Provenance
Painters, Printers, Sculptors, Photographers, Sound Engineers and Poets ... we can often become familiar with artists' work but not the indivuals themselves.
With Provenance I wanted to create portraits of artists behind the art. I chose to present them decontextualised from their art practice so as not to influence or distract you, the viewer, from the presence of the person in front of you.
The portraits were created through a combination of medium format film photography and modern digital techniques. My first major show for 2017 is on now at the Huw Davies Gallery, Manuka Arts Centre until the 10th of September. Thank you to everyone at PhotoAccess who has been fantastic in the preparation for this show.
The Portraits
The Artists (and the Backs of Their Heads)
The Invitation
Shoot: Lisa Richards Live
On a ridiculously hot evening in January I had the pleasure of photographing Lisa Richards at Smith's Alternative in Canberra City. Lisa was promoting her new album A light from the other side and playing songs from her multitude of other, excellent releases. Astute readers will know that I contributed artwork to this album along with a number of other professional media photos.
Lisa was joined on stage by Matt Nightingale on double and electric bass and Jeannette Bradley on banjo and fiddle. It was a lovely intimate performance and well suited to the Smith's Alternative venue.
Lisa's album (and her other releases) are available from her website.
Cell Block 69 - Live at The Basement
The incomparable Cell Block 69 performing live at The Basement - 16th December 2016 ... what a show!
Shoot: Cell Block 69
Cell Block 69 ... 80's synth-pop masters and mainstays of the Canberra and Sydney music scene are once again gearing up for their annual 'Final Show Ever!' series of 2016 gigs. I had the great privilege of photographing their promo shots for this year. Featuring a Delorean (complete with a functioning Flux Capacitor) and the use of my new studio space. There were two basic outfit changes for this shoot... the first was a future-tech white series.
The second, denim, denim and still more denim ... double denim too. There were the studio shots in a Calvin Klein inspired wall shoot.
And the series featuring the Delorean. That car was hot! Literally hot as the polished stainless steel threatened to peel any bare skin laid upon it. Thank you to Callum for loaning his car for the shoot!
I also did a series of individual portraits of the band members.
Some blurb from Moshtix where you can purchase tickets for their end of year shows.
69 is number 1! Let the nine Corey’s of Rock (and to a lesser but not to be undermined extent, synth pop) take you to the year Two Thousand and Nineteen Eighty Sixteen for a performance of hit songs of unfathomable proportion.
Always surfing on the curtails of their latest dazzling Rock (and to a smaller but not to be undermined extent, synth pop) stadium performance extraordinaire, CELL BLOCK 69 return to the recently voted most playable city in the world, Canberry.
Duanne Le Corey-Michaels and his 8 Coreys of Eighties Awesomeness, return direct from generic Europe for their annual "Final Show Ever ". CELL BLOCK 69 are number one and they will show you why.
Read more at http://www.moshtix.com.au/v2/event/cell-block-69/89523#z8B2Mk0ExKBD1Zke.99
Tango!
Tango!
I was fortunate to be given the opportunity to photograph the bi-annual Tango in the Spring event held over last weekend at the Albert Hall. The event, which runs over four days, attracts some of the top Tango dancers from around the country. There are workshops and Practica each day and a Milonga each night. I photographed the main dance (or Milonga) on the Saturday night.
The lighting was very dim and I was shooting at the far end of practical for my camera. This was great for the atmosphere of the dance but it was tricky to photograph in. To give you an idea I was frequently shooting at ISO 10k+ at f/1.6 and f/2.8 and just managing 1/60th of a second exposure. I had to learn how the dancers moved to be able to anticipate where they would be and when. Also, the colour of the lighting (apart from being dim!) was orange and I had some tricky manoeuvring to do in post to pull out something that resembles a white-balanced image ;-)
It was a great night and the dancing was superb!
Links
afterDARK at the Botanic Gardens
afterDARK at the Botanic Gardens (the Australian National Botanic Gardens) is a series of night time walks through the gardens. Participants get to make their own tea-light lanterns and go on educational, guided walks with the rangers. I was commissioned to take some photographs this year of the evening walkers.
Future walks in the afterDARK series are being held on;
Special National Science Week events
Saturday 13 August - Book Now
Saturday 20 August - Book Now
Spring Scavenger Hunt Dates:
Saturday 3 September - Book Now
Saturday 24 September (School Holidays) - Book Now
Saturday 1 October (School Holidays) - Book Now
Saturday 8 October (School Holidays) - Book Now
Saturday 5 November - Book Now
Time: 7.00 pm
Cost: $30 adult | $25 concession
- See more at: http://www.parksaustralia.gov.au/botanic-gardens/do/whats-on.html#sthash.xriLxB4H.dpuf
Rapturous and RAW Artists
Recently did a shoot for Liza Alwast of Rapturous who is putting together a show for RAW Artists here in Canberra. Liza collects and works with fine textiles to create stunning dresses and couture. The show is one component of the TREND show presented at the Belconnen Arts Centre from 6:30pm on Friday 17th June 2016.
The shoot was conducted in a studio setting with Marina modelling. I have created a number composite images (substituting background images et al) to create a more interesting setting. These one's aren't particularly hard to pick ;-)
Thankfully, Liza has provided me with a ticket to the event and of course I'll be taking my camera so stay tuned for more from Rapturous ad Raw Artists :-)
Links
Pigman's Lament
Yesterday morning I shot a series of promotional photographs to support an upcoming production at The Street Theatre. The production is called Pigman's Lament and stars Raoul Craemer in a taxing solo performance. The story revolves around a man who is physically haunted by the memory of his dead grandfather. Raoul, who you may remember from the Beard/No Beard headshot series from earlier in the year, plays both roles.
The brief for the promotional image called for the expression of the duality extant in the central character ... to somehow combine the rational present character with that of the man beyond the grave. I chose to take two shots and merge them together to form this dualistic one ... Raoul's hand reaching from behind his head and contorting his face emphasises the extension of this nasty force from the past. The picture will appear on all promotional materials for the production and I'll post a picture of the poster when it gets printed.
There were, predictably some outtakes too ;-)
The production details
Pigman's Lament - The Street Theatre - Early 2016
- Starring: Raoul Craemer
- Director: Paulo Castro (Stone/Castro - Portuguese National Theatre, Schaubuehne Berlin, Chunky Move)
- Playwright: Raoul Craemer
New Show: Barriers - Break or Breakthrough
I'm very pleased to announce my next show Barriers: Break or Breakthrough opens next Wednesday at the Belconnen Community Center. A collaboration between myself and Marina T, the show explores our different reactions to change. Our working proposal:
Change is a fundamental part of the human experience. Often our difficulty in accepting change can stem from our inability to understand it. Barriers explores the the transitional processes involved in interpreting change.
The exhibition revolves around the centerpiece of a glass-encased clay sculpture of a human skull, which acts as both metaphor and motif of change. Meditations upon the centerpiece take the form of sculptures, and poetry.
The skull, which we have nicknamed Eno was made by Marina, features in each of the photographs. Each of the photos explores a different emotional response to change ... these comprise Anger, Fear, Denial, Delirium, Mourning and Acceptance. Here is a selection of the photographs from our shortlist for the show.
The show also features several poems written especially for the show and a number of new clay sculptures from Marina.
We made a flyer advertising the show too ;-)
Along the way we have also established domain for our working collaborative artistic endeavours 2 Tens & A Tomato under which we exhibit and also produced a short film (shortlisted at the 2015 Lights! Canberra! Action! short film festival. The site is a little lean at the moment as we concentrate on getting things together for the show and really only shows a copy of the flyer for the show but please stay tuned on that front.
Links
- About 2 Tens & A Tomato
- 2 Tens & A Tomato
- Sexy monochrome flyer version
If you're in Canberra next Wednesday evening (18th November) at 5:30pm ... please come along and say hello to us :-)
If Canberra is simply too far to come ... please wish us well :-)
#gdphoto #2tensandatomato
Time-Motion Study: Dance
On Saturday night I had the opportunity to photograph some of the show events at the 2015 Canberra Latin Dance Festival. The festival organisers had engaged a photographic team from Sydney to do formal coverage of the events and dance exhibitions and I volunteered on the day to offer to take some creative arty pictures. The event started at 8pm and was very well attended. There was a stage and seating and a large(ish) (too large I think) area in front of the stage where no-one was permitted ... not even the formal photographers!
I had imagined that I would be able to get quite close to the action and to this end I had packed my Lensbaby and wider primes to get as you say creative. Seeing as I couldn't get close my wider selection was almost no us ... I mean I was simply to far away from the action. I did have my 70-200 with me and I ended up using this for most of the night. As I was taking pictures of the performers I began extending the exposure time to deliberately blur their movements and flow. I had my tripod with me and so I zoomed to an area of the stage with black background and set about tweaking until I got nicely lit 10 second exposures. I got a lot of duds ... but we won't talk about those today ;-)
