Light Journeys presents Nikki Toole
Light Journeys is proud to present Melbourne based photographer Nikki Toole as our featured artist for November:
from the series Skater (Phase 1: the Stance)
(courtesy of Nikki Toole)
CM09 Artist Watch
OK, so the quiet on this front is not because I have ceased writing this blog but because I get nearer to D-Day everyday and I still have the proverbial shitload of work to do…. but I couldn’t resist posting my pick of the Critical Mass 09 entrants – all 575 of them whose entries (including yours truly) arrived neatly packaged on a CD all the way from the USandA. Don’t worry I definitely won’t be posting all 575! Just 15 of my faves… and yes, I went through all 575 of them!! And despite the overall caliber being pretty good (some of it a little repetitive and honestly, some of it pretty bad) my favourites belonged to the following photographers and really appealed to my aesthetic sensibilities….
One interesting observation is the number of works that explore ideas of belonging and connection to place (similar themes to my work in Belco). Maybe this is a reflection of my Generation (X) and the fact that we are all nearing the big 40….? Mortality inevitably looms and we start to think about how we fit in the big jigsaw that is our crazy, beautiful world…. and what better place to start than where we grew up? Odes to origins…. yeah….
Anyway, take a look for yourself:
And other than fellow photographer and e-buddy Rebecca Dagnall, I think I was the only Aussie! The submissions were mostly from Americans but it was peppered with some interesting work from Canada, Europe and South America. It’ll be interesting to see who makes the final Top 50….
Light Journeys presents Kylie Ruszczynski
Light Journeys is proud to present Paris based, Australian artist Kylie Ruszczynski as our featured artist for October:
from the series Solar Tetes
(courtesy of Kylie Ruszczynski)
Suburban goings on….. sort of, not really.
Well I’ve been kinda slack…… not much going on or if there is I ain’t noticing. So can I be honest and say that I’m actually feeling a little flat and have a major case of not being arsed to do anything! I mean don’t get me wrong – a lot is happening – and really it is all good, but hey, even photographers get tired sometimes I should think….
Anyway, just a quick hello, and no I haven’t fallen off the face of the earth (though that could be interesting). I’m sharing some pics here from some recently returned films – you may recall a few posts earlier I had some digital pics of a Sudanese family here in Belco… Kinda weird but wonderful to photograph another culture in my own community. I’ve often felt slightly uncomfortable photographing overseas (you can’t help but not – especially when you consider how you fit in the power schema of things between yourself (with a giant camera ’stealing souls’) and those whose homes you might be visiting and whose photographs you might also be taking. I’m not sure yet, if it’s different here, but I definitely feel on a more even keel. Plus, here the families are asking me to photograph them, so that also changes the dynamic somewhat. Plus I speak suburban so that really helps 
I tell you conversation about kids, home decoration and the merits/wonders of mobile phones can do wonders to building relationships – let’s face it that is something we pretty much all have in common…
The Duot Family outside their home.
Aker in traditional costume.
Ngor and Matot
One of the good things going on is that I got in as a finalist for Critical Mass 09 (made it into the top 175 at least) and did fork over the big bucks to go on to the second phase, which will culminate in a Top 50 plus 3 winners of a book publication deal plus massive exposure, so please wish me happy thoughts! It’ll be great just to have my work seen by more than 200 jurors from all over the photography world, so I am pretty chuffed about this (though somewhat the poorer…. I’ve figured that by now, this is the life of a photographer… every cent and dollar goes back into making photographs and frankly I wouldn’t have it any other way… well, except the bit about making money from my work, which would be quite OK with me!).
Oh and lastly, for those travellers to Light Journeys, I apologise for the downtime on the site. We’ve had a few technical hitches with our host company changing servers. Hopefully we will be back online within 24 hours. Thanks for your patience.
Light Journeys presents Robyn Stacey
Light Journeys is proud to present Sydney based artist Robyn Stacey as our featured artist for September:
from the series Empire Line
(courtesy of Robyn Stacey)
Collecting Photography Books
I’ve just gone a little bezerk over at Amazon and the Book Depository…. Bit dangerous shopping online isn’t but I finally gave in to the wish lists and bought the lot. I figure… what the hell, I’ve got a ‘permanent’ job now (God that sounds so…. incarcerating!) and so am supposedly an upstanding tax-paying citizen…. well, I’m defending myself against the dreaded affluenza but then again books surely don’t count? After all they are nourishment for both the soul and mind!
Anyway, here are some of the titles I ordered. Can’t wait to get a staggered lot of pressies! Yay!
Delicate and Exquisite – the work of Eliot Porter
Today was a good day at work. Firstly because I was late (which makes the day shorter) and secondly because I had a long lunch, which I don’t usually do. The lunch was had with the lovely Anne O’Hehir (NGA Assistant Curator of Photography) and with Sydney based gallerists, Mary Meyer and her lovely husband and photographer, Bob (who run Meyer Gallery in Darlinghurst). We ended up giving them a whirlwind tour of our photography collection in storage. And this is where we looked at the work of Eliot Porter, who I’m amazed I’d not heard of before (OK, OK I’m not really a landscape photographer!). The Getty Centre had a show of Porter’s work in 2006 called In the Realm of Nature. Here is their blurb:
American photographer Eliot Porter was among the first to successfully bridge the gap between photography as a fine art and its roots in science and technology. Porter promoted the use of color photography from the 1940s until the mid-1970s, a time when most serious photographers worked in black and white. Porter’s work was widely published and used as a powerful visual argument for nature conservation. He explored new ways of presenting the natural world and his artistic and technical contributions to bird and landscape photography transformed these genres.
The work is simply…. exquisite. They are dye transfer prints, a process that William Eggleston would later use extensively and brilliantly. However it was Porter who would use it first with his incredibly delicate images of nature (some calling him the true ‘father of colour photography’… Mmm, not so much Eggleston?). Here are some images, which I have to point out are quite poor, web reproductions and really don’t do the works justice. The prints in the NGA collection (part of a portfolio edition of only 250), are, in a word…. stunning.
Aspens by Lake, Pike National Forest, Colorado, September 14, 1959
Looking South Over Upper Cascade Lake, near Keene, Adirondack Mountains, New York, February 1, 1965
It’s too bad that this process no longer exists. I know there are a few people who still use it, making their own chemistry…. I wonder what the contemporary alternative to dye transfer prints would be?
These images are some more of Porter’s that I found online and really love, though we don’t have them in the NGA collection unfortunately. Too bad cos it would be divine to see them in all their dye transfer glory……
Peeling Birch Bark, Great Spruce Head Island, Maine, June 24, 1969
Rose Petals on Beach, Great Spruce Head Island, Maine, July 1, 1971
Crab Legs Left by Crows, Great Spruce Head Island, Maine, July 17, 1949
(All Eliot Porter images are © 1990, Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas. Bequest of the artist)
Note the date on the last photograph… 1949 people!!! Looking at these works also affirmed that large format is the direction I want to take my work (Porter’s prints are 8×10″ contacts). I’m completely excited about new ideas (very different to my usual work) that I’m developing for after my studies, though at this point (mostly for financial reasons) I’ll stick with the 4×5! Baby steps right…
Lastly, I have some work in a group show called Surfacing at the new Belconnen Arts Centre. Quite appropriate as it’s a selection of four images from my Belco series, interestingly no portraits. Anyway, if you’re in town and want to check out our brand spanking new gallery, come along.
Oh, except I have to mention that you can’t come to the opening unless you get an invite from the Centre directly… To those I spammed with an invite, my sincere apologies. I got into trouble after the Director got wind that I’d forwarded it on…. Oops…. Come along another day…. some great paths by the Lake to rollerskate on!
Burning the Midnight Oil
Well, it’s been a little quiet on this front I’m afraid as thesis deadlines loom and the pressure kicks in. Not to mention beginning a full-time job at the NGA (eek, I’m officially a ‘pube’! That’s shorthand for Public Servant btw). Good for the likes of being an upstanding and responsible citizen/mother/bill-payer, but crap if you are trying to continue an art practice. Really, it has to be said that full-time work is a crime against humanity and an even worse one against artists! How do you people do it!? Sure, I have a little more money than before but really, I don’t even have time to spend it! And being around other people’s art at work, only serves to deepen the anxiety of wanting (needing) to make more work but not being able to find the time…. If anyone has any advice about how to juggle this dilemma, I’d love to hear it!
Suffice to say, that this blog may continue to lie low for a little while longer. Have managed however to (just) maintain some sense of creative output. Here is my latest offering from a series about Sudanese migrant families living in suburbia.
Nyakoor outside her home with sons, Aleer, Chut and Duot
Sunday best… P. Diddy, eat your heart out!
Films are yet to be processed but I shot a few on the dig to show the kids. Amazing how ingrained the idea of instant imaging has become. Even when I was shooting on the medium format the urge was to see the result straight away. Took a little bit to explain the virtues of analogue photography! Anyway, it’s been great fun making these images and to offer each family a portrait sitting. Everyone gets quite dressed up and usually I feel like a mega-dag. The boys especially rocked in their suits!? I wonder if my son would wear one???
Anyway, see youse for now….
Light Journeys presents Francesca Rosa
Light Journeys is proud to present Brisbane based artist Francesca Rosa as our featured artist for August:
from the series Interior Disaster
(courtesy Francesca Rosa)
