Earth / Arts

Traces Chris Bell

As Chris Bell has shifted his focus to the small and often ephemeral, he has increasingly made abstract art. His seemingly simple pictures hold our gaze. They draw us back to look again.

Tim Bonyhady
An image with pink and mauve tones of a pothole and grinder stones.

About the project

TRACES is celebrated Tasmanian photographer Chris Bell’s sixth book. OUTSIDE THE BOX / Earth Arts Rights has partnered with Chris to publish and distribute TRACES under our imprint ‘An Artist’s Own Book’.

A passionate naturalist, Chris has been photographing wild places and wild things for over 40 years. Born in Singleton, New South Wales, he moved to Tasmania in 1972 to join the campaign to save Lake Pedder. He is a deeply committed conservationist and was a founding member of both The Wilderness Society and the Tasmanian National Parks Association.

He has had five books published of his photography and writing: A Time to Care: Tasmania’s Endangered Wilderness (1980); Beyond The Reach: Cradle Mountain–Lake St Clair National Park (1990); The Noblest Stone: Carnarvon National Park (1995); Primal Places – Tasmania (2002) and The Tarkine (2012). Chris has previously worked largely with a Linhof Technikardan 4×5 camera and now also uses more modern digital systems.

A white-framed print of assorted delicate pink- and blue-toned water rushes and reeds and their reflections.
An image of bright orange lichen and white mineral salt stains on rock.
A close up image of a sand beach with an underground stream terminus creating highly patterned impressions in the sand.

Exhibition Prints
SPECIAL OFFER

A suite of 38 of Chris’s works was recently exhibited in TRACES : Chris Bell at the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston from 20 September 2025 – 15 February 2026. Officially opened by Bob Brown and enjoyed by thousands of visitors to the gallery over the last six months, this exceptional collection of framed works from the exhibition is now offered for sale.

Printed to exacting archival standards each work is signed by the artist, framed and protected with anti-reflective Art Glass AR 70, ensuring enhanced clarity and UV protection against fading. The provenance of each work is certified with a customised label on the reverse of the frame. Each framed print also comes with a free copy of TRACES : The Photography of Chris Bell.

A black and white portrait photograph of Chris Bell with his large format Linhof Technikardan 4x5 camera.

Buy
EXHIBITION PRINTS

Enquire

Publication

Together with a selection of approximately 50 of Chris’s finest images, TRACES features an essay by Emeritus Professor Tim Bonyhady, one of Australia’s foremost environmental lawyers and cultural historians. Chris also writes a short and powerful reflection on his love of the natural world and describes the very first moment when, as a boy standing in the plunging gorges of Kanangra Walls in New South Wales, he was mesmerised by ‘hazy-blue space and dizzying cliffs’ and despite having no words at the time he records that ‘those impressions would forever remain with me.’

This short-run, large format (282mm × 320mm [landscape]), bespoke publication is hard case cloth bound with 116 pages printed full-colour on a fully certified FSC coated paper stock. Profits from the book will support protection of Tasmania’s wild and endangered environments.

Buy
TRACES

Shop

Image of a double page spread from the book featuring a photograph with pink and mauve tones of a pothole and grinder stones. Overlapping the open book is an image of the front cover of a large format book with a black cloth bound hard case with the title TRACES in black debossed foil and the subtitle The Photography of Chris Bell in silver foil. There is also a debossed inlay image of fine pin rushes emerging from the water of a tarn.
Images by Chris Bell