Millennium Man?

Millennium Man 2020-01-31 07:23:33

Sunshine Marketplace shopping centre has a statue made by Big Fish in Footscray called ‘Millennium Man’. Originally deigned to last 5 years, it was built and installed in the late 1990s. It has stayed in its current position outside the cinema complex to this day. It is currently fenced off. I hope it will be repaired and restored. More importantly I hope it is kept. My pc3020 tumblr has some pictures of it before restoration. I have a small flickr album of photographs of him as well.

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Quotes & the archive?

While pockets of the internet, ponder the future of flickr, I decided to deep dive into my own archive. In the process I found this gem of a quote from this picture:-

"I appreciate its historiocity, but it does little for me beyond its cognitive appeal."

The comment was from a friend and was a joke and part of a larger voting game DBOLRL. This camaraderie has long disappeared. Sadly. Still I enjoy seeing others work and engaging a little with them as well. Knowing that the pictures are displayed to their best and no feeding some advertising algorithm helps too.

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January Skies?

I have been taking advantage of the unusual weather patterns here in Melbourne at the moment. Usually summer means bright blue skies, not a cloud to be seen and heat. This was how it had been until a few days ago.  Combine this with a recent discussion I had with Gary in South Australia had me visiting some locations I don't often frequent, well enough anyway. Mainly because they don't fit into my ongoing project on Sunshine. Today of course was an exception as the clouds and skies were much more interesting than usual. I have spent quite a lot of time outside making pictures these last few days. Mostly digital though.

Gary and I discussed the Kororoit creek while I was staying with him. The creek itself runs though Sunshine and has various paths and tracks along it. The creek eventually goes out to Port Phillip Bay at a place called Altona. Altona has several refineries and a lot of low lying ground. This makes for challenging pictures, even on public land. Today’s skies were a bonus though. Melbourne’s only road that has a ford is here too. This floods periodically and was indeed flooded today. This didn't stop several people mainly in 4 Wheel Drive vehicles from crossing the creek. Altona abuts another suburb with a rich history, Williamstown. I spent the day criss-crossing the boundaries of the two.

2020-01-23 11:08:33 Racecourse Road, Williamstown facing north west near the ford created by Kororoit Creek

2020-01-23 11:15:21 Racecourse Road, Williamstwon facing south east, the ford in the middle ground

2020-01-23 11:09:44 Werribee train line, with refinery infrastructure in the background

2020-01-23 11:12:01 Dead trees, and Werribee train line, with refinery infrastructure in the background

2020-01-23 11:41:34 Soccer field in front of refinery at Altona.

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Social Media Malaise?

There seems to be a shift in approach to social media. Andy Adams, Bryan Formhals, Jorg Colberg Noah Kalina and Alec Soth all are writing and distributing via means other than Facebook or Twitter. Lewis Bush began the year by advocating for a shift away from Twitter. Will the idea gather steam and snowball?

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Flakphoto & Andy Adams

Andy Adams is an all round nice guy and one of the webs biggest spokespeople for Photography. He is launching a new newsletter and is hoping as many as possible will sign up. You can do so here, flak.photo











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Alternate Browsers?

I do not use Google Chrome, habitually, although I use the map feature often. I do not use google as a search engine either. The reasons are quite clear in the quote below from todays Age newspaper article. I use duckduckgo as my primary search engine with Safari which has historically given better colour support and management than any other browser. Using alternate browsers makes sense in an our current highly surveilled world.

Some other browsers to consider are, iCab, Opera, Firefox, Tor.  On the desktop and mobile platforms.

Google has talked about this approach before. While Apple and Mozilla don't derive much money from advertising, the vast majority of Google's revenue comes from digital ads.

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Photo 2020

PHOTO 2020 is a major new international festival of photography that will activate Melbourne and sites across Regional Victoria with the most inspiring photography from Australia and around the world.

Taking place every two years, the festival addresses the major issues of our time in a program of free exhibitions, outdoor displays and artist commissions across the city, as well as talks, film screenings, masterclasses, education programs and awards. Presenting ideas critical to contemporary photographic discourse, PHOTO encourages the public to engage with and think about photography and visual culture in new and inspiring ways.

The inaugural festival, PHOTO 2020, runs from 23 April to 10 May 2020 and is being delivered in collaboration with over 25 cultural institutions, museums, galleries and universities. The theme for PHOTO 2020 invites artists, curators, writers and academics to interrogate the relationship between photography and truth in the post-internet age.

More info on their website.

Given the size of the photo art scene here in Melbourne I’m surprised I only know 4 of the 70 Australian artists; personally. But I'm excited to see Martin Parr is contributing.

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Some early year ruminations.

West Sunshine, 2020-01-09 17:05:05

I am no fan of best of lists or end of year lists at all.

I will never write about gear. I envy after several pieces of kit. But they are all mostly on the 2nd hand market these days.

I write here for two reasons, to practice my writing skills, both generally and as I consider my PHD application at some point in the future. Oh and to showcase some of the work I am working on. This image to the right is from my ongoing Sunshine Project, on tumblr
Here’s a list of projects I am working on as they're called these days:-

• Sunshine, postcode 3020 and its changes using both film and digital, the film idea is titled  'Sunshine in Silver Stanza 1 though X', the digital work lives online on tumblr [pc3020.tumlr.com]. For now.
• Several photobooks in various stages of pre-prodcution and a handful completed listed on my main website a link will be added once my technological issues are resolved.
• Collage and montage projects, these have just this year begun. After many years of gestation. The plan is for them to be small cheap 6x 4 postcards.
• A small group of pictures currently titled ‘A Winter Mornings Walk’, inspired by Robert Adams’ work Summer nights. [silver gelatin a work in progress final size to be determined]
• A series of silver gelatin prints I have printed and exhibited twice called Maps.
• A series of silver gelatin prints about bridges all shot on 5x4 film and more than 20 years unfinished.
• A series of silver gelatin prints on the urban landscape from both 5x4 film and 120 film black and white.
• A small type C print series of pictures near on and around the Ring road M8 freeway, in progress.
• Two  of tumblrs that explore time and place one at work  the other at home as well as a tumblr of pictures uploaded on the the fly that are loosely curated in any order that suits, the only connection being visual from picture to picture
• A large box of polaroids that needs editing down to a book.
• One tentative exhibition has been proposed but is still in the verbal discussion phase.
• Working on the South Eastern fringes of the Mallee, and the rural towns in-between
• C Roads and other Adventures a digital psychogeographic exploration of Victoria, or anywhere else I wander with "purpose" 
• Pictures of nothing or as I like to call it Neo-Documentary

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Flickr is AWESOME!

The second picture that I uploaded to flickr in 2004.

I have been a  flickr.com pro user since 2004.* I have invested heavily in its service for my own creative needs and to share with a larger community. Now with the NBN I also backup all my jpegs and  tiff files. I have unlimited storage and bandwidth for about $75.00 AU per year. It is worth every cent. If you care about your photographs and want to keep them safe and not be used as some kind of ad or artificial intelligence fodder then consider using flickr as a minimum to store your work, but consider getting involved as well. Smugmug as the new owners are doing a great job with flickr. I see no reason why SmugMug would allow this great service to fade! Don't just listen to me I am biased after all; 16 years of biased in fact, Read this article if you need some clarification.  Ferdy Christant says it in much more detail, more eloquently and logically than I ever could. Follow me s2art. Or not. Flickr is still the best place in the world to share and store your photographs!

* This is not a paid endorsement, although I have used flickr daily since 2004. I continue to enjoy it and use it creatively and socially and now as a secondary backup service.

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Vale John Baldessari!

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Emergencies?

Bush Fire Aftermath Flowerdale Victoria Australia 2009-03-02 16:05:17

Australia is currently experiencing another bushfire crisis. Bushfires have severely impacted on many parts of the east coast mainly small towns and hamlets that have expanses of bush all the way to the town edge, sometime with only the sea as a barrier to safety. This quote is from The Financial Review by a journalist who lived through it. It resonates with me because technology forms such a large pat of my life.

On the ground where it matters, people have not been tuned into politics or the cricket or Twitter. Technology was largely rendered useless. It was about petrol, cash, food and shelter.

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HASSELBLAD HEROINES [A CELEBRATION OF FEMALE PHOTOGRAPHERS]

Hasselblad Heroines shines a light on female photographers around the globe as they make their mark in what has been typically referred to as a male-dominated industry. Through these weekly spotlights, each Heroine shares their experiences, tips, and inspiration with their Hasselblad to fellow photographers.

Read the full article here

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Rinse and Repeat; a gallery on flickr

One of my favouite features of flickr is the ability to create galleries of other people's work. These can be as simple as 'favourites' or revolve around an idea simple or complex, I have several of these galleries on flickr. Click on the picture above to see the whole gallery.

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The Online Photographer: 2020 OCOLOY: The Joy of Looking and the Satisfaction of Seeing

Photo by David Travis on Unsplash

One camera one year one lens, now there’s an idea I can get behind!
The Online Photographer: 2020 OCOLOY: The Joy of Looking and the Satisfaction of Seeing:

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MOMA, and a Daguerreotype

Lee Ann Daffner (the photography conservator at MoMA) taking care of the Girault de Prangey daguerreotype;that is now on view on the 5th Floor at the Museum. Due to its light sensitivity, this needs to be swapped out within the next few weeks.

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Focus is overrated!

I was out having lunch with friends, recently. The weather was not conducive to one’s health. The smoke from the bushfires raging in NSW had drifted south. A blanket of smoke covered Melbourne. We had hoped to have a drink in a little rooftop bar in Carlton. It was closed due to weather! But I did mange to fire off a couple of pictures. Sadly I was too quick for the camera’s focussing function to activate, so, the pictures are all out of focus. Still perhaps it amplifies the mood!

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Flickr is the world’s largest photographer-focused community.

Flickr is the world’s largest photographer-focused community. Flickr hosts some of the world’s most iconic, most priceless photos, freely available to the entire world. Want a discounted pro membership? Anybody wanting to take up flickr on their 25% off Pro membership offer, use the
Coupon code 25in2019, or click this link.

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Australian Photo History

This weekend was prolific in terms of my online reading. I’m still enjoying my RSS newsfeed  feed. Dr. James McCardle has written an interesting piece on the history of Australian art photography on his blog. I had a brief exchange with Dr. McCardle which  led me to a Wikipedia entry he has written on the history of the photographers gallery and workshop. A space I was involved in heavily in the 1990s. Dr. McCardle's article also  lead to an MA thesis on the history of the ACP, another important photographic institution in the history of Australian photography.

All in all a busy Sunday of reading.

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An accidental thesis on waste and pollution – British Journal of Photography

Another interesting photobook?

David Brandon Geeting’s latest book, Neighbourhood Stroll,  is an object of contradictions. The photographs are alluring, but they depict junk and debris; the design is colourful and bright, but the book itself is weighty; and although the project began as a casual afternoon activity, it developed into an “accidental thesis” on the critical issue of pollution and the climate crisis. 

An accidental thesis on waste and pollution – British Journal of Photography

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Before and After Photographs of Industrial Towns | PDN Photo of the Day

Creatively life has hit a bit of a quiet place right now.
For a brand range of reasons I have moved away from mainstream social media and am using an RSS new reader to engage with the wider world of photography and blogs.
This link turned up in my feed this morning and is the kind of work that really resonates with me. It is by John Davies and is a book of work about the changing urban  landscape spanning over a decade of work by him.

Before and After Photographs of Industrial Towns | PDN Photo of the Day

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Current Exhibition Work

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

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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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