On the road with Sophie Matterson
When I got the call from Australian Geographic to track down Sophie Matterson and...
Meeting Stoney up at his shack at Blanche Harbour was meant to be. Over the past year we’ve spent nights around the fire spinning yarns of days gone by. Some of the things Peter Stone used to get up to in this day and age would be classified as terrorist in nature and yet the wild men of the old country went about their business.
The shack features a purpose built man cave cellar complete with micro outback scenes created with led lighting, the complexity of which would rival some landscape paintings. This space is where Stoney spends the majority of his time crafting his memoirs. Page by page the stories grow assisted by multiple phone calls to ‘bushies’ from another era to help with specific details and dates.
Stoneys shed is full yet surprising tidy and organized. For an environmental portrait I was really looking for items or a single specific item which held paramount importance.
One of the techniques for portraits I picked up from the Because of Her I Can portraits came in handy with the portraits.
I asked Stoney if his shed burnt down tonight which item he’d run to save. Instantly he turned and retrieved a .22 hunting rifle which he purchased at the age of 15 from his first job and a handmade hunting knife, crafted for him from a dear friend.