James in the street (London, 2005)
I recently watched Simon Sinek’s talk entitled ‘How great leaders inspire action’. Although I don’t agree with everything he’s saying, the base principal of reversing the typical what? how? why? sequence, to the why? how? what? sequence used by those we are all aiming to be…seems an interesting place to start the year from.
Food for thought.
Amongst other things over the Christmas break, I have been reviewing a heap of slides and negatives that I took as a teenager during various trips we took in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia. It was the time of the trusty RICOH 35 EFL and Pentax P30n, 35mm film cameras. Below 3 shots of the vast Etosha Pan in Namibia.
It’s my retrospective tribute to Hiroshi Sugimoto. Happy Holiday’s from Australia!
Just caught this on Channel ONE. Derek and Craig Hoffmann’s documentary on surfing photography on Hawaii’s North Shore. Check it out…
I recently came accross some of the scariest scarecrows that I have ever seen when driving past one of those kid-friendly animal farms. How can you expect a child to hand feed a kangaroo with these fellows looking over your shoulder?
The T-Shirt read ‘Transylvanian Hunger’… not a crow in sight.
Strange Companions
#17
I recently added a couple of camera’s to my film collection.
… pictured below along with my pleasantly indescicive holga, are the latest two additions; a 35mm Olympus Trip and a No.2 Folding Autographic Brownie (minus stylus pen – so anyone wanting to sell one please email me!).
I am writing this post not so much as to speak about cameras but to speak about how using this equipment forces you to slow down/decelerate and think a little more about what you are doing. When everyone is armed with a semi-automatic dslr weapon shooting 60 frames a second, it’s going to be more interesting to swim against the tide – and at least from a fine art perspective – put the tools in place to create a genuinely alternative appraoch.
…The older the equipment, the more patience required and the more patience
required equals more thought and more thought equals stronger ideas and concepts towards image making…
no. 2 folding autographic kodak brownie
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olympus trip 35mm
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holga 120N
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#10
#08
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Originally seen on PIC’s Noticeboard. Thanks.
I have been captivated and moved by the work of photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand , since visiting the ‘Earth from the Air’ exhibition at the Natural History Museum in London.
The aspect that sets Yann apart from many other photographers / people is the underlying importance of the message in his work.
The message from ‘HOME’ for me is a simple one concerning beauty (earth) and greed (humanity). I wasn’t really prepared for the impact ‘HOME’ would have and how it would subsequently keep playing on both my sub concious and my conscience.
Whoever you are, or wherever you live, this film is relevant to you…go and buy this film, or at very least watch it (for free) on-line:
The photography is awe inspiring and deeply emotive, fantastically composed and inspirational. The message is sobering. Whether or not you have any kind of faith or ‘spiritual’ bent I find the movie intrinsicly linked to this statement from the Bible: ‘Each of us will have to give a personal account to God’. Romans 14:12 I am not here to give a sermon, but we are responsible for our planet and we have to take responsibility for our actions, and at very least make some part of our lives / work in some way help to save the planet.
As the movie describes, the lesson is there to learn from Easter Island, but it seems like we have not learned it.
To summarise, take Dubai, as illustrated in the film – a place so unnaturally focused on growth and development, pillaging and raping the earth to get to where it is, it then ships in all the essentials you need for daily life: food & water, etc..to the extent that the very essentials it needs to survive are not as important as the superfluous beast that it is…look in the mirror and I guess you will find there’s a little ‘Dubai’ in each of us.
See Yann’s Charities and find out more here: www.goodplanet.org
Watch the movie here: www.youtube.com/homeproject
As I have been updating my website, here’s an update on some of my new work – which can be viewed by selecting this link:
the girl in the ruined house stock photography
