Current Exhibition Work

Thanks to Gary for documenting my work and organising the whole exhibition

Upcoming Exhibition.

I have been invited to exhibit later this year at the Murray Bridge Regional Gallery. I scanned some 5x4 negatives and had them output digitally.
More information on the Mallee Routes Blog

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Arthur Tress

Boy with Hockey Gloves 1968

Arthur Tress was an early inspiration, and one of the early photobooks I bought. Here's a link to his work on All About Photo. There are a handful of images I've not seen before.

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HOW TO SEE with Stephen Shore

"Seeing with a conscious attention.
Seeing with self-awreness" 

Great lessons to be learned.
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Empty Spaces

2019-10-29 13:38:06

Northland Shopping Centre. The rear delivery area looking dishevelled and empty. Possibly a rare moment of stillness?

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Documentary or Art?

I was fortunate to be recently given an inspection copy of a new publication that explores the idea of documentary photography in the 21st century. Published by  BLOOMSBURY VISUAL ARTS, called DOCUMENTARY PHOTOGRAPHY RECONSIDERED, by MICHELLE BOGRE. 

It has a collection of essays, profiles and exercises designed for the inexperienced to the professional who uses a camera to create documents. I will find it useful in my teaching moving forward for sure. This paragraph from chapter two, Memory is dynamic, resonates:-

"With our modern understanding of the vicissitudes of photography, how do we reconcile our knowledge of the malleability of the photograph with our cultural reliance on the image as evidence to form our collective memories? Even though critics and scholars debate whether photographs are “true,” generally the viewing public still intuitively or rationally believes that what appears in the photograph existed in front of the camera. Even when almost all digital images are retouched post-production, the public still believes in photographic truth. Viewers might distrust “the media,” but they still believe the photograph. The general audience doesn’t really care about the philosophical nuances of photographic truth. Viewers generally believe that even if photographs are manipulated, the changes are modest, and irrelevant to the truth of the event. In fact, most post-production only alters the original; it doesn’t reconstruct it. Post-production usually doesn’t so completely erase the original image as to negate its indexicality. Viewers also are not engaged in the debate about the profound philosophical difference between analog and digital photography. To them, an image is an image is an image."

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C Roads & Other Adventures?

Borung, Victoria, Australia. 2019-10-18 17:00:01

I spent some time on the road exploring the edges of the Mallee recently. I am working on an idea that is a kind of 20th century flanuer, in a car.

The parameters are simple. I drive for an hour or so on any of the main highways west or north. Then once I leave the freeway or highway attempt to follow only C roads.  Usually I have to cross The Great Dividing Range to really see some changes in environment and culture. This trip the second for the year was no exception. I choose my route by considering the light and the amount of time I may need to get home.

This trip found me in a place called Borung. A small hamlet/village about 30 mins north east of  Wedderburn. The hamlet consisted of a few houses, and a disused wheat silo. Many of the houses were run down, the primary school closed.

I made this image at Borung, but worry is it a trope?

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This week on flickr...

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David Campany Quote

I recently gained access to RMIT’s library, as an alumni. This has many advantages for me. I suspect I will spend a few hours in the space over the upcoming summer holidays. I can also preview books that I am considering buying. One such book is an exhibition catalogue that MOMA published recently to accompany a retrospective of Stephen Shore’s work. It contains several essays by numerous authors. David Campany is one. Mr. Campany writes a short piece about individual images in this book. I found this quote this morning and see it as quite pertinent.

“There is always a tension between the photograph as artwork and document; between choice and automatism; between intention and chance; between system and intuition; between individual image and its place in a body of work; and between what can be known consciously and what can only be felt unconsciously.”
Pg 126 Stephen Shore, MOMA
ISBN 978-1-63345-048-6

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Flickr, Explore and Stats?

My current top 3 most viewed images, above the older 3.

One of SmugMug's promises was to improve the Explore algorithm. Up until this year 3 images had held the top spot fairly solidly. This seems to have changed this year. My current top three most viewed images have all entered that spot in the last few months. So it seems the new owners have made good on the promise. Still a closer examination of the stats show the vast majority of the views coming from Android devices. I wish flickr would allow a more granular approach to these numbers.

Jimbo Boy  at #4 and East Bentleigh  at #6 were for many years my most viewed images. But with North Melbourne hitting top spot briefly in 2018, then the latest three moving the rest down it seems changes are indeed afoot.

For many years this picture was my most viewed; albeit probably for the wrong reasons. It has fallen way down the the list to number 23.

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Vale Harvey Benge [27 July 1944 – 7 October 2019]

Mr. Benge's blog screen grabbed on 14th of October 2019

Although I only knew of Mr Benge via the internet, his presence was warm acknowledged by all who spoke of him. I have added his blog to my links in the sidebar. He was a prolific photobook maker one of which I had the good fortune to purchase over the weekend. I have begun searching his other books too. Lensculture.com has an extensive listing of his projects. [edit 2019-11-11] MomentoPro also have an obituary for Harvey. Doug Spowart also has an obituary on Harvey.

A selection of Harvey Benge's books
as listed by lens culture.

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This week on flickr...

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This week on flickr

Tsimshatsui East, Kowloon City, Hong Kong. 2014-07-06 08:15:47

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Scanned 5x4 film & upcoming exhibition

Along Arumpo Road Circa 1996

Perry's Sandhills, Wentworth circa 1996

Near Broken Hill circa 1996 

Seventh Street, Mildura circa 1996

I had these 5x4 inch Tmax 400 film images scanned by Image Science in North Melbourne recently. They have done an excellent job. I could never had imagined these scanned so well. In addition I am now able to exhibit them.

Until scanning them I was reluctant to make prints especially on large and expensive paper as these images often have defects undetectable on a contact print. Once enlarged of course the defects too are enlarged. Removal of these kinds of defects was never something I learned at college.

Scanning the negs and retouching them using digital tools like photoshop bring these pictures back to life. Given the cheap price of the scans, I may now use this workflow to make large prints of my older 5x4 negatives, for future exhibitions.

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Recent finds

Southbank, Melbourne, Vcitoria, Ausralia. 2019-09-30 12:54:51

Revisiting the location in and around Southbank yesterday delivered some interesting results. I also photographed the torn poster on film using my Hasselbald.

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Infrastructure in Melbourne

Footscray, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. 2019-09-30 15:54:53

There are 2 major infrastructure projects going on in the west right now. The Westgate tunnel and the Metro rail loop. This is a construction site where the Westgate tunnel will impact on the local environment. I happened past on a other errand today and decided to stop and hunt out any worthwhile pictures. Of course the sites are all shrouded in chain mesh fences. This is where small camera lenses come in handy. They can be poked though the fence for a better composition. More as I revisit this and other sites in my favourite time of the year. The light really starts to develop some character now especially in the evenings.

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Flickr posting increase

Tsimshatsui East, Kowloon City, Hong Kong, 2014-07-06 08:16:45

As I am on term break at the moment I have decided to ramp up my posting to flickr, so far there has been three postings in the past week, up from my usual one.

This image is from my archive from a Hong Kong Holiday in 2014. A time where I was able to flaneur around the city, thanks to the loan of a Android device with local internet connectivity as my guide.

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External reviews of BIFB

Kantor Portrait Prize. Image courtesy of Imaging Insider

Inside imaging a photography trade website has a review of this years Biennial, which had a much different flavour to the preceding years review

There is also an intersting poll on their mainpage, scroll down and see what readers think about the question. "Is it right that BIFB founder, Jeff Moorfoot, is not mentioned on the BIFB website or program?"

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Return Visits...

Southbank, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. 2019-09-26 12:20:32

I returned briefly on Friday the 27th to the site I drove by on Sunday 22nd and discovered much more than I had hoped

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Drive-by Southbank, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

Southbank, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. 2019-09-22 16:24:32

This area is changing rapidly in ways I've not noticed before.
we were driving home after lunch at the famous Rockpool Bar & Grill. To celebrate my wife's birthday. It is always a great experience.
We are leaving the casino complex's car park and heading down Kingsway.

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Ars Technica iOS13 review

My current home screen on my iPhone XS

A far more in-depth review than I could write and covering more than just Photos and the camera itself.

"...That said, the iPhone was originally envisioned as a more focused user experience than a desktop computer. That focus was on simplicity and the ability for users to naturally intuit how the device would behave when they interacted with it with their fingers. Easy discoverability and easy access to core features were central ideas."

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This week on flickr...?

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iOS 13

Screengrab, iphone XS, iOS 13

I upgraded to iOS 13 this morning. Lots of cool new features. The photos app has had a major overhaul. For the average user these can be useful. I personally don't use them much. I use professional desktop tools to manage my photographs. Unless the function is a 'snap' such as our new kittens or some other personal memory related event. Think weddings, birthdays and parties. Some features such as liking/hearting/favouriting adding to albums and sharing has moved and wasn't immediately intuitive. Once I found it it made perfect sense. People who don't like these kinds of change will of course complain. Here's the list of all the changes from the Apple site.

All-new Photos tab
The all-new Photos tab lets you browse your photo library with different levels of curation, so it’s easy to find, relive and share your photos and videos. You can view everything in All Photos, focus on your unique photos in Days, relive your significant moments in Months or rediscover your highlights in Years.

Auto-playing Live Photos and videos
Throughout the Photos tab, muted Live Photos and videos begin playing as you scroll, bringing your photo library to life.

Smart photo previews
In Days, Months and Years, photo previews are larger to help you distinguish between shots. Photos uses intelligence to find the best part of your photo in photo previews, which means you get to see the uncropped version of your photo when you tap to view it.

Contextual transitions
Animations and transitions keep your place in the Photos tab, so you can switch between views — like Days and All Photos — without losing your place.
Removes similar shots and clutter
Duplicate photos, screenshots, whiteboard photos, documents and receipts are identified and hidden, so you see only your best shots.

Significant events
Months presents your photos by events, so you can rediscover the moments that matter most.
Event titles
The Photos tab displays the name of the location, holiday or concert performer to provide helpful context for your significant events.
On this Day
Years is contextual, so it shows you photos taken on or around today’s date in past years.
Birthday mode
If you have birthdays assigned to people in your People album, the Photos tab will highlight your photos of them on their birthday.

Zoom in and zoom out
View your library in All Photos however you’d like. Zoom in for a closer look, or zoom out to quickly scan through your library and see all your shots at once.
Screen recordings smart album
All your new screen recordings are now in one place.

Search enhancements
You can combine multiple search terms — like “beach” and “selfies” — without tapping each word in Search.

Music for Memories
Soundtracks for Memory movies are selected based on what you listen to in the Apple Music app.
Extended Live Photos playback
When you press and hold to play a Live Photo, Photos will automatically extend the video when you have Live Photos taken within 1.5 seconds of each other.

Preview intensity
As you apply an edit, each adjustment displays its intensity, so you can see at a glance which effects have been increased or decreased.

Individually review each effect
Tap each effect icon to see what your photo looked like before and after the effect was applied.

Filter control
Control the intensity of any filter, like Vivid or Noir, to fine-tune your look.

Enhance control
Enhance now lets you control the intensity of your automatic adjustments. As you increase or decrease Enhance, you’ll see other adjustments — including Exposure, Brilliance, Highlights, Shadows, Contrast, Brightness, Black Point, Saturation and Vibrance — intelligently change with it.

Video editing support
Adjustments, filters and crop support video editing, so you can rotate, increase exposure or even apply filters to your videos. Video editing supports all video formats captured on iPhone, including 4K video at 60 fps and 1080p slow-motion video at 240 fps.1
Nondestructive video edits
Video edits are now nondestructive, so you can remove an effect like a filter or undo a trim to return to your original video.
Vibrance
Boost muted colours to make your photo richer without affecting skin tones and saturated colours.
White Balance
Balance the warmth of an image by adjusting temperature (blue to yellow) and tint (green to magenta).
Sharpen
Change photos by making edges crisper and better defined.
Definition
Increase image clarity by adjusting the definition slider.
Noise reduction
Reduce or eliminate noise such as graininess or speckles in photos.
Vignette
Add shading to the edges of your photo to highlight a powerful moment using Strength, Radius and Falloff.

Updates to auto adjustments
Straighten, crop and adjust the perspective of your photos automatically.

Pinch-to-zoom support
You can pinch to zoom while editing to review your changes on a specific area of your photo.

Image Capture API
The Image Capture API lets you import photos directly into an app when a camera is connected to your iOS device.*


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Martin Parr on selfies!

I welcome all these trends. I love things that are ephemeral, things that are changing. As a documentary photographer my job is to understand the way the world is changing and to document that. So how could you not include this in such work? It’s such an integral part of who we are now. And it’s all new! Ten years ago this didn’t exist, and I can’t see their demise.

source 

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Inbox?

Today in my inbox I received this email, for a service I showed interest in in 2014! I know have a page at this uri, https://tilde.club/~s2art/ . I still need to work out how to use it?

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Szarkowski on Atget

Watch this short video of Szarkowski talking about Atget and his work.
From Britannica online

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iPhone 11 etc...

Shot on my iPhone XS using CameraPro in RAW, processed in Lightroom.

Unless you have been living under a rock this last week you would know that Apple, at its annual event announced some new iPhones. They are iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max. The two higher end models 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max boast new chips that Wired claims will make significant differences to pro level photography. The changes in software and hardware make sense. However the software changes for me make little sense. All I need in a smartphone camera is the ability to capture in raw, and to make some exposure adjustments as needed in-situ. A live histogram helps too. Apple’s new phones make multiple exposures and use software and neural networks to composite a single image from up to 9 pictures. Here’s Wired description of the computer hardware changes.

Under its glass and metal exterior, each iPhone has a new A13 Bionic processor, which should offer a decent speed upgrade. Apple claimed that the new chip has the fastest-ever CPU and GPU in a smartphone, and wowed the crowd at Tuesday's event with a show of big numbers to back up the claim. Per Apple, the new chip is capable of 1 trillion operations per second, and holds 8.5 billion transistors.

What this means for photographers is the ability to use more computational photography. Useful in a tight situation, say a war zone or wedding where experimenting with 3rd party apps features or exposure settings, like the ProCamera  and Halide are not feasible. Still for me I make most of my digital images by exposing to the right and correcting in post. So this superpower of computational photography is a bonus but not a feature that my images would live or die by.
Still computational photography has been a thing for some time now. It’s not going away any time soon so it will be interesting to see where it goes from here.

The above raw file in Lightroom, left before right after processing

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Clouds

2019-09-12 07:44:09

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Sometimes I dabble in Video

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Spring is on its way

2019-09-03 17:29:44

Driving though the CBD on Tuesday night the light was resplendent.

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