Andy Webster on Dreams:
Feelings which are repressed when awake seem to surface in dreams!via Always Know Where Your Camera Is! by Mike Johnstone.
Showing posts sorted by date for query "Circular Quay". Sort by relevance Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by date for query "Circular Quay". Sort by relevance Show all posts
Thursday, June 30, 2016
Dreams - Andy Webster / Mike Johnstone (Wed 29 Jun 2016)
Friday, June 17, 2016
Searching - Brooke Holm (Thu 16 Jun 2016)
Brooke Holm on Searching:
I’m still searching for the answers, observing and documentingvia Brooke Holm · Salt and Sky by Lisa Marie Corso.
Thursday, August 13, 2015
On Empathy - Seth Godin (Wed 12 Aug 2015)
Seth Godin on Empathy:
Empathy doesn't involve feeling sorry for someone. It is our honest answer to the question, "why did they do what they did?" [..]via Empathy by Seth Godin.Dismissing actions we don't admire merely because we don't care enough to have empathy is rarely going to help us make the change we seek. It doesn't help us understand, and it creates a gulf that drives us apart.
Tuesday, August 11, 2015
On Photography and Truth - Andre D. Wagner / abstractelements (Sun 09Aug 2015)
Andre D. Wagner on Photography and Truth:
the mystic power of good photography or intelligent work. it’s not about pretty pictures for me, it’s about truth. truth is magnificent and truth is layered. truth sometimes hurt but truth will always be beautiful.via new york city, 2015 *it’s not too often that one of my... by Andre D. Wagner.
On Photography and Life - Andre D. Wagner / abstractelements (Sun 09 Aug 2015)
Andre D. Wagner on Photography and Life:
I hope my photography is a manifestation of feelings about life itselfvia new york city, 2015 *it’s not too often that one of my... by Andre D. Wagner.
Monday, August 10, 2015
On Going Back - The Passage of Time - Joel Meyerowitz (Sun 09 Aug 2015)
Joel Meyerowitz on Photography:
it's the going back that counts.via Ordinary Places by Joel Meyerowitz.
I would have to say Circular Quay is not an ordinary place, based on the throng of tourists and locals down at the Quay yesterday.
It was a magnificent sun soaked winters day afternoon, with thousands of people enjoying the light, space and atmosphere of the nautical gateway to the City, at the footsteps of the Sydney Opera House.
We were in town for a Birthday Lunch for Janice who we lost in April . The lunch at Customs House was spectacular, not only for the view and food, but the company of Janice's immediate family. Janice would have loved it. And that we were all there together, remembering her.
Afterwards, we strolled around the Quay, through The Rocks, under the Sydney Harbour Bridge and back. As we strolled past the Bounty, I was reminded of my 2003 photo above (along with my photo.net post made back then) and made a similar photo as the sunset.
Looking at the scene yesterday and the photos now, what surprised me was that after 12 years, how similar the two scenes were. At the macro level, the Bounty and the Opera House, appear identical, but I am sure when I look closely, there will be micro changes representing maintenance and technological progress that 12 years brings.
With these two photos, also comes the change in my "vision", my cameras (Canon IXUS S100 then and Canon S120 now, and a few in between) and words. As they say, "same same, but different". The difference probably being my experience in photography and life. In many ways, the camara is now an extension of my hand, I know what it sees and it knows what I feel through the resulting photos it exposes and brings to my life and this world. I am constantly and pleasantly surprised by the power of photography and what it reveals to me.
The two photos represent a passage of time in themselves and my implied meaning assigned to the Jul 2003 photo, along with my words at photo.net back then. Together now, the two photos above, represent the passage of 12 years of time in my own life where everything has changed so much.
So pleased we went back and I now have these photos and memories. Without the photos, the motivation to make them and assigning some connection to them, these memories and thoughts would most likley be lost.
As always, thanks Joel Meyerowitz. I never know where a thought and a few well chosen words will take me.
Friday, December 17, 2010
Geoff Dyer on Trent Parke (2010) - American Suburb X - (Fri 17 Dec 2010)
I have a Google Alert for Trent Parke, an Australian Photographer who is a member of Magnum and in-public (who BTW have just celebrated their 10th birthday).
Most days I will get one or two alerts come through on my Google Reader. Normally, they don't lead to anything interesting or something I don't already know about him. However, I received an alert that quickly drew my attention. It was titled:
Geoff Dyer on Trent Parke (2010).
As Andrew Bruce posted today on Trent's Facebook Wall:
easily the best piece of writing on Parke to date
Have to agree and it is definitely worth a read.
A bit of a ramble to follow. I have known of Geoff Dyer for sometime. At least since around the time of the publication of his book, the The Ongoing Moment (Guardian Review - 16 Oct 2005). A novel and rather modest approach to writing about photography - he claims that he does not even own a camera:
"I am not a photographer ... I don't even own a camera."
I enjoyed the book and appreciated his knowledge of photography. In particular I enjoyed his writing style and the metaphors he used to get his ideas across - you will see this in his article on Trent.
[on writing about the book, The Seventh Wave] The surface of the sea is a film separating two worlds, that of water and that of air. Though absolute the distinction is perpetually on the brink of dissolving, melting away. People fly through the water as if suspended in a turbulent sky, or float through great clouds of aquatic light. That’s what water is for Parke and Autio – liquid light. Forms dissolve, blur, swim into and out of focus. Quick and silver, the water is a flash-flood of mercury.
On to Trent Parke. I have followed his progress since he was photographer with the Sydney Morning Herald back in the early 2000's. He had two photos in the first Sydney Looking Forward Exhibtion back in 2002. I wrote about one of the photos here. Indeed the post is one of the more popular pages residing in my little blog.
In 2003 I bought two copies of the two books he had published at that stage:
Both books appear to be long out of print, by the looks of the Amazon Used Books prices.
Looks like I have done alright with these purchases (they were about $50 each from the Stills Gallery). I could not help myself other than to buy two copies of each. They were just beautiful. I have a soft/weak spot for photography books. I can remember catching the train after work, upto Kings Cross and then walking into Paddington to the Stills Gallery. I took quite a few photos with my litte IXUS. Must drag them out of the archive to find out the exact date of purchase of the books. A job for another day.
I will close with a quote from Geoff Dyer's article on Trent:
Later works will continue but intensify the Dream/Life vision so that, at its most extreme, Sydney becomes a kind of ghost city, in the process of being annihilated by light. A passer-by will be transformed into an accidental super-hero: Solar-man, a bleached absence of pure radiance! (Part of the fascination of this picture is of the photographer-as-magician kind: how did he do that? The difference between magic and photography is that the spell remains unbroken even when the technical explanation - which, in any case, I cannot recall - is forthcoming. [GeoffE: maybe some discussion here will help: How is this done? (Trent Parke) at photo.net - 31 Mar 2004)]
An article by the Sydney Morning Herald's Tim Clayton giving some background to the working environment that Trent Parke evolved.
Friday, July 2, 2010
Favourite Photos - Erskineville/Sydney June 2004 - Trees and Shadow
Just a very simple photo I like. Pass here each work day as I walk up Swanston Street to Erskineville Railway Station. In winter, when the trees lose their leaves, they project interesting shadows onto the wall of this Terrace House. The trees are now much bigger and the shadows produced are not quite the same. Have taken many shots of this wall over the years, but I have not been able to get a better shot than this first photo.
Have seen many interesting photos that play with shadows. A tribute article (9 Niv 2002) by Robert McFarlane for the late Ingeborg Tyssen helped me to start looking out for shadows. A quote from the article I liked was:
'Whenever possible I carry a loaded camera ... I react without too much thought. Rarely do I wait for a situation to resolve itself. Nor do I direct or provoke people. The important aspects are composition, texture and light.'
A nice way to look a photography and when I look at my own photographic evolution, I guess I have unknowingly tried to look for at least the same three points - 'composition, texture and light'.
Shortly after Ingeborg Tyssen death in 2002, the Art Gallery of NSW arranged a Memorial Exhibition of some her work. I was really impressed by the simplicity and effectiveness of many of her photos. Indeed, for the most part, it was about 'composition, texture and light'. I also have a copy of her book - Ingeborg Tyssen: Sydney photographs.
The following was one photo, I really enjoyed and was a great 'play' on the use of a shadow ..
Another photo reveals the framing trick employed ..
I can't really remember, but I expect these simple shadow photos, helped me to see many shadow photos that I have taken over the years. One humble attempt in 2007 follows:
Liked the positioning of the shadow of the tree trunk across the path segment - beautifully aligned for a random photo. Also the top of a real tree apparently growing out of a shadow and the position of the air vent. Nothing great, but I was happy and entered it in the 2007 Sydney Life photo competiion which closed a few days later (of course to no avail :-).
A few more random shadow related photos that I could easily find just now, follow:
I think one thing that has helped me think more about shadows in photography, is the strong Australian sunlight. I have found when travelling in the UK and Europe, the sun does not seem to shine as much and when it does it is not particularly strong, and the shadows don't seem to be as prevelant. In Australia, shadows are hard to avoid, so you need to work with the stronger Australian light or you just avoid taking photos at these times.
In writing this, I have just thought of photos that employ the use of the Silohuette. Will write something about this at a later stage as I have also employed the use of silohuette's in many of my photos over the years and is another aspect of photography I enjoy.
Lastly, a little Shadow Excercise I read about recently (in Paulo Coelho's 'The Pilmgrimage'). Often it is fun when walking around to look at a shadows and try and work out what it is that created the shadow. Most of the time it is reasonably obvious (as in these photos), but sometimes it can be difficult to work it out. Have fun ..
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