Australia, Antarctica, India and Madagascar — separated from its western half, made up of Africa and South America.  East Gondwana, in turn, lost more and more parts over time. Together as a single block, Australia and Antarctica separated from Gondwana about 135 million ago,  whilst Australia started  to split from Antarctica and move northward around 85 million years ago.   Australia completely separated from Antarctica about 30 million years ago to  become its own continent that continues to move northward.  

 

The subsidiary colours of  the pictorial  images of the quartz and rocks in bringing  to light  deep history  offer us an  entrance into a mode of thinking we would not enter on our own,   and so inspire a new train of thought. The imagery compels us to follow its logic about  the deep geological history of the southern Fleurieu Peninsula that is such a contrast to the brief human history.  This  renders photography's  capacity for  forming thoughts and shaping concepts in visual terms visible, thereby re-instituting nostalgic pleasures on new grounds to those of disinterest, taste,  aesthetic enjoyment and entertainment.