Late Photographer’s Camera Gear Stolen from Family Home
Camera gear belonging to a renowned wilderness photographer, who passed away in 1996, was stolen from his family’s home.
A camera and lens used by famed Australian wilderness photographer Peter Dombrovskis in his early work were reported stolen from his family home in Tasmania, Australia over the holidays.
According to a report by ABC News Australia, the late photographer’s Rolleiflex SL66 camera was taken.
A Carl Zeiss Distagon lens 50mm f/4 as well as a Zeiss 80mm and a Zeiss 150mm that belonged to Dombrovskis were also robbed.
The family also believes the thieves may have stolen a side bracket handle, polariser filter, remote release, and film loaders.
The burglary took place sometime between December 23 and New Year’s Day.
Tasmanian photographer Nick Monk posted photos on Facebook of the late photographer’s stolen camera equipment and asked the public for help in safely returning the gear to a police station.
“Unfortunately one of those items was a camera (and lenses) that Peter used in the earlier days to take photographs for his calendars,” Monk writes in a Facebook post.
“It is not the camera he used for the majority of his later work, but it is still of great sentimental value to his family, and I would suggest of similar value to the photographic and wider Tasmanian community.”
Monk says it’s unlikely that the thieves knew that the camera and gear are “a significant piece of Tasmanian history.”
In a statement, Tasmania Police says it is “investigating a series of significant home and shed burglaries over the Christmas period in the South Hobart, Fern Tree, and Dynnyrne areas”.
“Property stolen from these burglaries includes jewelry, musical instruments and sound equipment, laptops, chainsaws and tools, and photography equipment.”
Anyone in Australia with information is asked to contact police on 131 444. Information can also be provided anonymously to Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or at crimestopperstas.com.au.
The Photographic Legacy of Peter Dombrovskis
Dombrovskis was an Australian photographer celebrated for his stunning landscape images, particularly of the Tasmanian wilderness.
His work played a pivotal role in environmental conservation, with his evocative photographs raising awareness about the need to protect Tasmania’s natural beauty.
Dombrovskis’ photograph Morning Mist, Rock Island Bend became iconic in the successful campaign to stop Tasmania’s Franklin River from being dammed for a hydroelectric scheme in the early 1980s.
Dombrovskis died in 1996. Seven years later, in 2003, he was posthumously inducted into the International Photography Hall of Fame — becoming the first Australian photographer to achieve that honor. The National Library of Australia holds an extensive collection of his photographs.
Veteran conservationist and author Geoff Law describes Dombrovskis to ABC News Australia as “Tasmania’s greatest-ever wilderness photographer.”
Law says that Dombrovskis’s family must likely feel deeply violated by the burglary, especially due to the loss of the photographer’s valuable, decades-old equipment.
“It would be an enormous sense of violation that Peter Dombrovskis’s family would be experiencing at the moment,” Law says.
“Not only to have had the burglary but also to have lost such crucial pieces of equipment which go back many, many decades.”
Image credits: Header photo by BastienM/ Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.
