©Carson Zullinger

Cassowary Chronicles, Australia 2017

We journeyed to a land of such beauty where most of the animals could kill you or eat you. Zoe Wiseman picked as our next ZoeFest adventure an area of Australia north of Cairns, and in the middle of the Daintree Rain forest. We worked, played, communed, and made new friends for a week and a half. The environment made image making challenging. On a location scout that Mel Brackstone, Carol Humber, Patt and I took to find safe places to work, including a conversation at a rocky beach that looked pretty safe until Mel suggested how many meters we needed to be from the water’s edge so that a saltwater crocodile could not leap out of the ocean and eat our models. There were dangerous box jellyfish, multiple poisonous snakes, poisonous toads, and finally the Cassowary bird that is so beautiful, but when threatened will attack and disembowel you with claws that look like a velociraptor’s. Nevertheless, we soldiered on. When the going gets tough artists figure a way to create anyway.

I was fortunate to work with some amazing collaborators to produce the work shown in this book. Many thanks to Tara Liggett, Anne Duffy, Brooke Lynne, Ella Rose, Titania Lyn, Elilith, Cheyanne, Jessamyne Rose and Carlotta Champagne.

Once again thanks to Zoe Wiseman for organizing another hugely successful event. As I write this we have just returned from 2018 ZoeFest that took place in Noosa, Australia. Hopefully there will be more adventures in the future.

Finally, thanks to my trusty assistant and underwater lighting tech, my wife Patt Panzer.