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The first day of spring sees, me about to start another project. Probably not a good idea given the light a the moment, and the increased likelyhood of the weather getting even better, oh and not to mention the slowly lengthening days.
A friend of mine, has released a Cd and it's been reviewed in Beat Magazine
While I haven't ever heard Radiant City play I'm sure that the CD is more than excellent as Andrew Mc, is an erstwhile and passionate guy, with a gift for many things both photographic and musical.
Another Meme has popped up on flickr, is it, however; a separate meme or part of the geo-tagging meme?
![web map meme [nothing to see here]](http://static.flickr.com/85/231336384_fa6b9cf356.jpg)
At the September Flickr meet, I whipped out my 5 x 4 camera and some old Polaroid film I'd had lying around since 1996. Quite pleased with the results, bit disappointed that I managed to somehow break the Polaroid back. Still I think this is my favourite as it has the surfaces and edges of a true Polaroid. And the looks and interactions of the folks involved is priceless.
For the record, we have from left to right, Melbourne's 3 most notorious flickrnauts:- Scootie, Los Cardinarlos, and Kerryn. Thanks to you guys and thanks to the other flickrnauts who volunteered to have their portraits taken by me, it was a truly special moment, look at my sets in my flickr stream and see how many are 'portraits, you'll see why. [fwiw, 100 portraits oout of nearly 3000 photos?]
Despite all this I wanna do it again. Any more volunteers?
The first of many.
So here we are on a lazy drunken Sunday Arvo, and it seems that using my powerful little blog editor called MarsEdit, has some level of responsibilities. It seems that I need to by default turn on commenting in Mars Edit, which I have now done but, the last couple of entries have this disabled, and being the less than quick geek that I am I don't seem to be able to turn it on on older posts. So if you want to comment on the last couple, and I know both of you are just dying to do so, feel free to do it here.
Meanwhile I'm scanning and tweaking.
Thanks as always to Andrew for the heads up
A new set, from the Hasselblad, and North Carlton's lanes.
So Schmaps an online travel directory service has used some of my images for their travel guide of Melbourne.
I have mixed feelings about this, but I put my images online with a licence that permitted it, so I guess I'll have to wear it?
For either of you who care, I've linked to the the images they used on their download-able guide below, I'm on a Mac as you both know and the download-able guide won't be ready for some time so I can't link to them in any way on the Schmap site, or even see how they look embedded in the publication.
Interior of the Hotel Lindrum, Williamstown overlooking the CBD, Museum of Victoria, Williamstown football oval, from the air, My front porch of all places!
A continuing series, of glimpses of my Polaroid project as it gets uploaded.
I am over halfway now in the scanning and processing, thankfully Photoshop™ has a nice set of features allowing a level of automation that alleviates the drudgery of resizing and converting file formats.
I've not a lot to say at the moment, here's another Polaroid image from the roid rage project
This quote has long fascinated me, don't get me wrong though, I am no musician by any stretch of the imagination, one day I'll learn a musical instrument I guess? But it, the quote, often makes me wonder about my own photography and music, not to mention photography generally.
Everyone can 'listen' to a song, but how many really 'hear' it. Many people can play musical instruments, sing, but how many can write a song, a good one I mean. One that captures people's imaginations, the public consciousness, sticks in history as a memorable moment time or place?
The same applies I feel to photography, even more so now that digital has become so pervasive.
What makes a song or piece of music special?
What makes a photograph special then? How does one create an image that resonates at as many levels as possible, is there even a formula? Does it all matter in the end? Is there a connection between the two music and photography?
Does this image make any sound/s?
Currently showing at the MGA, is The Inaugural William & Winifred Bowness Photography Prize. I recently visited with this show with a group of photography students from work, a fine cross section of the current state of photographic art in Australia at the moment.
For once I was caught out and didn't have either a pen OR a notebook with me, thankfully I managed to scrounge up a piece of paper and a pen from a student, thanks Kirstie. I scratched a few thoughts down on the piece of paper, and if you were thinking of visiting this photography exhibition perhaps my observations maybe of some interest to both of you?
Firstly the notes or more to the point the 'words' I scribbled down in no particular order.
Unanswered questions:-
all the images had a plaque, describing the artist's intentions, some using as much as two A4 sheets other using barely a line. Many though pose questions that they either refused to answer or were unable to answer leaving me wondering if the work was an investigation or a rhetorical question.
Size:-
85% of the work was huge, the rest large, bar one piece, a beautiful set of polaroids taken using a special macro/medical camera. Why does contemporary art need to be so fucking large?
Metallic paper:-
There several images that were printed on this paper, most of which worked well, again though I don't understand this choice, after all it is hard and smooth and cold, not attributes I would want accredited to my work.
POMO death of magic:-
Postmodernism has to my mind been a too intellectual for it's own good, much of today's art has all sorts of ideas attached to it, once you get the idea what is left?
Craft:-
call me old fashioned but whilst craft should be invisible, bad craft should be as invisible.
Art History:-
Several pieces had art history references, so if you had no knowledge of art history then, you would not understand the pieces at all see my last point about POMO and magic.
Also on at the MGA, generated a whole list of names of Angels, which piqued my interest, the images themselves however were by and large somewhat twee, which surprised me because Mr Santos has a long history in the Melbourne Photography scene, as a Photo-Journalist documentary photographer.
Still a great survey of contemporary photographic art in Australia at the moment and real swimming pool of ideas and approaches.
Recently a fellow Melbourne Flickrnaut regaled a story about a person they had photographed on the street outside Flinders St station, it wasn't a pleasant situation, and she handled it well I feel. Now the incident has made the mainstream press, in article by Terry Lane which then got picked up by the SMH.
All up; a heap of buzz has been generated by it, so to quote Oscar Wilde,
"...there's only one thing worse than being talked about
and that's not being talked about"
Number 002.0945, Comes from Humphrey B. Flaubert, of T.I.S.M
"The answer that makes me sound good is that we desired to circumvent the cult of personality that is inherent in rock music by choosing to remain anonymous. Unlike every other band in rock we chose to be anonymous. The answer that makes me sound good would probably also incorporate some lengthy discussion about Brechtian alienation techniques, about our post modernist grasp of ever cooling universe, and a dehumanizing society encapsulated in the somewhat paramilitary aspect of our clothing. All of those things would make me sound good, but actually we’re really boring guys.
God I love those guys!
Whoever wrote the Wiki entry knows plenty about them too, actually the style of the entry suggests, it is written by one of the band members.
A big thanks to digiboy for the heads-up, good luck in your search for their music, I've stumbled on some rarities in my travels, which you are more than welcome to. It's nice to see someone interested in them and poking around on the net looking for them, I know of at least one mailing list that exists, but whew it was hard work and I have long since moved from mailing lists to news feeds as a source of info.
Flickr never ceases to amaze me in it's depth and surprising spontaneity of imagery.
Florencita, posted this image recently of what I can only assume is a fair ground in Paris, from her Paris series.
The simplicity of this image, as well as the poignancy of it has me searching for adjectives. To see this and make an image of something that seems relatively innocuous is a gift that is to be nurtured and cherished. The photograph reeks of poetry; life; death; and has several classical connotations as well as being firmly planted in it's own contemporary place and time.
Initially we see a white statue of what appears to be a male holding their face in some sort of remorseful pose, white clouds frame the sculpture, a blue sky helps emphasise the framing, in the lower half of the image, there is some buildings or functional architecture, the use and function of which is unclear, within this small building is a window, the window appears to open into another space within the environment itself a somewhat anonymous and empty one, but one that would it seems have some use for human activity. There appears to be kitchen like utensils in there, yet again no human presence other than the utensils exist.
The symbolism of this image and the underlying apparent tensions are what make this image for me, the huge white sculpture turning away from a harsh lonely and empty world, even if it is turning into the light, somehow suggest to me a poignant reflection of the current human condition.
I have a LONG association with Kodak. I have been using Kodak Films for nearly 20 years, in particular their black and white emulsions. This morning I was chasing some information about exposure. What a surprise I got when I hit the site, kodak.com, no immediately apparent link for professional photographers, what the hell is going on?
So here's the link for the pro-photographers buried under a menu at the top of the screen.
Compare this to the Australian site below.
Does this mean that Kodak U.S. no longer has an interest in Professional photographers, or have they simply lowered their level of marketing at them? I have to confess I haven't hit the U.S. Website for some time, so maybe this is not a new thing? Given that most pro's would perhaps semi-regularly check the site maybe it's something they are more than aware of already. But as far as I'm concerned, the Australian site still seems to be intent on making pro-photographers more welcome or at least give them an easy entry point to the site in general.
More from the roid rage project.
I have a del.icio.us account; who doesn't? But I only use it to store personal bookmarks, occasionally I actually visit my account page.Today I did and I noticed that the 'social networking aspect of the interface has expanded, allowing reciprocal account linking
Recently was asked to shoot a commercial job for a friend for the poster he is designing for the BDYFF [Blue Dandenongs Film Youth Film Festival]. It was fun and lightning paced.
This is a rarity for me, as my output is generally more contemplative and ambiguous.
The above shot, one of my favourites, worked out perfectly, a little puff of breeze blew the stuntman's cape just the right amount to make the composition perfect.
Knowing Trav, the finished poster and al round advertising for the Film Festival will no doubt be funny interesting and engaging.
I learnt a little about working in these situations and may even take on more work in the future with this kind of stuff. One of the distinct advantages to digital no doubt.
...again over on the urban-nature blog
Barb from flickr invited me over to jpgmag.com, a site about getting published and making money. Well as far as I can tell form the brief time spent there this morning. Sadly though I have no images to upload as they ask for high rez versions, so maybe in a day or two I'll upload a couple. The site doesn't seem to encourage social interaction, so I'm asking if either of my readers are in there? Given that the Web 2.0 is all about the user/s?
Chris, another, friend from flickr, who has the somewhat unusual distinction of knowing me before flickr, before the world wide web in fact, sends me this uri for hard to get Polaroid films.
Use if for shots like this:-
I am officially on holidays, we have just returned from Apollo Bay for 4 days, we had both been looking forward to this for some time as it's "feels" like it's been 'one of those terms'—for me anyways. Our stay was at Beacon Point, in the Mariners Cottage. Beacon Point is set on a hill overlooking the Southern Ocean with views of Apollo Bay, nestled in native bush-land.
I wondered if there would be any web access, thus proving that I am once and for all truly addicted to flickr - oh dear!
There was none.
Spent the morning cleaning the house and packing ready to go, I tried to squeeze in some last minute flickr action, all I managed to do was upload a handful of images, recent images. The drive up was pleasant, we did however need to stop and buy a set of leads with a 3 1/2 inch jack on one end, so we could run the iPod through the DVD player whilst at the house, glad we did, but mad I managed to forget.
Upon arrival the accommodation is as exactly I had expected, and I was very pleased by that. When we were researching our options on the internet it is easy to get sucked in by the eye candy used to sell these resorts. Even with both our experienced photographer's eyes in looking at images in any medium there is always a niggling doubt in my mind as to what we are seeing. All unfounded as it turned out that the unit on the inside is as spectacular as it looks on the web, and the views are to die for.
With the unit inspected and the tunes drifting out of the stereo attached to the DVD player we relaxed and flipped though our magazines, I also found what I think will be a suitable location for a series of images to be taken over the 4 days and set up a tripod ready to shoot. Over the next two days every two hours or so I jump up and make an image. Day turned to night and we watched Bleak House on DVD, a recent gift for Nik, before an early night.
Breakfast is included in our deal, haven't had croissants since our 2004 trip to Paris. So breakfast was a no-brainer. Some tough decisions though were needed to be made today. Do we stay put and relax read and eat, or do we head out and wander along a local beach or have a coffee in Apollo Bay proper?
Staying put won out, the weather isn't quite warm enough to sit outside, but it is by no means terrible either and with the awesome views out the huge double sliding glass doors it feels like we are outside anyways.
An uneventful day really, reading napping, a bbq lunch, and a short stroll around the resort, all mount up to more relaxing. One or two mobile phones calls were the highlights of the morning, [hi Mitch] after which both phones were both promptly turned off.
I brought a pile of books and magazines to read, so far the magazines were the only ones to see the light of day. We had a splurge at Magnation before we left, I spent $65.00 on magazines! This got me four in total, although one did have an extra magazine inside it.
A literary reviewer I am not, but I will say I am enjoying my copy Frankie, issue #13, the best article I felt was the one that dealt with Australian Television. Is the mainstream realising that today's 20 somethings [and many others] are bored with the one-way diatribe that is TV? Websites like Youtube and Google video are far more engaging and once you work out how to find the content great fun. It also has a small photo essay, “ Saturdays Around The World” that is not bad but, I reckon they could do better especially if they used flickr as a resource for finding images. The idea itself worked, it's just that the images seemed a little insipid.
The next magazine to be devoured was iCreate, a very expensive magazine from the UK. It describes itself as the creative magazine for Mac users. It has news tutorials and a bonus CD attached. As with all these kinds of magazines, the tutorials can be a little hit and miss, but the mag is well laid out and and the tips were enough to get me thinking about some ideas I'd been tinkering with in Indesign, they actually had a tutorial on pages, the drag and drop template driven equivalent page layout tool by Apple, which I might add is quite powerful. The magazine also openly promotes it's forums, something I will investigate myself no doubt—soon.
'T' The Journal of T-Shirt Culture Issue #1 is magazine number 3 I perused, so far looking like thinly veiled advertising but the eye candy is great and I'm always on the lookout for good T-Shirts. The last Magazine remains unopened by today. But when I get around to it I'm sure Pol-Oxygen won't be a let down, this had a bonus little magazine, O2+, describes itself as 208 Pages of Inspiring Designs, which I read as blatant advertising—in hindsight.
The day ended with a quaint Disney movie, on Austar, an hour or two of solitaire and finally a session of more Bleak House
Nothing beats a home cooked hot breakfast, eggs on toast, hash-browns, sausages, bacon tomato and baby spinach, fruit-juice, tea or coffee.
Again time for that tough decision, oh wait is that rain…?
Most days we had some nice visitors too. A family of Magpies, some Parrots or Lorikeets, and some large difficult to identify black birds, ornithologist I ain't either.
After the rain stopped, we decided to head into town itself, for lunch, fish and chips of course. Not much loitering there though as neither of us are into chintzy tacky souvenirs, and while the beach itself is nice I find the rockier parts of the coast more interesting to wander along. On the return home being the sticky beaks we are we made a neat discovery of a partially demolished house site. This meant that I actually pulled out the Hasselblad, and shot 2 and a half rolls of film on the one spot.
The constantly changing light otherwise only served to slow me down, till eventually the clouds came over. The remainder of the day was spent in front of the box watching the rest of Bleak House and some other bits 'n bobs on Austar.
The unfolding spectacular weather pattern ocurring outside, was almost better than TV itself.
Checkout day.
Slept-in had a lazy breakfast and packed up and headed home. I also re-jigged the playlist for the drive home.
…some ideas just aren't as good as they first seemed?
Was it my small camera's inability to really capture all the detail I wanted? Was it the moved tripod? I will sit on this one for a few days, we'll see…
Edit, here's all 34 shots
I have had an image used over on abbotsfordblog.com, one buried deep in my stream and like so many in 2005 hardly viewed or posted to many groups, thanks to trapped in a suit it gets to see the light of day.
Looking over my left shoulder as I sit in my study at home, this is the image I see…
I remember when I was at Uni, one of my peers claimed he could never make an image unless in a foreign or exotic place, bah humbug I say. I can't walk 10 metres some days without being bowled over by the visual cacophony that is around me. This image proves my point.
I hope.
I have had some interest in a open prac day using the labs at PIC to allow former attendees of my workshops. So now that the year is winding down I guess I better get off my backside and do something about it.
The idea:-
Open access to a Lab of Macs with Photoshop CS on them, access to a scanner, and a printer. I then drift around the room and help people when available.
Times/Costs:-
10:00am to 4:00pm, $50.00 per head, minimum of 6 attendees. Colour film processing [35mm and 120] $3 plus the Prac fee. Cash on the day.
Date
Saturday October 21 or Saturday October 28 2006.
E-mail me with your interest, I am prepared to accept Flickr contacts as well in this endeavour.
I will probably squeeze in one or two more workshops between now and December as well more info on my website.
As I approach my second anniversary of flickr addiction I am now in a position to revisit my flickr archives and post some images here. Surprisingly image making around these parts has ground to a halt, not counting the 4 rolls of unprocessed film sitting here on my desk, and several other projects tucked away on my hard drive [that I feel have questionable merit]. I also still have 2 other online projects on the back burner and a 3rd slowly bubbling away, and I haven't organised my solo show for 2007 yet.
This image made on a photo stroll with ziz and AhlzMeh, was one of my such experiences, which ended up with us drinking free beer at an opening we stumbled upon down at the VCA. This image alone has had the power to evoke so many more thoughts and memories than I'm prepared to share, but it is for me a powerful reminder why photography is such an evocative and suggestive tool.
This is one of the projects I want to contribute to.
Discarded Object Poster Project
Have you ever seen a single shoe in the gutter, a beanie on the road,or a glove on the tram, and thought about whom the object may have belonged to, and how it got lost?
Embedded within the creases and stains of these objects is a human history that speaks of usage and ownership.
Discarded Object Poster Project involves photographing lost objects and making the images into posters that will be posted around the CBD. The shift in context of the object, especially in contrast to the expected advertising image, will reflect it as a trace of a person the remnant of an action or routine.
A map outlining the posters locations will be produced and launched at Bus Passenger Studio Space in early November. The map will help access the work and create a permanent record of the posters.
Discarded Object Poster Project invites you to submit an image of a discarded object, which will then be made into a poster. Next time you see a shoe/glove/sock (anything!) simply photograph it and send it to discardedobject at hotmail dot com (as a jpeg image, 300dpi or higher if possible) including the location of where it was found.
Thankyou for considering being part of this project!
This project is supported by CLUBSproject and Bus Gallery.
This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australian Council, its arts funding and advisory body.
Here is the first image I submitted.
Peter Marshall over on about.com, had this to say about Robert Adams, one of my heroes and recent award winner, of the prestigious, Deutsche Börse Photography Prize
Adams pictures in some ways buck recent trends both in art and photography. They are relatively small and finely made prints, and in black and white. Shot of course on film. Of the four sets of work, his was the most traditionally photographic, and the kind of work that any new photographer would find most difficult to get accepted by the galleries today, neither commercial nor fashionable. It's good to see it recognised.
Now how to use this to get my solo show exhibited, in 2007?
The article also introduced me to this body of work, taken over a time frame of 5 years by Alec Soth. An eclectic and interesting series of images, with heavy religious undertones, a subtle reference to sleeping and some connections to some of the areas in and around the Mississippi river.
This page contains all entries posted to musings from the photographic memepool [the shallow end] in September 2006. They are listed from oldest to newest.
August 2006 is the previous archive.
October 2006 is the next archive.
Many more can be found on the main index page or by looking through the archives.
