Here’s a body of work I made in the 1990s as a student.
Untitled I from the series, “TV you get what you pay for”
Untitled II from the series, “TV you get what you pay for”
Untitled III from the series, “TV you get what you pay for”
Untitled IV from the series, “TV you get what you pay for”
Untitled V from the series, “TV you get what you pay for”
Untitled VI from the series, “TV you get what you pay for”
Untitled VII from the series, “TV you get what you pay for”
Untitled VIII from the series, “TV you get what you pay for”
Untitled IX from the series, “TV you get what you pay for”
Untitled X from the series, “TV you get what you pay for”
Untitled XI from the series, “TV you get what you pay for”
Untitled XII from the series, “TV you get what you pay for”
Untitled XIII from the series, “TV you get what you pay for”
Untitled XVI from the series, “TV you get what you pay for”
Untitled XVII from the series, “TV you get what you pay for”
Untitled XVIII from the series, “TV you get what you pay for”
Untitled XIX from the series, “TV you get what you pay for”
Untitled XX from the series, “TV you get what you pay for”
XXI from the series, “TV you get what you pay for”
XXII from the series, “TV you get what you pay for”
XXIII from the series, “TV you get what you pay for”
XXIV from the series, “TV you get what you pay for”
XXV from the series, “TV you get what you pay for”
XXVI from the series, “TV you get what you pay for”
XXVII from the series, “TV you get what you pay for”
XXVIII from the series, “TV you get what you pay for”
XXIX from the series, “TV you get what you pay for”
XXX from the series, “TV you get what you pay for”
XXXI from the series, “TV you get what you pay for”
XXXII from the series, “TV you get what you pay for”
XXXIII from the series, “TV you get what you pay for”
I utilised the in-house Video editing suite at University with a camera and a tripod. I had already taken some prerecorded free to air TV. I then chose still images that piqued my interest. They are loosely organised here to form a narrative.
What frightens me is that some images could have easily been taken from last nights news.
The irony of using modern screens to share some thoughts on the then contemporary medium of free to air TV isn’t wasted on me.
Television and I have a long complicated relationship.
We were only able to afford black and white televisons as I grew up. By the time I had moved out I still couldn’t justify the cost of a new colour TV so bought second hand ones for many years. By the time I was in a ‘commited relationship’ we aquired a discarded colour TV. Eventually at some point after, we bought a small colour TV.
In the interim however, for many years I was either too busy or studying to really engage in any serious TV watching. Often it was the late night rock and roll video show called Rage on the ABC that garnered the most attention from me.
At some point while studying my undergraduate degree, I decide to record some programming then take into the Video editing suites to take stills from it. Late one night I stumbled upon a film starring Tom Waits, called Big Time as well. It was a TV adaption of a live performance based on the album of the same name. Those pictures have been in my archive relativley unseen. Now that I have a scanner I can share them with the world.
Here’s a screengrab of them loosely organised in Neofinder. At some point I will sequence them and either publish them as a Zine or just make a gallery online.
screengrab of the TV stills I made in the late 1990s using film a tripod and a video editing suite
Now of course screens dominate my life. I often sit watching the things that interest me on free to air TV, while using at least 1 or 2 devices to do other things while the ads are on.
In my early years of studying photography this kind of image would not have been considered. The success for me about this image is the mixed lighting sources firstly. Secondly the brief moment where the woman is glancing down on the CRT TV. These things combined with the kind of meta reference of the shadow of the tree outside. As an indexical marker a nice reminder of the light outside.
