Interview with Byron Writers Festival
Award-winning filmmaker, directors and photography team, Catherine Marciniak and Stephen Axford have combined their expertise in art, science, and storytelling through their film Follow the Rain and are co-authors of a new book, Planet Fungi: A Photographer’s Foray.
Axford gained international recognition when his pioneering time-lapse photography of fungi appeared in Sir David Attenborough’s BBC documentary series Planet Earth II. His footage of luminous mushrooms, such as Mycena chlorophos, and the rapid growth of complex forest fungi was among the first of its kind featured in an Attenborough series.
The sense of wonder at his discoveries inspired Axford to explore the mysteries both on and beneath the forest floor.
“I’ll take a photograph of a mushroom, and in the process I’ll see 10 others, which I hadn’t seen before, because they’re partly hidden, or because they’re so tiny, but you see all sorts of things – the interactions.”
“It’s a kingdom of life (the highest biological classification), so the many roles they play are quite varied,” Marciniak said.
“Without them, forests wouldn’t exist, most ecosystems wouldn’t exist, our food wouldn’t exist, and we wouldn’t exist.
“Also, a lot of our medicines already use fungi, such as statins, penicillin, transplant rejection drugs, and many others, including new drugs to fight penicillin resistance.”
The authors also investigate little-known microscopic fungi.
“We wouldn’t have chocolate, or beer, or bread, so it’s pretty important,” Axford said.
“It plays a critical role in capturing carbon and storing it in the ecosystem. In some forests, up to 60 per cent of carbon capture occurs in the mycelium (the vegetative, root-like part of fungi) in the soil.”
Their exploration of fungi also precipitated a love story. For Axford, his initial interest had helped him cope with profound grief.
“Soon after 2000, my wife died of breast cancer, and I got a life-threatening illness myself,” he said.
“I started wandering off into the bush with a little camera and one day I photographed a purple mushroom. I’d never seen such a good specimen before, and I was so taken that I started looking for more and was stunned by the almost infinite variety. And so I got in contact with mycologists.
“Fortunately, I was taking some good photographs, so they were attracted to the images. Then, I met Catherine.”
Marciniak characterises the couple as a fungi love story.
“I was working at the ABC and Steve had put his photographs up on the internet, so we organised a meeting about a project, and edited an audio slideshow together.
“We clicked and started dating and creating at the same time. So, that’s been the journey of our relationship, really, love and creativity.
“We’re very grateful that we found each other, but we’re also very grateful that fungi found us.”
Stephen Axford and Catherine Marciniak will appear at the Byron Writers Festival from 14 to 16 August. For more information, visit www.byronwritersfestival.com.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
