RURAL LIFE THROUGH THEIR EYES
WHAT began as a school project has morphed into a heartfelt book for Tate Luckensmeyer.
‘Through Our Eyes’ is the final product of what started as her 2020 HSC major work and is made up of the stories of nine farmers in the Central West, utilising her skill with watercolours to illustrate the short stories.
Tate told Dubbo Photo News that what was originally intended for educational purposes has now grown into a glimpse of the hope held by Australian people during terrible trials.
Tell us a bit about yourself:
I was born in Dubbo and have lived here my whole life; my parents were both born in the United States and moved to Australia separately before they met. I went to Dubbo Christian School from K-12 and graduated in 2020. I’m looking to be a freelance illustrator in the future after doing a Bachelor of Visual Communication Design.
Where do you live?
I live on a 25 acre block out of town – not a farm, but my great grandparents were some of the ‘cotton pioneers of Australia’. They moved from the US in the 1960s to farm cotton in Wee Waa. My dad also moved from the States at a young age and then grew up on one of those cotton farms. So I have a big appreciation for farmers and all the amazing work that goes into every crop.
How did you view the recent longterm drought from a teenager’s perspective?
While I wasn’t directly affected, things changed for us on our little property. Things like super short showers and not as many loads of washing were things that we did for a long time. Even then, we were very well off. The biggest indicator of the drought for me was the dust. I just remember it being everywhere, all the time.
When I started researching the drought for this project, I fully realised how hard it was for people on the land.
What was the creative process behind coming up with an idea for your HSC major work and when did that project morph into a book?
I chose to do Design and Technology because I knew I wanted to build something, but when we got to the major work, I played around with several other ideas that just didn’t stick.
My idea for a book started as a children’s picture book about endangered species of animals. I wanted to combine my growing love for watercolour painting with an important global (or national) issue. I was reading kids’ books in the school library and Jackie French’s book ‘Drought’ stuck with me. Bruce Whatley’s illustrations in that book sealed the deal for me. He is a huge inspiration to me as an artist and I love his work with Jackie French. I wanted to create something with a similar message of hope through adversity.
I then started researching the drought and found a news article made up of farmers’ experiences of the drought. And that’s when I decided to combine illustrations with farmers’ stories.
Having so much family out of the country was also a contributing factor – I was able to centre my target market around people who had no real understanding of the drought in Australia.
Most of the planning was done during the COVID lockdown.
How did you go about getting it published – talk us through that process?
I actually never intended to publish this book, I thought I’d just submit it for assessment and be on with life but people I showed it to prior to submitting it encouraged me to take it further.
I used an online publishing company called Blurb – they make lovely high quality photo books among other things, and I was really happy with the end result.
What I’ve published recently is the same book I submitted as my HSC major work, with a few minor changes.
What sort of reaction have you had?
I actually got a Band 6 which was a huge encouragement to me as well.
I’ve had a large amount of people interested in pre-ordering copies of their own. I think people value the real-life experiences that these farmers have shared, and the presentation of both the low and high points of the drought.
What did the people in the book think about it?
The people in the book are actually all friends of family, and people I’ve known for most of my life. It was great to be able to acknowledge them, and their experiences.
Everyone was so helpful and wrote some really amazing pieces for me.
I was also so honoured that the local Little Big Dairy were happy to take part in it and share a little bit of their experience of the drought.
How important do you believe it is, in this age of 10-second social media concentration spans, to be able to get these sorts of important messages out into the public arena in such an easy and simple-to-read way?
I think it’s so important! I think we can get so caught up in the fast-paced, quickly changing nature of social media that it’s hard to catch a break.
I wanted to curate something that represented the drought and the people in it, in a way that could be read with intention – truly valuing the people that contributed to this project as well as the many others that experienced the worst parts of the drought.
I really love how books can capture a glimpse into a certain period of time – and I’m so grateful that others have seen the value of that as well.
It has been a true honour to work alongside these farmers.
The book has been printed in very limited numbers. If anyone is interested in purchasing a copy, you can go to Tate’s website: