David Pope has a unique ability to distill complex news events into sharp, evocative and sometimes devastating images.
But when he set out to capture the South Coast in the months after the devastating Black Summer bushfires in 2019-20, he knew he had to go about the job differently.
He went to as many towns and communities as possible, wanting to understand how people had been affected by the trauma and destruction, and how they were managing the recovery process.
He recalls the overwhelming sadness of seeing how much had been lost in the fires, but came away inspired and heartened by the people he had spoken to.
The Coast Is Calling, his series of eight distinct prints, was a runaway success because, he says, “they celebrate people’s sense of place, places they love, whether they live there or visit there”.
Canberra Times cartoonist David Pope wants to capture Canberra’s sense of place in his new image series. Picture by Keegan Carroll
And now, to celebrate 100 years of The Canberra Times, he’s doing the same with the city we call home with Pope’s Canberra – The Centenary Collection.
In celebrating the Canberra we all love, the multi-Walkley Award winner has included parts of the city that haven’t traditionally received the attention of artists.
From today, the first three illustrations in the series are available to purchase, celebrating Gungahlin, Belconnen and the National Library of Australia. More illustrations will be released throughout the year.
He says it’s been a journey of discovery, even for a long-time resident like himself.
“It’s not really a tourist postcard sort of view of Canberra,” he says, of the first series of images he’s created.
“I don’t pretend I have insight into the place. It’s a big place now, and people’s experience of the city is different in different parts of the city,” he says.
The first three illustrations of Pope’s Canberra-The Centenary Collection.
“So I’m attempting to get around and see what grabs me, an eclectic range of things, of views and aspects of the city.”
A resident of the Inner North, he has found himself admiring, for example, the shores of Lake Tuggeranong, where streets meld into the lakeside, and homes actually interact with the precinct.
It is, he says, a refreshing change from the ornamental Lake Burley Griffin he’s so accustomed to.
“Different parts of the city have different things going for them,” he says.
“Gungahlin’s got this really unique aspect of all the grasslands around it, these buildings in the middle of a remnant, wood scrubland.”
Gungahlin has its grasslands that are home to an endangered moth, but also the very modern red tram.
Belconnen has the iconic owl sculpture – a landmark that has been the source of the loving kind of mirth only Canberrans can generate when it comes to the public artworks that show up, often unannounced.
And then there’s the National Library of Australia – a familiar national cultural institution that resonates in different ways for people, depending on how long you’ve spent inside.
Pope’s depiction – inspired by the Tintin cover artwork style of Belgian illustrator Hergé – of the distinctive interior reading room includes a blue Tardis, signifying the dizzying time-and-space warp of having access to so many stories under one roof.
“Not everyone’s going to have that connection with every image,” he says.
“I don’t know how many people have spent any time going into the reading room of the National Library … but it’s an interesting space, and plenty of people spent a bit of time in there.
“So rather than looking at it from the outside, as part of the landscape vista of the triangle, that’s one that’s hoping to connect with people who’ve actually used that space inside.”
The first three illustrations of Pope’s Canberra – The Centenary Collection are available to purchase as framed or unframed museum-quality prints at store.canberratimes.com.au
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