Early abstract experiments in digital photogrpahy 15th of August 2000
When I first started using digital cameras I was fortunate to have been given a then high end amateur type camera. Even at $2000.00 or so dollars it was far too “automatic” for my liking. As a consequence I enjoyed trying to subvert these controls and make pictures that hinted at a photograph but could have been anything at all.
This is one example of my success in achieving this. I made this picture at home on the 15th of August 2000. Twenty years ago today.
I am involved in yet another online exhibition. This time with the Friends of Photography Group. This is their 3rd exhibition asking ‘members’ to submit an image made or printed during the Covid restrictions. I submitted a print I made on Ilford Multigrade Fibre Based paper, scanned. I made 2 versions and toned one in sepia and the other in selenium, this is the sepia version.
Here is my ‘statement’ for the image.
Back in 1989, I listened to one of my lecturers talk about his relationship to the landscape and in particular She Oak trees. That notion has stayed with me ever since. This print is a result of this exchange. I continue to photograph these trees as I encounter them. Given that many councils are regenerating their open spaces the significance of these trees is important.
This site explores an exhibition on the history of the printing of pictures held at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, in 2008-09. This exhibition and the book that it accompanied traced the dominant technologies used for printing pictures throughout the modern era. Richard Benson, who wrote the book and co-curated the exhibition, was videotaped for approximately eight hours in the Museum galleries. This site gives access to that entire talk with additional images and details, allowing visitors to the site to draw their own path through its contents.
In the vein of resurrecting older technologies to circumvent, GAFA, [Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon]. I’m adding this blog to blog lovin’. Follow my blog with Bloglovin or use an RSS newsfeeder
If you are like myself and many other creatives who use and rely on software to get the job done. You may well be sick of Adobe’s new licensing model? I have always been a proponent of alternatives to the mainstream and prior to 2002, there were several much better software programs out there that left Photoshop in the dirt. Fast forward now to the next century and somehow Adobe has become the Microsoft of the creative industries.
the editing panel of Luminar 4
Have no fear there ARE alternatives. One such player is Skylum software’s Luminar 4. I have been paying for this software for a couple of years now and when version 4 arrived with DAM built-in I was ecstatic. Luminar 4 has several features that beat the pants off Lightroom. These features are great if you are a novice digital photographer and want to get up to speed using software to enhance your raw files. At about $90.00 AU it’s a steal for the current version. [If you click through on this link it helps me with discounts moving forward].
the processing screen show the before and after preview
I won’t repeat what has been written other than to say the fact that I do not need to import images into the software to work means a lot. I expect version 5 of Luminar to knock Lightroom off its perch. Currently I use the two packages side by side, and given my approach to software generally, I should give the AI features in Luminar more of a go.
The info tab of the interface
Other features that both Lightroom and Luminar have that are useful are the option to review/preview edits. Luminar’s online help looks more succinct and direct than Adobe’s I feel too.
Gary over at Thoughtfactory is now writing a newsletter. Like so many he is distancing himself from the devils bargain that is “free” Facebook gmail and so on. I totally support this move back to the pre facebook era. A time when blogs and blogging held sway. At absolutely no cost to the reader.
Encourage him and others like him so we can reclaim the web.
Here’s a little list of newsletters I subscribe too.
Suzanne Phoenix is a Melbourne Based Photographer Photobook maker and Artist.
FoPG The Friends of Photography Group (FoPG) is a film photography group based in Melbourne, Australia. Membership is free and you are emailed events and exhibitions.
screengrab from the exhibtion organsied by Gary Sauer-Thompson
The response to the pandemic in the arts industry has been overwhelmingly positive. SALA is running its entire festival through artists websites this year. I have been very fortunate in that Gary Sauer-Thompson via his studio in Encounter Bay invited me to exhibit with an idea that explored the pandemic. The online exhibition is entitled, ‘Walking/Photography’, its premise is simple:-
“The exhibition explores the interrelationships between these two modes of being-in-the-world. The ethos is to go for a walk in your local area, where you can find what you don’t know you are looking for. It is a step into the photographic unknown that uncovers the forgotten or buried history of the area.”
The ‘exhibtion’ opens on the 1st of August and runs until the 30th of September.
A fog shrouded bike path with signs indicating flooding, I walked here on Friday to exploit the uncommon weather.
As part of my ongoing pc3020 project, I left the house early enough to spend some quality time along my favourite walking path. I walked for nearly 2 hours along the Kororoit creek path. The sights and sounds were eerie. I passed several walkers a jogger and a bicyclist. I even managed to notice some new features of land abutting the track. This I found surprising as I have walked here regularly since moving to Sunshine in 2000.
In what now feels like an eternity, but was only 11 years ago; I created a website called altfotonet.org. It was going to be a publication of photography from creatives/artists/ideologues/ratbags/visionaries. I published 3 issues along with Gary Sauer-Thompson. Somewhere along the line it all became too much for me and the idea lay idle, the web site remaining static. In the intervening 11 years the ground has shifted drastically. So much so that even after recently having revived the website I am unsure if I should continue publishing? I originally published 3 issues.
The site was meant to showcase work that fell outside the mainstream art world and was not commercial photography either. I’m not sure what possesed me to undertake such an endeavour? As Facebook was launched in 2004, and it must have taken a few years for it to reach critical mass here in Australia. Facebook has famously sucked the life out of many other online communities; flickr in particular. So I ploughed on regardless. The truth is I was very fortunate to have been donated some server space and the ideas driving the idea were all very egalitarian at the time. I was hoping to make something that was useful and new.
Now I have a new appreciation of what it takes to publish a magazine. I have also learned lots about photobook publishing. The world both in real life and online, is completely different now compared to 2009.
With all this in mind I have archived the old site and started a new one. Using a WordPress installation I will write at length about the ideas and concepts that drive my picture making and some of my underlying concerns. With occasional guest writers artist and photographers.
