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WILDERNESS photographer Peter Dombrovskis’ work is being celebrated in a new book, Journeys into the Wild.

Dombrovskis’ photographs, in print for the first time in more than a decade, are introduced by conservationist and former Australian Greens leader Bob Brown, whose friendship with Dombrovskis spanned about 20 years.

Dr Brown described his friend, who died in 1996, as a “beautiful soul”, and said he was honoured to write the text to accompany Dombrovskis’ much-loved images.

“His photography is ... not beaten by any other photography of the wilds,” he said, calling Dombrovskis “an extraordinary depicter of the wilds of one of the most beautiful places on Earth”.

Dr Brown said Dombrovskis’ work had inspired many to save parts of Tasmania’s wilderness.

“Whether you’re looking at the Douglas Apsley, or the Walls of Jerusalem, or the Franklin River, or indeed Mt Wellington, so many places Peter went have then or since been saved, and his photographs were a vital ingredient,” he said.

Wilderness photographer Rob Blakers said Dombrovskis was a photographer “ahead of his time”.

“Peter was among the first to use a large-format view camera for colour landscape photography in Australia,” he said.

Journeys into the Wild: The Photography of Peter Dombrovskis is published by the National Library of Australia. An exhibition of Dombrovskis’ photographs, Magic Land, to coincide with the launch of the book, continues at Hobart’s Wild Island gallery until September 30.