Provenance

Painters, Printers, Sculptors, Photographers, Sound Engineers and Poets ... we can often become familiar with artists' work but not the indivuals themselves.

With Provenance I wanted to create portraits of artists behind the art. I chose to present them decontextualised from their art practice so as not to influence or distract you, the viewer, from the presence of the person in front of you.

The portraits were created through a combination of medium format film photography and modern digital techniques. My first major show for 2017 is on now at the Huw Davies Gallery, Manuka Arts Centre until the 10th of September. Thank you to everyone at PhotoAccess who has been fantastic in the preparation for this show.

The Portraits

The Artists (and the Backs of Their Heads)

The Invitation


Shoot: Lisa Richards Live

On a ridiculously hot evening in January I had the pleasure of photographing Lisa Richards at Smith's Alternative in Canberra City. Lisa was promoting her new album A light from the other side and playing songs from her multitude of other, excellent releases. Astute readers will know that I contributed artwork to this album along with a number of other professional media photos.

Lisa was joined on stage by Matt Nightingale on double and electric bass and Jeannette Bradley on banjo and fiddle. It was a lovely intimate performance and well suited to the Smith's Alternative venue.

Lisa's album (and her other releases) are available from her website.


Cell Block 69 - Live at The Basement

The incomparable Cell Block 69 performing live at The Basement - 16th December 2016 ... what a show!


Shoot: Cell Block 69

Cell Block 69 ... 80's synth-pop masters and mainstays of the Canberra and Sydney music scene are once again gearing up for their annual 'Final Show Ever!' series of 2016 gigs. I had the great privilege of photographing their promo shots for this year. Featuring a Delorean (complete with a functioning Flux Capacitor) and the use of my new studio space. There were two basic outfit changes for this shoot... the first was a future-tech white series.

The second, denim, denim and still more denim ... double denim too. There were the studio shots in a Calvin Klein inspired wall shoot.

And the series featuring the Delorean. That car was hot! Literally hot as the polished stainless steel threatened to peel any bare skin laid upon it. Thank you to Callum for loaning his car for the shoot!

I also did a series of individual portraits of the band members.

 

Some blurb from Moshtix where you can purchase tickets for their end of year shows.

69 is number 1! Let the nine Corey’s of Rock (and to a lesser but not to be undermined extent, synth pop) take you to the year Two Thousand and Nineteen Eighty Sixteen for a performance of hit songs of unfathomable proportion.

Always surfing on the curtails of their latest dazzling Rock (and to a smaller but not to be undermined extent, synth pop) stadium performance extraordinaire, CELL BLOCK 69 return to the recently voted most playable city in the world, Canberry.

Duanne Le Corey-Michaels and his 8 Coreys of Eighties Awesomeness, return direct from generic Europe for their annual "Final Show Ever ". CELL BLOCK 69 are number one and they will show you why.

Read more at http://www.moshtix.com.au/v2/event/cell-block-69/89523#z8B2Mk0ExKBD1Zke.99

 


Tango!

Tango!
I was fortunate to be given the opportunity to photograph the bi-annual Tango in the Spring event held over last weekend at the Albert Hall. The event, which runs over four days, attracts some of the top Tango dancers from around the country. There are workshops and Practica each day and a Milonga each night. I photographed the main dance (or Milonga) on the Saturday night.

The lighting was very dim and I was shooting at the far end of practical for my camera. This was great for the atmosphere of the dance but it was tricky to photograph in. To give you an idea I was frequently shooting at ISO 10k+ at f/1.6 and f/2.8 and just managing 1/60th of a second exposure. I had to learn how the dancers moved to be able to anticipate where they would be and when. Also, the colour of the lighting (apart from being dim!) was orange and I had some tricky manoeuvring to do in post to pull out something that resembles a white-balanced image ;-)

 

It was a great night and the dancing was superb!

Links


afterDARK at the Botanic Gardens

afterDARK at the Botanic Gardens (the Australian National Botanic Gardens) is a series of night time walks through the gardens. Participants get to make their own tea-light lanterns and go on educational, guided walks with the rangers. I was commissioned to take some photographs this year of the evening walkers.