For Ronin (because he asked nicely).
Last modified on 2009-10-27 01:43:44 GMT. 2 comments. Top.
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Focus
Last modified on 2009-10-23 02:30:55 GMT. 1 comment. Top.
I had a nice chat with my mate Jonathan this morning about focus. We were looking at some of the wonderful images he has taken over the last six months working with a NGO in the Philippines and agreed that, frankly, we just couldn’t give a shit about sharp as long as the image still says what it needs to. Its not true for all of the images you take – I certainly wouldn’t want everything I shoot to be out of focus – but it feels good to let go of that pressure for perfection and simply appreciate the aesthetics of the occasional unsharp shot.
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Trying to photograph Puppa
Last modified on 2009-10-21 03:08:27 GMT. 3 comments. Top.
This is my granddad, we call him Puppa, but his name is Tom. As he gets older it scares me that I’ll lose him before I ever get to know him. We love each other but I don’t think we have any idea who the other one is. I guess it doesn’t matter, it doesn’t have to be some deep, profound relationship where you know each other. It can just be love (Just love? Like love isn’t the most important thing).
But still I photograph him, trying to understand him. It would probably be easier to ask questions but conversations have no substance I can retain for when he is not here. They are curious fluid creatures, intent on escaping, slippery to grasp, impossible to hold. Photos are my way of capturing him, stealing his image for when I can’t anymore, something that looms uncomfortably close.
He gets sick of me photographing him. Humphs at me. Damn camera. I don’t care, I push it, test his boundaries. I don’t see him enough to be polite and approach gently. I’m trying to photograph some essence of him, something I can keep, something I can look at and say ‘This is how he was’. It’s hard. I struggle to make images that are him, not of him. I omit his face, for now, trying to minimise distraction. I don’t know if it works. I keep trying. Time is escaping.
I cry every time I say goodbye to him. These photographs are desperate; part of that preemptive sorrow. It’s really hard to make good images when you are desperate.
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Auntie Kim’s Iris
Last modified on 2009-10-21 03:10:41 GMT. 1 comment. Top.
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Shoot ‘em up
Last modified on 2009-10-14 23:28:25 GMT. 0 comments. Top.
This photo was one of those ones where you see something and swing you camera up from your hip almost in time to grab it. Hate the angle but love the action. It was a protest pic (yes, really) outside the Evans Head RSL. I guess if he doesn’t win the fight he’ll just shoot ‘em up.
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Dog for Blythe
Last modified on 2009-10-14 13:16:27 GMT. 0 comments. Top.
Because these are her second favourite dogs.
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Age
Last modified on 2009-10-14 12:53:55 GMT. 0 comments. Top.
I’ve been sorting through some old photos and these two came up next to each other in my files. It’s just a skater dude from Ballina and some old dudes in the Kyogle ANZAC march but there is something symbolic about seeing the images together.
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Murwillumbah in Mist
Last modified on 2009-10-13 22:42:29 GMT. 1 comment. Top.
I was leaving my parent’s house late Sunday and when I walked out the front door I could see a heavy mist curling around the empty streets. It was eerie, the strange echoing sounds of night muffled by the foggy blanket. The colour patches of streetlights lighting the opaque air warranted a quick forage for some frames. But it was too like a True Blood episode and I got spooked and made a run for the car. Felt like I was a kid again, sure something was just behind me in the dark, silent, stealthy and so close to reaching out to grab me. Goosebumps and adrenaline; I’ve always had an overactive imagination, plus I watch too many vampire shows.
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Corum and Indrefjord
Last modified on 2009-12-16 06:01:19 GMT. 2 comments. Top.
Lovers.
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My mates
Last modified on 2009-10-11 12:08:45 GMT. 1 comment. Top.
These are some of the people that I love like the spin of box of wine on a lazy susan. Andy who pretends otherwise but who is mushy in the middle, and his perfect-fit giggly wife Amanda; Luke Everything who is intense and passionate and steadfastly loyal, and his lady Lily who is a rose-coloured romantic; Leon the solid anchor who can hold you steady through any storm, and his pretty sweet Lizzy; Arjuna, our thinker, our pirate, our poet; Thoughtful Sass who laughs like a turkey gobble; and Luke who is green, the colour of love.
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