Welcome...Geoff has moved!
Hi,
I've been busy of late. I've decided to decommission my old site at lushpupimages.com and simultaneously inaugurate my new umbrella site here at geoffreydunn.com.au ... I felt it time to consolidate my blog, wiritings and art into one space ... so far everything seems to be working pretty much as it should though I'm certain there are little pockets of clunkiness I'm yet to discover ... should you perchance discover something that you think "hmmm ... I'm sure that's not quite what Geoff was trying to do..." then please tell me :-)
In other news, I have copied across my post archives along with my subscriber and follower database so I'm kinda hoping that if you've received an email and you've arrived here then everything will be all right.
Anyways ... welcome. Please take a look around and see what you can see
Geoff...
Parties at the Shops
One of 2013's better Canberra Centenary celebratory ideas was called Parties at the Shops. It was intended as a way of encouraging communities to interact more while showcasing the many talents and variety of folks living in a suburb. The idea worked so well that's one of the few Centenary events to be carried forward to this year. Over the weekend I was commissioned to capture some images of Parties at the Shops ... I attended four in total: Scullin, Downer, Hackett and Watson. They were all well attended and the threatening rain held off too :-)
Skywhale
I went down to the first day of the Canberra Balloon Festival yesterday morning. Skywhale was there, one of the many hot-air balloons to take off yesterday from the lawns in front of Old Parliament House. Now, Skywhale was launched last in 2013 after artist Patricia Piccinini was commissioned by the ACT Government to help celebrate the Centenary of Canberra. The balloon tours around representing Canberra to other capital cities and regional centres and causes a stir wherever it goes. What the f*ck it has to with Canberra I simply fail to understand and overall the artwork is not to my taste ... but I do appreciate the nerve of it. I also like the way that it gets people talking about art ... the point of it ... spending public money on art et al ... it gets people talking about art and it's place in our culture and society and that is a good thing I believe.
Anyways, here's a little photo-essay on the Skywhale. Enjoy :-)
PS Cottier - Poet
Earlier this week I had the good fortune to be asked by renowned local poet Penelope (PS) Cottier to take some some new head-shots for a new collection of poems she's about to publish. After the head-shots were done I coaxed her out onto the street with her fabulous green silk parasol :-)
(did you know that she collects fish vases?)
Links:
- PS Cottier
- She has just had a new work published on Verity La
Late Night Call
A little while ago I was up in the (not so) Snowy Mountains region of south-Eastern Australia, taking the kids on a trip to visit the grand Snowy Mountains Hydroelectricity Scheme's dams and turbines, tunnels and towns ... and the mountains of course. One of the places we stayed was a caravan park on the shores of Lake Eucumbene ... there was also no mobile coverage apart from a 50m circle on a patch of road some 13km back up the hill ... you'd see cars there in the morning, connecting ... there was a little shop in the park office, a petrol bowser and this telephone booth.
I didn't think much of it at the time apart from my initial "haven't seen one of those in a while" ... until after dark when I went for a walk outside; and there it was ... a poignant reminder of communication and connectedness bathed in a pool of it's own making. I just had to take some pictures as you do. Truth be told I wasn't actually talking on the phone but I was missing someone and I imagined I was calling them from a place a long way away ... which in many ways this was ... a long way away :-)
The late night call :-)
Como Collection 2
In response to Petra's comment on my previous post ... here's some more Como goodness :-)
In January I visited some lovely old cottages in the Dandenong Ranges in Victoria. Tastefully restored and surrounded by all manner of photographic goodness :-)
Como Collection
In January I visited some lovely old cottages in the Dandenong Ranges in Victoria. Tastefully restored and surrounded by all manner of photographic goodness :-)
All of my heart
"Once upon a time when we were friends
I gave you my heart, the story ends.
No happy ever after ... now we're friends..."
ABC - All Of My Heart
Not that my heart is breaking ... far from it :-)
I always loved this song and was singing it this morning ... I think it works :-)
Bad Pharmer
From a quick band shoot I did at the end of last year of local Polish punk band Bad Pharmer the afternoon before their final gig in Canberra and they up and moved to greener pastures in Brisbane (the shining lights of Bris-Vegas!)
I purchased a copy of their EP Where The Wild Bison Roam ... it's very tidy and contains some great tracks :-)
How's about lead singer/bassist Ania and that yellow couch!
Links
- Listen to Where The Wild Bison Roam
There will be a little period where my posts here will not necessarily follow chronological order as I find interesting things to post from the period I didn't update the blog at all ... does this really matter? Likely not... I just figured I'd let you know anyway 
Words await an eye's caress
letters strewn with love
words await an eye's caress
as breath brings forth life
A haiku for today.
Image is one of a series I created in 2011 to document the hand-crafted books of Fran Ifould. This particular book was titled Enviroroulette and you can view the complete series here.
Blackstar
After a long silent time
With a friendly peck on the cheek
She was off to the ocean with it's crystal blues and sunsparkl'd azures
He cleaned up after she left
The glasses and tobacco
plates and sheets
papers and her hair
Draped on pillows
creating casual arcs on the tiles
debris on the shore as after a rough sea
Emerging into sunshine
hot and beating
to return to the bench
with a cordial
and a smoke
the litter of butts surrounding
testimony to the time spent there last night
and one...
the first one
the one when she first arrived
happy and expectant
hair cut and straight
new skirt
and totally gorgeous
with lipstick
a touch remained on the single butt
the first one she kissed
before the blackstar
emerged later from behind the moon
and played it's game of scramble
and miscommunication
and churned joy into turgid silence
and distance
The first one
with lipstick
he cried then
when his eye caught it
hot tears of hurt and love
for their fragile hearts
each now cracked
and from where?
How?
He dare not seek a why and be forever searching
for something he would never find
for the blackstar
in wicked interferences conspires never to reveal
It has it's methods own
The blackstar
honed on our fears
with twisting happen-stance and evil synchronicities
bent on undoing the fine tapestries
of our lives and dreams
Plans? Pfft! She told me once
[and not very long ago!]
She had met the blackstar before and is no stranger to it
Perhaps she called it something else
We've all known it
sometime
somewhere
with someone we love
Begone!
Enough of the blackstar!
Just fuck off back to wherever you came from.
[He uttered it forcefully enough to cause a magpie to tilt and peer]
[OK it wasn't quite screamed but it had intent!]
In the heat of the sun
breeze hot and crisp
it left him alone
and he was
alone
alone.
He thought of her then
driving down the mountain
Her hair fragranc'd with his shampoo
The road a focus
for the singular cogency that road tripping delivers
angling to arrive
at land's edge
the coast
and the promised purity of the ocean's kiss
the refreshing salty cleansing
and momentary exhilaration
of the heart
only the sea's immersive embrace
as only the ocean can
and will
when nothing else works...
Swim strong my love.
[8 February 2014]
Vale Friday
Friday Carasmello Lushpuppy 1999-2013
Last Thursday we made the decision to have beloved family member Friday put to sleep. She had been with us for 14 years
Friday had been suffering a degenerative spinal condition and went downhill rapidly. She was an elderly dog and up until a month ago had been going on hour-long walks as she had every day of her life. However we were not prepared really for just how quickly she deteriorated. She in many ways defined our family's relationship and her passing is deeply felt. I'm OK now but was a mess last week.
The veterinarian came to the house on Thursday morning. She was put to sleep after being surrounded by those who knew and loved her. The end was very quick. She was buried at her second home at the out-laws farm overlooking the hills she loved to roam.
Bye sweet girl ... you'll be missed.
Dead Pegs
The first printed compilation of my Dead Pegs project ... a copy of which is currently hanging in the Members Show at PhotoAccess in the Manuka Arts Centre.
I've been long fascinated by these pegs ... single-function objects that have reached the end of their useful lives and left to decay in the pebble-field beneath the clotheslines ... I've been photographing them on and off for about 6 months now ... time to get them out there ... both prints measure 420mm x 720mm.
Dead Pegs was printed on Hahnemühle Photo Rag Ultra Smooth - a fine matte paper with excellent colour depth
Also in the show is a print of my Starfield I picture printed on Baryta Photographique, a fine grained lustre because I thought a small degree of gloss would increase the depth of the picture ... given it's our galaxy after all :-)
Both pictures were printed by Stephen Best of Macquarie Editions in Braidwood.
Links
Thrift Shop - (Workin' The Fields Version)
On Saturday night I played host to the wonderfully talented Jodie O'Regan and Emlyn O'Regan who were in town for their Kitchen Table Tour. As a host I got to make a request and I chose Macklemore's Thrift Shop ... Emlyn and Jodo got to work on an arrangement and this recording is the first live crack. Kids were asleep in an adjacent room hence the hushed kinda approach ;-)
I was aiming for nonchalant dish-hand and I think I pretty well hit the target. I join in toward the end ... it was fun :-)
For anyone who wants to see me deconstructedly animated and vocal ... this is the clip for you ;-)
May I present Thrift Shop - (Workin' The Fields Version)
Links:
- Follow the Kitchen Table Tour Blog
- Emlyn & Jodie's Tour Page
- Emlyn & Jodie's Web Page
- The original Thrift Shop by Macklemore
In Review - Steve Lane & The Autocrats
In Review - Steve Lane & The Autocrats - The Front, Saturday 28th September 2013
I had a most wonderful experience on Saturday night. I was in the mood for quiet and low key. I wanted some live music but nothing rowdy. I know I'm coming across all fussy and selective like and well, yes I am both those things but sometimes you know you're looking for something but you don't exactly what ... it's just a vibe. I checked a gig guide, saw there was a band playing tonight down at my local, The Front in Lyneham. The Front’s website said Tonight:Steve Lane & The Autocrats and there was a little bio - I’d never heard of them, it sounded perfect.
Guide said the show started at eight and so I headed down to meet a friend before then. Gosh, there's no one here. OK, that's not entirely true, there's two bar staff including the one with a smile like a ray of sunshine and two tables of three just chatting quietly. The instruments set up against the wall indicate there is actually a band on but there's hardly a soul around. I grab a glass of house red (and return the two glasses I stole the night before ... all nicely washed of course :-) ) and take a seat on one of the leather couches. My friend arrives and adds significantly to the audience size. We're chatting away when Jimmy Williams gets up with an acoustic guitar and begins. He's been doing this a while this guitar performing thing and not because he looks like he has, nor the ease with he performs his clever and observant songs ... I reckon it's the fact that he appears totally comfortable performing to an intimate audience of six.
There's a cosy lounge room feel to the Front and this gig has that feel to the max. Like all the best lounge rooms, there's an outside space too and we relocate to a couch out there just before the end of Jimmy's set.
It's a September evening in Canberra and although it's been 20 degrees today it's chilly tonight but warm on the couch. We're out there looking in when Steve Lane & The Autocrats take the stage. A four-piece, drums, bass and two guitars. Steve is joined on vocals by Jimmy and I immediately like the feel. It's part Church and part Lightning Seeds and all their own ... it's music made for driving and I imagine rolling fields of wheat and canola sliding past the window interspersed with the strobe of golden sunlight through trees. I can't make out the lyrics from my outside couch spot but I like the way they're sung with a broad rounded inflection.
The band clearly get on with each other as they produce rolling tunes without stepping on each other's toes. Steve Lane, in dark shirt, glasses and thick black beard greying stylishly sings about life with a wry and poetic eye. He has a rack of guitars and there's a beautiful semi-acoustic sunburst orange Rickenbacker amongst them. It sounds rich and mellow with just the right spread of spangle. Steve is joined by brother Tim Lane on drums and I dig the gold strip over the deep red of the shells. In a simple black shirt, he plays with craft, attention and an intensity totally appropriate to the space. On electric bass, and looking like the perfect subject for a Roman bust is a young man in a royal blue buttoned up cardigan ... In fact he wouldn't look out place in the band The Cardigans or Fun Boy Three. I mention that he's young because he must significantly lower the average age of the rest of the band and I mean that in the nicest possible way ... with age comes experience and it's precisely that which is making this band and tonight's initiate gig so special. We find out later that his name is Kai Lane-U'Ren and he's Steve's son. Jimmy Williams on electric guitar makes up the on-stage foursome ... Jimmy’s a great guitarist and in a blues-inspired number later in the night he totally shreds the solo. There's a fifth, non-stage member on door bucket who is lucky he's accompanied by someone 18 years and over! From the way he and Kai stand the same way when together I’m guessing he’s related too.
The songs are evocative and well crafted. There's a poetry to the lyrics that I find captivating and the stories weaved by Steve wander from the plains to the sea to the office water cooler. There's heartfelt and sunshine and there's deep introspection wrapped in joyous guitars pop. There's fun banter between tracks (I mean who can ever remember the names of songs?) and interaction with the audience, which at this end of the room is just my friend and I. I'm suddenly torn between the intimacies of tonight's performance and thinking that Steve Lane & his Autocrats deserved a much bigger crowd. It's a testament to the experience and professionalism of the band that the small audience doesn't seem to faze them. The last four songs see the band really gel it together, not that they were loose before, and really deliver. The power pop chorus of Forgetting Is So Long is fantastically catchy and lingers beautifully. I resolve to buy their album Birds Taking Flight which tonight's gig is touring and when I'm listening to it the following the morning I'm taken right back to the gig ... it's fresh and alive and rich and a great listen.
The gig ends and we're sitting outside watching the band pack up ... I have to admit it's the one part of gigging that I don't miss (well, not as much as I miss some of the other parts) ... And then we finish the night sitting on the outside couches with the band (and for a little time the bar staff too) talking about music and life and the shapes of clouds. I’d go and see this band again without question ... especially now that I've heard of them ;-)
I was also trialling a new camera, the Fujifilm x100s, which I plan to make my gig review camera as it's small, has fantastic lowlight performance and means that I'm not lugging my DSLR in crowded pubs and essentially spending my time worrying about someone stepping on it. This was the first time I had used the camera at a live gig and I have to say I'm very impressed with the results.
Links