Tokyo, the 50's - Ikko Narahara

Tokyo 2012 - Sumida / Tokyo (Sat 22 Sep 2012)
Ikko Narahara (*) writes in the preface to Tokyo, the 50's (*):

Tokyo, the 50's
When I First Roamed the Streets
by Ikko Narahara (*)

Photographs arrive suddenly from out of the future. For it me it was always like that. Suddenly I would reach out and grab it in midair - the photographs had appeared by itself in my hand. Whenever I pushed the shutter button, my body seemed to become transparent, as if it were out int the middle of the photograph. And as I continuted to take photographs over the years, I came to feel that the images I took had already buried in matrixes of some sort in the space of the future, where they remainded waiting for the moment when I would one day dig them up. That must surely have been how it was. From that time of the big bang with which the universe started and began its evolution, perhaps even though the will of the universe latent in the fluctuations in the "nothing" preceding the big bang, these experiences had surely been prepared for. I am simply a messenger sent to meet up with the images and rescue them. This is the only way I can reconcile myself to the strangeness and mystery of having brought so many photographs into the world.

Possessed by thoughts like these day after day, I suddenly remembered I'd forgotten something - the photographs I had taken when I first began roaming the streets.

I bought my first camera in 1954. I got it to use for my planned work., "Human Life". At the time I couldn't have imagined that after exhibiting that work my whole life would change course toward photography and toward the person I am today. In the intervals between photographing "Human Land" I used to walk the Tokyo streets with my camera. I didn't have any special or clear purpose in mind. My family had often moved to different locations in western Japan, and since I was a child I'd had the habit of thoroughly exploring each new location. I felt the same interest in my exploring Tokyo, whereI'd lived since I came there as a college student. The only difference was that now I carried a camera with me. I breathed photographs on Tokyo street corners the way I breathed air. In my viewfinder those street corners changed into "streets in my photographs." Whenever I released the shutter, I seemed to hear the beat of modern jazz, which I loved so much. I remember I kept on rambling the streets in this way until I became involved in taking my next work, "Domain" in 1958. I was so lazy that I only printed a few of these photographs. The negatives lay buried their negative case, where I forgot about them. By chance, however, I remembered these negatives from forty years earlier. For the past three years I have again been photographing in the streets of Tokyo, and this brought back the memory of my earlier roamings.

"I'd really to see them .. I wonder what photos I took back then?" I couldn't even remember most of the images, and very few of the contact prints remained. But the moment I realized I wanted to see them, I was overcome with the strange feeling of being faced with the all too obvious and simple fact that photographs have to be printed in order to be viewed. After all these years I'd become thoroughly accustomed to the life of taking photographs, and yet here I was suddenly realizing that all too easily I'd vaguely assumed that once I'd pushed the shutter the things I'd taken simply continued to exist by themselves. But even for me, they were actually nothing more than events lying latent in my mind. As mere negatives there were like inverted ghosts; they had to no reality as photographs. I was shocked to realize that those negatives still lacked real existence, and then I had to laugh at my own blindness.

Before long, from what seemed to be the negatives, I made new contact prints and began to look through them.

As I put them into the enlarge, I could hardly wait to see how they would turn out. Unrecognizable images of which I had almost no memory began to appear before my eyes. Were these really my photographs? The photographs came into being like starlight arriving from forty light years away.

Past time buried in the time of the future - a sleeping time with with its eyes suddenly wide open. Through this small astonishment I was also tasting the strangeness and wonder of photographs. As that time my darkroom was filled with the paradoxes of time travel.

I've come to see that these photographs, which excavated the light and wind of the 1950's, were unmistakably the first steps in my travels through cities which would turn into the rest of my life. [..]

I bought this book following this Review (*) by Jesse Freeman (*). The preface is one of the most amazing pieces of writing on photography I have read, and I have read a lot. A beautiful book, both in words and photos, and I am so glad I took the risk to buy it on a whim.

On Remembering - Family Photographs - Colin Pantall (Tue 06 Nov 2012)

Orange - Asakusa Kannon Temple / Tokyo (Fri 21 Sep 2012)

Sometimes photography seems abstract, but then something happens that makes it concrete.
Colin Pantall (Tue 06 Nov 2012)

Sometimes you read an almost random post by someone you don't even know - you it find so pertinent and you are deeply touched and you learn something about life and yourself. Today is one such day ..

Colin Pantall (*) writes (*) on the passing of his Mother-in-Law, Elizabeth, last weekend:

I think it was a relief in some ways that she died, because she wasn't independent and it wasn't the way she wanted to live, but at the same time it was a massive shock. Not because of the death, but because of the passing of an era, the end of a living history. You can keep history alive in various ways, but when the person who witnessed it goes, it does spell the end of a chapter. It doesn't mean we should forget it, but there is still some part of a time that has gone. Things have moved on.

He also talks about how someone is remembered through photographs and our memories.

On Photography, he writes:

things are also preserved and the family album does this admirably. It's a shorthand of memory, of history, of an edited and at times idealised past, where certain things are hidden and certain things taken away - sometimes in retrospect. Even so, we still look at it quite objectively as something quite factual.

However, complementing the photos (if they were made and are available), there are the memories to draw upon and the cues (*) that inspire them:

But Elizabeth didn't have those old photos, so I wonder how she will be remembered. Just as words are sometimes better than photographs, so is food. I remember her Slovenian cooking, her gingerbread, her puddings, her cakes and so does my wife.

I have learnt that it is important to remember and in some ways this has become my life purpose (*). As Colin reminds us, there are photos as well as our memories - what we remember.

eljeiffel (*) for me is all these elements of remembering, remembering not only Jenny (*) and those that have gone before us, but my own legacy (*) - the scratches and fractures (even if it is just a couple of photographs of the colours orange and blue, and the hidden memories they evoked in me) I will leave on this world when I am gone.

Blue - Asakusa Kannon Temple / Tokyo (Fri 21 Sep 2012)

On Photography - the relationship between objects and people - Daido Moriyama (Summer 2005)

Traffic Barrier - Shinjuku / Tokyo (Sat 22 Sep 2012)
Daido Moriyama (*) gives an insight into his photography when asked What do you want viewers to take away from looking at your photos?:

Most of my photographs are taken on the street, of objects on the street.

I want to capture the relationship between objects and people.

I don’t ever think about what people are going to think looking at my photographs.

There are many things I can’t control.

That viewers see the photographs in a different way is really important, but it doesn’t influence the work.

My message enters the image, but I think it’s good if many messages enter the image, not just mine.

via Daido Moriyama Photographs His Beloved Shinjuku (*).

Photos: A Rainy Day in Venice (Wed 16 Sep 2009)

A Rainy Day in Venice - Wed 16 Sep 2009 (picasa)

A Rainy Day in Venice - Wed 16 Sep 2009 (picasa)

Just a couple of simple photos to remember a Rainy Day in Venice. I like the colour, scaffolding, the graffiti (it's everywhere which surprised me for such a historical city) and in particular the umbrellas in both photographs.

Really enjoy Jonathan Walker's writings on Photography and have learnt a lot from him.

In particular, I have really enjoyed his writings of his experiences of taking photographs in Venice. The resulting series of photographs, titled Let us Burn the Gondolas, is fantastic.

On Photography - Relationships and Experiences - Howard Greenberg (Fri 08 Mar 2013)

Wagamama - TGV / Sydney (Fri 08 Mar 2013)
Howard Greenberg (*) talks On Photography (*):

First of all, I have to say my collection is really, truly personal. There are many known photographs, classic photographs, in the collection to be sure. But there are more than that many photographs which are unknown or hardly known or certainly not what you would consider important - but they are important to me for my own personal reasons. It’s my life and just like in your life you’ll see certain pictures you can relate (*) to, you want it because of your experiences (*). So it’s that way with my collection.

via Howard Greenberg Talks to Elizabeth Avedon (*) by Elizabeth Avedon (*).

On Photographs - Thinking and Feeling - Jorg Colberg (Mon 13 Jul 2015)

Untitled - DMZ / South Korea (Wed 12 Sep 2012)

Jorg Colberg on Photographs, and Thinking and Feelings:

Good photographs are those that raise questions, that open up new ways of thinking or feeling – not those that confirm something.

via Photography and Criticism by Jorg Colberg.

On Photography, Relationships and Identity - Joel Meyerowitz (YouTube)

What you put in the frame determines the photograph - Joel Meyerowitz [YouTube (*)]
If you have been taking photographs for a while, this will really make sense and inspire you to think about what you have been doing and how you might want to view the way you take photographs in the future. Here is part of what he had to say:

[..] when I think about my photographs, I understand that my interest all along has not been in identifying a singular thing, but in photographing the relationship between things.

The unspoken relationship, the tacit relationship, the impending relationship.

All of these variables are there if you chose to see in this, in this way.

But if you chose to only make objects out of singular things you wind shooting the arrow into the bullseye all the time and you get copies of objects in space.

I did not want copies of objects.

I wanted the ephemeral connections between unrelated things to vibrate.

And if my pictures work at all, at their best they are suggesting these tenuous relationships.

And that fragility is what so human about them.

And I think it's what's also in the romantic tradition, because it is a form of humanism that says we are all part of this together.

I am not just a selector of objects.

And there's plenty of photographers here who are great photographers but who only work in the object reality frame of reference.

They collect things and I don't think of myself as a collector.

It's my sense of where I am different from other people and that's not a measure or judgement.

It's just a sense of your own identity.

For me the play is always in the potential - it's like magnetism.

Thanks Joel and congratulations on a fantastic career in your chosen profession.

On Photography, Context and Meaning - Jorg Colberg / (Sun 15 Dec 2013)

Untitled - Oxford Street / London (Sat 17 Aug 2013)
Jorg Colberg (*) writes On Photography (*), Context (*) and Meaning (*):

Photographs need to be seen with context in mind. Many photographs are created with a very specific context in mind [..] But context can also be an anchor that prevents access. [..] [some] speak directly to us; many of them escape their context and talk of the human condition [..] these photographs show what happens when a master photographer sets up her or his camera: The results will stand the test of time and, inevitably, they will want to break out of whatever context they might have found themselves originally in.

via A few thoughts on Lewis Hine (*) by Jorg Colberg (*).

Hands (Detail) - Oxford Street / London (Sat 17 Aug 2013)

Favourite Photos - How much beauty in decay! - Hyde Park/Sydney - Dec 2001

Leaf - How much beauty in decay! - Hyde Park/Sydney - Wed 27 Dec 2001 (picasa)
A photo I took after work during the Christmas New Year period of 2001. Fires were burning all round Sydney and the sky was covered in smoke which resulted in a strange orange colour which can be seen in this photo. At the time I was reading much about photography and various photographers. This particular photo was inspired by Eliot Porter.

Eliot Porter was a photographer I found early on in my photography journey and self-education. It was easy to appreciate his work (google). He was a pioneer of colour photography (more here) and his life work was bequested to the Amon Carter Museum in 1990 shortly before he died (NYT Orbituary).

Not sure how I found him, but his name seems to appear whenever landscape photographers start talking about Colour Landscape Photography when compared to Black and White Landscape Photography, particularly that of Ansel Adams (looking at the size of the wikipedia entries, it is easy to see who was more popular both as a photographer and selection of photographic technique).

Found some interesting information about him searching the web (google). Also, found some of his books (along with those of Australia's own Peter Dombrovskis) in the National Library of Australia and would often take a look at them in NLA's reading rooms when in Canberra. Many of his photos resonated with my own vision and definitely influenced me when taking landscape (even streetscape and travel) photos, particularly in the Snow Mountains.

At the UNSW I found the book Eliot Porter: photographs and text (a great article) by Eliot Porter. Learnt a lot from the text and photos selected for the book. The following is a quote (see my photo.net page) from the book, which helped form my photographic vision ..

"It is the beauty of nature that I try to represent by photography. What this expression means to most people, I am quite sure, is such features as flowers of spring, autumn foliage, mountain landscapes, and many other similar aspects about aesthetic qualities of which no one would care to offer contradiction. That they are beautiful is indisputable, but they are not all that is beautiful about nature; in fact they are only the obvious and superficial aspects of nature - which anyone may observe with half and eye. They are the peaks and summits of nature's greatest displays. There is no doubt about their importance; they could not be dispensed with. Underlying and supporting these brillant displays are slow, quiet processes that pass almost unnoticed from season to season, unnoticed by those that think that beauty in natures is all its gaudy displays.

Much is missed if we have eyes only for the bright colors. Nature should be viewed without distinction. All her processes and evolutions are beautiful or ugly to the unbiased and indiscriminating observer. She makes no choice herself; everything that happens has equal significance. Nothing can dispensed with. This is a common mistake that many people make; they think that half of nature can be destroyed - the uncomfortable half - while still retaining the acceptable and the pleasing side; their idea is a paradise where nature stands still. Withering flowers blooming, death follows growth, decay follows death, and life follows decay - in a wonderful, complicated, endless web the beauties of which are manifest to a point of view attached to vulgar restricting concepts of what constitutes beauty in nature. Thoreau, who observerd all aspects of nature throughout his life, repeatedly remarked on the beauty of the unaccepted. 'How much beauty in decay!' he exclaimed on examining a worm-eaten leaf. To him the sere, brown leaves of winter were as beautiful as the fresh green of spring. This was a principle that has remained important for me throughout my career."

A fairly long quote, but for me was definitely something worth remembering.

This link provides a great summary of the life and works of Eliot Porter. I like the ending quote ..

The final paragraphs on the art of photography touch on his views to color, composition and emotional content of his images:

"Sensitivity cannot be faked by trickor devise; it has no substitute, and any attempt to replace it with mechancial contrivances is certain to be apparent to the more discerning critics. Not all photographs have to be inspired to be worth making, but the best, rare photographs are the result of a a force at least very close to inspiration. Formulized work becomes impersonal, an all the individuality of authorship tends to disappear. It unquestionably has its uses, but it is not art."

The book itself echoes Porter's ability to redact nature's chaos into a single harmonious image, and is a well-deserved tribute to this pioneer of color nature photography.

The following was one of my favourite Eliot Porter photos:

Pool in a Brook, Brook Pond/New Hampshire by Eliot Porter - 04 Oct 1953 (Carter Museum)
I recently thought of Eliot Porter and the above photo, when I took the following photo during the 2010 Ord River Marathon:

Ord River Reflections - 2010 Ord River Marathon - Sun 14 Jun 2010

The Give and Take Miralce of Life and Photography - StreetShooter (Thu 23 Apr 2015)

Street Shooter - "[son] Mummy. What is he taking a photo of? [Mum] Go take a look when he is gone." - Fremantle (Sun 19 Apr 2015)

StreetShooter on Photography and Life:

all the sudden it occurred to me that everything in the universe has the ability to teach and to learn. So even on the streets making photos the energy you receive is equal to the energy you send. So your intent is to make photos but ya know, you aren’t in it alone. [..] If life is a give and take miracle then it stands to reason that photography is also. So that means that we think we are the origin of our work but that’s not true. We are not alone in life.

Our photographs and I am only talking about photography, are a collaboration between life and ourselves. We hope for and strive to find a synergism with the street and make the photos that represent that synergism. We can not rightfully state that we are the Origin of our work. [..]

If you are like every reader that ever was or ever will be on this blog [streetshoot.net], then you are aware that you don’t take any photographs, you collaborate wit Mother Light and The Street and you make your photos.

Tomorrow is another day and if I wake and am healthy, I’m hitting the streets. I hear tell Life is out there and I’m gonna look for it.

via Philly Street … Thoughts With … Olympus Pen EP-5 by StreetShooter.

Sydney Life 2006 (3-22 Oct 2006)

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Sydney Life

Every year, around 500,000 people come to see Sydney Life in Hyde Park North. The resonance of these images, and their evocative setting in one of Sydney’s most popular public spaces, provides a unique representation of the city’s amazing variety.

From 800 images submitted by 410 photographers, 26 artworks have been chosen by a panel of judges. Again, there is a good mix of established and emerging artists from across the spectrum of the art form, including press, documentary and art photography.

The emphasis this year seems to be upon Sydneysiders enjoying their leisure time. Portraits of people flourishing in their domestic environments such as Joanne Saad’s ‘Karaoke Friends, 2006’, Danny Huynh’s man with his chook in Fairfield, or Martin Mischkulnig’s ‘Ingrid Hoffman with her collection of ‘50s and ‘60s aprons,’ capture worlds hidden behind the suburban fence. Just outside, Adrian Brown’s ‘Cul de Sac 7’ argues that housing estate dead-ends are the place where the next generation of Socceroos are building their skills.

Some photos dwell on the diversity of the city’s subcultures, while others encompass broader cultural activities such as the outdoor cinema and surfing, or capture the beauty of Sydney’s iconic parks. This year’s images are mainly celebratory in tone, however, there are some which speak to alienation, both human and from the natural environment, such as Beverley Veasey’s wonderful ‘Goat, Capra Hircus, at the Royal Easter Show.’

I would like to thank the City of Sydney and AMP Capital Investors for their support of the project. Thank you, too, to my fellow judges. Finally and foremost, thank you to the photographers for capturing with such poignancy the many possibilities for life this wonderful city offers.

The Sydney Life Prize, valued at $10,000, is comprised of $5,000 in cash from the City of Sydney plus a $5,000 investment in the AMP Capital Investors Sustainable Future Australian Share Fund. It will be awarded for the most outstanding work in the exhibition, as decided by a distinguished panel of judges: Sandy Edwards (Curator, Sydney Life and Curator, Stills Gallery), Alan Davies (Curator of Photographs, State Library of NSW) and Bec Dean (Curator, Australian Centre for Photography).

Sandy Edwards, Curator Sydney Life

The diversity of Sydney’s communities is magnificently captured in these photographs mounted on large-scalecanvas against the leafy backdrop of Hyde Park North. Take a wander down the central boulevard and admire these stellar images.

FREE SYDNEY LIFE
CURATORIAL TOURS
Wednesday 18 October and
Saturday 21 October at 1pm
Bookings Essential:
Telephone (02) 9246 7626

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The Photographers and their Photos

Gregory McBean - The Baron and Baroness de Boyd (a.k.a. John and Jeanette)
Martin Mischkulnig - Ingrid Hanging her Aprons
Adrian Brown - Cul-de-sac 7
Jonathan Reid - Sydney Park – St Peters
Marco Bok - Mitch and Kay, Hyde Park, 1 July 2006
Kelly Mitchell - Skaters – Martin Place
Tamara Dean - Harmony Day
Beverley Veasey - Study of a Goat, Capra Hircus, at the Royal Easter Show
Steven Siewert - Not a Dry Eye in the House
Quentin Jones - Surfing from Space
Peter Solness - Dharawal Engravings and Sydney Skyline
Martin Mischkulnig - Guan Wei in Boat
Vera Hong - Rebecca
Steve Christo - Fire in his Belly.
Karl Sharp - “Revolution” (soccer fans)
Moshe Rosenzveig - Tango
Anne Zahalka - Chinese New Year Parade
Paul Blackmore - Backyard Wedding
Sasha Ruth Woolley - Natasha, 2005 (From the Limelight Series)
Danny Huynh - Culture and Cultivation
Steven Lojewski - Without a Trace, Enmore, 2006
Belinda Allen - Sacred Site – Angophoras, Royal National Park
Jeff Darmanin - Autumn in Sydney, 2006
Annette Willis - Niki and José 2006
Lee Valentine - Red

At www.archive.org - Sydney Life 2006, Art and About 2006
At Google: Programme (pdf as html)

On Photography and Authenticity - Jason Langer / Aline Smithson (Mon 15 Jun 2015)

A Heart of Flowers - Alexandria (Sat 13 Jun 2015)

Jason Langer on Photography and Authenticity:

the truest, most authentic self is only revealed in isolation. For me, the social self is a mask. The photographs collected here are, simply put, a record of my attempt to penetrate the mask and expose some glimmer of the mystery beneath.

via JASON LANGER: TWENTY YEARS by Aline Smithson.

I have also found that the true authentic self is often revealed in those raw moments in your life involving your Heart where something is lost - a relationship through a breakdown or a death. A Tear is often a manifestation of the true authentic self because there is nothing left - no masks, no filters. In those moments of loss, before, during and after, the true authentic self is most often revealed, as it should be. For it not to be, might show great resilience in character and [maybe] a Heart of Stone, but this will only magnify and potentially extend the grieving and bereavement process that should follow any significant loss.

There is a beauty (if you are prepared to look at life this way) to the process, it's rawness and what it reveals in character. It shows you are living and experiencing a meaningful life in all its extremes. I have thought that my photography could - and to some extent it has already (and when I think about it as I write these words, it is the very reason I bought my first small digital camera way back Dec 2000) - pursue this direction. They are often markers and important references in your life as you move forward. I have found great comfort in my photographs.

Hands - Greenwich Hospital (Sun 12 Apr 2015)

Sydney Life 2009 (1-25 Oct 2009)

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One of the landmark events in Art & About, this stunning outdoor exhibition of large scale images features the work of established photographers alongside work from some of our most exciting new artists. The real Sydney is revealed in the everyday and everynight, captured by the photograhic artsts who live here.

Drawn from 585 entries, the judges – Sandy Edwards (Producer ArtHere and Curator, Stills Gallery), Julie Rrap (renowned Australian artist), Malcolm Smith (Program Manager, Australian Centre for Photography) and Alastair Walton (Director City Engagement, City of Sydney) – chose 22 finalists whose work shows us Sydney in all its moods. There are portraits, images of the domestic and the iconic, melancholy, playfulness and humour.

This truly diverse selection of photographs will intrigue, delight and inspire you as you wander along the leafy central walkway of Hyde Park North, and see Sydney as you haven’t seen it before.

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The Photographers and their Photographs

Janie Barrett - Bodybuilder at Coogee Beach
Gregory McBean - Beating the Heat
Godelieve Mols - What's Happening?
Fiona Morris - The Gamble Sisters
Jacky Ghossein - Mamerta and Sabas, The Wedding
Birgit Neiser - Cityscape on Cockatoo Island
Garry Trinh - Mr Fix It
Tamara Dean - The Bride, Ritualism Series
Dean Tirkot - Dean Tirkot Self Portrait
Amanda James - "Black Diggers" Service, Anzac Day 2007
Kasia Werstak - Applause
Roslyn Sharp - Uncle Wax
Alina Gozin'a - Holroyd High School
Ali Nasseri - At Crossroad
Roslyn Sharp - Theresa Outside her Darlinghurst Home
Ingvar Kenne - Rouse Hill Welcome
Barton Bennison - Bondi Blow - Ben Buckler
Diego Emilio Ibanez - A Night in the Life
George Voulgaropoulos - Auburn Pride
Dean Sewell - Mr Bo Jangles
Andrew Goldie - Sydney is Dawning on Me
Bruce York - Contemplating Sydney Park

A fantastic photo presentation of Sydney Life 2009

At google.com.au - Programme pdf as html

On Photography - Michael Ernest Sweet (Tue 02 Sep 2014)

Untitled - Venice (Tue 09 Sep 2014)
Michael Ernest Sweet (*) writes on Photography (*):

When I look at one of my photographs, I do not see what you see. I see the moment on the street where I made the photograph and I feel into that experience. Simply put, I do not see objectively (*) - my viewing is subjective (*).

via Joel Meyerowitz and Twelve Other Street Photographers on Their Best Photographs (*) by Michael Ernest Sweet (*).

Sydney Life 2010 (23 Sep - 24 Oct 2010)

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Sydney Life

Sydney is a captivating canvas, a city of varied moods and colours, a place of both darkness and light.

This year’s stunning Sydney Life exhibition shows us the many sides of the city through the eyes of some of our most exciting photographers. Their striking large-scale images are on display in the beautiful leafy central walkway of Hyde Park North – a unique location for a unique and much loved exhibition.

Sandy Edwards (Creative Producer, Arthere and Curator, Stills Gallery), Robert McFarlane (photographer and writer), and Ace Bourke (curator) chose 22 finalists from 500 entries. Using portraiture, landscape, the staged and the candid, these photographs capture moments of playfulness, humour, melancholy and peace.

Sydney Life Artist Conversation

Wednesday 6 October
Join Sydney Life photographers past and present as they discuss photographing Sydney’s environment & characters.
6.30 – 7.30pm
Burdekin Hotel
Oxford Street, Darlinghurst

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The Photographers and their Photographs

Geoff Harvey - My Shed In St Peters - A Self Portrait
Paris Spellson - Bondi Beach Local
Steve Christo - Cole Classic
Stephen Wiessner - ANZAC Day 2010
Jenny Templin - Carmen, Elizabeth Street
Adrian Cook - That Summer
Ernest Fratczak - Based on a True Story
James Hill - The Five Ways Theatre
John McRae - The Young Photographer
Christopher Lawrie - Mikhail and the Dust Storm (more here)
Tom Williams - The Osman Family, Southerly Storm Approaching Brighton Beach
Kelly-Ann Denton - Donna
Ian Darling - The Twins
Nicholas May (winner) - Australia Day, 2010
Fiona Morris - Circus Children Dakota and Cody outside the Big Top, Tempe
Andrew Quilty - Cronulla to Central
Tamara Dean - The Pack
Jon Love - New Life
Dean Sewell - Sydney Dust Storm
Gregory McBean - Cattlemen and Charolais, Homebush 2010
Deborah Clare Veronica West - Sydney Harbour Sunday
Lynn Smith (flickr) - Blue Man

At cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au - Programme

On Taking Photographs - Trent Parke / The Eye of Photography (Thu 18 Dec 2014)

Street Portrait - London (Fri 12 Sep 2014)
Trent Parke (*) writes on taking Photographs (*):

Most of the time I’m in another world.

via Special Books : Minutes to Midnight, par Trent Parke (*) by The Eye of Photography (*).

Photos: Sydney Life 2010 (24 Sep 2010)

It's that time of the year where the northern walkway of Sydney's Hyde Park becomes an outdoor gallery for 22 large scale 3x2m canvas printed photographs. The exhibition is now called Sydney Life and is part of the month long Art and About Festival. The exhibition has been held annually since at least 2002 (that is my first recollection at least). Unfortunately, the web site for each years exhibition is overwritten by the coming years exhibition. Would be nice if there was a permanent archive, though I do have the programmes for each years selection.

Collage - Sydney Life 2010 - Hyde Park/Sydney - Fri 24 Sep 2010
On the afternoon of the second day of the exhibition (Fri 24 Sep 2010) I took a wander along the walkway to see what had been selected for this years exhibition. It was not a surprise to see Tamara Dean and Dean Sewell featuring again with another couple of stunning photos.

I always photograph all the photos in position in the Park, and this year I used my iPhone and sent the photos to a folder in my picasa account.

I often think some photos have been selected because they fit so well into the location and the framing each position along the walkway provides. In the morning the photos along the eastern walkway are backlit and in the afternoon the west side photos are backlit.

Lynn Smith's photo of an abandoned Industrial Warehouse seems to be beautifully framed by the branches of the trees in the backgound. They interact with the rafters on the warehouse's roof.

The Judges choice for this year exhibition was Nick May's black and white photo of a Bondi beach scene. They said:

"It was a difficult choice for the judges with many fine photographs to choose from but we were drawn to Nicholas May's timeless and unforgettable image showing Sydney as an almost mythic place of relaxation on Australia Day. It's a sculptural, deeply unsentimental observation of Australians at play and the cultural ambiguities found on Sydney's most famous beach."

Apart from Lynn Smith's photo, I also enjoy James Hill's elevated view of the Five Ways in Paddington using a large format camera. There is a lot going on in the photo and I will go back to look at it in more detail.

Finally, I think Tamara Dean's photo, The Pack, from her Series This Too Shall Pass is a beautifully delicate photo, which is a signature element in many of her photos. Must admit I don't really understand it, but it is beautiful to look at in the afternoon before the sun disappears early behind the city sky line. It really did stand out.

Will take a walk to see what the light does to the photos in the morning.

[Post note: A great article on last year's Sydney Life - Sydney Life, 1 October 2009 - not obvious which photographer it was who put this together. Would like to see the documentary. ]

Proof Sheet - Sydney Life 2010 - Hyde Park/Sydney - Fri 24 Sep 2010

Nick May - Sydney Life 2010 - Hyde Park/Sydney - Fri 24 Sep 2010

Geoff Harvey - Sydney Life 2010 - Hyde Park/Sydney - Fri 24 Sep 2010

James Hill - Sydney Life 2010 - Hyde Park/Sydney - Fri 24 Sep 2010

Lynn Smith (flickr) - Sydney Life 2010 - Hyde Park/Sydney - Fri 24 Sep 2010

Paris Spellson - Sydney Life 2010 - Hyde Park/Sydney - Fri 24 Sep 2010

Tamara Dean (more) - Sydney Life 2010 - Hyde Park/Sydney - Fri 24 Sep 2010

Gregory McBean - Sydney Life 2010 - Hyde Park/Sydney - Fri 24 Sep 2010

Tom Williams - Sydney Life 2010 - Hyde Park/Sydney - Fri 24 Sep 2010

Steve Christo - Sydney Life 2010 - Hyde Park/Sydney - Fri 24 Sep 2010