Miss Julia Delivers The Goods...

Ok so I have stolen my header from the title of a book written by Ann B. Ross but it seemed appropriate given that this week I finally had my first opportunity to photograph the incumbent Prime Minister of Australia... Julia Gillard. Much has been written, discussed and debated about the present PM which is natural given she is a political figure... but much of what has been written, discussed and debated has not been about her stewardship of the country. Now I have had the pleasure (or not... depending on your politics) of photographing three other former Prime Ministers at close quarters and many, many MP's... both federal and state... and I have often noticed that the impressions I receive from training a lens on them are often quite different to how the general public perceives the people who are charged with leading the country.

I mean...so who is Julia Gillard really?

I would have to say she is possibly the most underrated Prime Minister we have ever elected to run the country. Not because I agree with all of the policies of her party or the way she initially became PM BUT and it is a big but (hehehe...no pun intended) because she is in fact our FIRST WOMAN PM and no one seems to have comprehended what an incredible achievement that is...Let alone run a parliament full of such a diversity of characters such as the 'Mad Monk' or 'Backdown Barnaby'...

Julia Gillard is no Margaret Thatcher (thank goodness) yet one of the leading lights of 70's feminism, Germaine Greer, has, rather than focusing on the incredibly positive aspects of being a woman PM, simply and naively played into the hands of the peanut gallery by making a comment about the Prime Ministers body shape and choice of clothes.

In all sorts of ways that is wrong.

I often ponder what it is that drives people to succeed in their chosen field. I know my own personal journey began when I was about five or six when I acquired a little exercise book that I used as a diary. I was astonished when I found it about thirty years later and I had rather perspicaciously written in it that I wanted nothing more in my life than to be an artist and travel all over the world...

I wonder if Julia Gillard woke up one day and said to herself "One day I will be the first woman Prime Minister of my country"?

I think if she had and knew in advance that instead of people celebrating the way she has governed the country as a very different style of Labour Party leader...( lets face it Australians aren't as a whole used to a quiet achiever, all the Prime Ministers I can think of have been very distinct personalities... I mean Bob Hawke and Gough Whitlam are flamboyant, Paul Keating is a sharp wit, John Howard is a patriarch and Kevin Rudd is earnest)....and concentrated instead on the size of her derriere, what jacket she was wearing  the fact she forgot to have children, didn't get married and by the way is a non-believer as well.... then she just might have given up in the battle to break through all of the prejudices to get the top job.

Which she is not doing too badly at all. 

Australia is one of the few countries that is not in complete economic decline and while you can argue the two speed economy is hurting many sectors of the community Prime Minister Gillard is not responsible for Reserve Bank decisions.

So where is the credit for her on a personal level?

Several of my friends have talked about this, with one female friend saying that obviously while we all like the idea of a woman leading the country the reality is no-one really is comfortable with a childless, unmarried, atheist doing it.

As little as 16 months ago I was working a job contract where my superior (in a job hierarchy that is) actually told me that I had no idea how to organise a task based on the fact I haven't had children. His actual words were "Do you have children? If you did you would know this (way of organising something) won't work". Having had experience of organising the particular situation previously I obviously knew exactly what I was doing... I am not an imbecile and I am not incapable but this man's attitude towards me left me gob smacked. I am sure if we had sat down, compared our qualifications, experience and IQ's it would have been a no contest...He obviously had no idea...

So I have a certain amount of empathy for Julia... When I photographed her to begin with, her media training kicked in but she seemed quite vulnerable and self conscious. Well who wouldn't be after suffering Germaine Greer's childish schoolyard taunts...But when the private part of the function began she was much more at her ease and had a dry and quite incisive sense of humour...plus she "got" some of the wise cracks I made so I have to say she is far warmer and jollier than she may appear through the general media perception.

But I have to leave the final comment to "Stan the Man" my motor mechanic, who like four of my male friends (unmarried and no children) have all echoed the same thought...

"If she wasn't a woman she would be the best Prime Minister we have ever had"

Put that where you drawing attention to Germaine!

The Big Event...

One of the biggest events in a photojournalists life is....? You can fill in your own blanks here but for me its the preparation and opening night of a solo exhibition.

I haven't written much on the blog lately as time has not allowed me the luxury of meditating on the usual random stuff I find interesting. Instead as I sift through all of the detritus of my life over the last five years and work to extracting those little photographic gems that I can put up on a wall and say with pride "I made that" I have found the process again completely overwhelming.

My last solo exhibition was in May 2007 and by all accounts it was a bit of a blockbuster. The sort Edmund Capon (the retiring Director of The Art Gallery of NSW) famous for his "bums on seats" approach to exhibitions, would have been proud of. Lots and lots of people came to see it as it was all about the topic de jour...The life of the Aboriginal community at the "Block" in Redfern.

Predating "The Apology" by the Australian government to the "Stolen Generations" of Aboriginal people by ten months, the show simply shone a spotlight on a once vilified and ghettoised community and showed it in all its love, laughter, tragedy, turmoil and honesty. Sadly for that community and since the passing of Uncle Nynganna in May last year the heart of  the suburb has been removed and the forced gentrification of the once notorious "Block" has stripped the original inhabitants of a place to call home.

Time moves forward and places and relationships change so perhaps with the remodelling of Redfern something more positive will eventuate for the Aboriginal community that once dwelled there.

So too with my work... while the exhibition "Ten Years From The Heart-Photographs of Redfern Waterloo" was strictly traditional photojournalism, my newest show "At The End Of The Day" is inspired more by artistic intention.

In this newest body of work, I explore the relationships between people and their environment at twilight. In unrelated incidences it seems that there is a universal tension and a burgeoning feeling of fear and uncertainty, a worrying thought of who we might be or become in the darkness of the night.

Still drawn from my experience as a photojournalist,  the photographic tableaux have been shot in random moments and locations across Australia and represent a questioning of the realities that are presented to us everyday by the very medium of photojournalism.

And while shooting twenty five images that communicate this exact assertion might seem like child's play to some, it has been a long hard road and one that started as a result of a workshop I attended in Bangkok with David Alan Harvey and James Nachtwey in November 2007.

Life has a funny way of coming full circle and strangely I accepted the show at INDEX at St Peters in Sydney under the aegis of the Headon Photo Festival well before I knew David Alan Harvey was coming out to open the Festival with the launch of his new book. I am really looking forward to catching up with him and explaining the distance that I have travelled creatively between the last time we met and now...

But as with all things in the field of the visual arts...and in life...its a constant evolution and over the next few weeks leading to the exhibition opening itself I will blog on a regular basis about how this exhibition is taking form in a new technological landscape...

Stay tuned!

Awards, Rewards and Forwards...

So its that time of year again... when all the photojournalists I know are frantically reviewing their work to see whether they have a potential World Press Photo  tucked away somewhere in their portfolio. And even if they don't they will probably upload it onto the WPP site anyway... just because they can. Which, when you consider the volume of images that the poor judges have to review in their quest to find the image that sums up the year in press photography gives new meaning to the old adage "You gotta be in it to win it". With 5,691 photographers from 125 different nationalities submitting 108,059 photos it has got to be some kind of lottery...

So what makes a winning photo? What inspires, delights and touches us so much in the photographic medium that over 2 million people turn out to view the World Press Photo exhibition every year? David Friend the WPP Chair expresses his view here and you can see how the process of judging is conducted here 

So while I don't think today's image will win the title of World Press Photo of the year I do believe that in accord with TIME magazine's "Person Of The Year" that one of the prevailing images of 2011 is that of the "protestor"

This young girl stood her ground in Hyde Park in Sydney as part of the "Occupy" movement. Her face is shadowed by the outline of a police man who with his colleagues had just started arresting the protestors one by one. What struck me is her expression which is a cross between thoughtfulness and stoicism. This is the power of photojournalism. A photograph can capture those utterly integral feelings that are part of the atmosphere of any event, magnifying our own emotions and our responses to the imagery many-fold.

While many of my colleagues can have a cynical view of competitions such as World Press Photos and admittedly in the past I have questioned the make-up of the jury... I am glad to see this year there are many more women and a diverse ethnic mix of jurors...I would have to say there is still an argument to be had  that the competition is even more relevant in these days of disappearing newspaper and magazine titles than ever before.

So what are your thoughts on such competitions as World Press Photos? Do these awards, reward the appropriate photographers and take the industry forward?

Buon Anno Nuovo...

Well I for one think Happy New Year looks and sounds better in Italian than it does in any other language really... I think it just glides more easily off the tongue.... ....and I hope that this new year of 2012 will be one in which we can all glide smoothly towards amicable and intelligent solutions for what has held the earth to ransom for much of its recent history.  Ecologically and spiritually speaking we now have such advanced technology that it is surprising that people are still starving, dispossessed and killing one another in all manner of war zones and traumatised regions across the globe.

I begin this year with no specific New Year resolutions in mind...I think such things set us up to fail as we place too much emphasis on the importance of whether we rid ourselves of a bad habit or not. Often if we don't achieve our goals it becomes a self fulfilling prophesy and we become resigned to be unsuccessful at giving up what might be bad for us. It seems to me that the result is simply a downward spiral and no progress is ever made.

Rather I am looking at a gradual change in my habits, such as my diet (but oh how I love sugary things!) and managing my stress levels. While these two simple things combined can be controlled by limiting my coffee intake... which in the larger scheme of things is probably not the worst bad habit you can have...it's truly my sole addiction. We are all living much longer lives in the western world now and I believe that continuous good health is one of the greatest gifts for which anyone could hope. If I have to forgo a few lattes here and there for the sake of  a decent quality of life, then so be it...

Yet perhaps the very basis of my bad habits are also the reason that people are suffering across the world. While that might sound grandiose  it's easy to draw a line that connects my health to the health of another being that stands in the midst of a sugar cane field somewhere.

Think about it. For every cup of coffee you or I drink, several feet of rainforest or bush land has been cleared so that a crop can be sown and a cow raised (I love my lattes, though I do drink soy rather than milk). So to provide for my particular desires the ecology of the landscape in some part of the world has been irrevocably changed and the person who is tilling the earth is probably beholden for his or her livelihood to a gigantic multi-national corporation whose shareholders are the one percent of the world's wealthiest people. Its the same with tobacco and alcohol and while the cartels that control the illicit drug trade dealing in cocaine and heroin are outlaw, they are still multi-national companies employing farmers, transportation methods and sales people.

So it seems to me if I truly give up my bad habit of guzzling coffee or at least drink one cup a day that maybe more expensive because it supports free trade producers then in fact I am not only doing myself a favour but also the rest of the world.

Todays photo is the new years blossom on the snowgums at Hogben's Hut.

No fireworks... just flowers. I hope that 2012 is as full of  simple pleasures and soul food as this... as much for you as it is for me.

So what are your dreams, hopes and wishes for this year?

The Year in Review..

2011 was one of the worst years on record for me.. Though they say that when you are at the bottom the only way is up...

Finally and though belatedly for 2011, circumstances in the last two weeks have appeared to have staged a complete reversal of the negative trends which have seemed to have dogged me for some time and 2012 has taken on a decidedly rosier outlook. For which I am truly grateful.

So how has the rest of the world fared in 2011 and where are we heading as a species in 2012?

Naively many of the governments of this world apparently still ascribe to the outlook that if it 'ain't broken don't fix it' and in the far flung corners of the globe this attitude has caused the common people to stand up and take the battle for fairness and responsible leadership to the streets in demonstration of a willingness to expose the corruption and ineptitudes of the people at the top tiers of power.

From Cairo to New York, to the front cover of  TIME Magazine the "protestor" has won acclaim for at least shouting out about the state of the world. Sending out positive vibes on the 11/11/11 might be all well and good for some people but actually doing something to evoke change and awareness in others is a major act of commitment to progress of the right kind.

I believe that one of the most major dilemmas the world faces at this juncture is climate change and that instead of endlessly debating whether in fact it actually is occurring we need to organise our current resources in a logical and corrective fashion. I am not sure whether we can turn the clock back on damage that has already occurred but rather we can prevent anymore being done.

So maybe we need to listen to the protestors of this world and act accordingly as world citizens in an effort to steer our combined course into a more sustainable and equitable place.

Todays photo features 'Dr' Richard Green. He is a Darug man which was one of the first tribes to be decimated by white settlers. Green is a talented Aboriginal actor and an outspoken activist in Indigenous issues.

I wish all of my readers a happy, peaceful and healthy 2012.

'Tis the Season...

Well its that really strange part of the year when magazines fill their pages with best of lists, where people buy completely ridiculous and pointless rubbish and masquerade it as gifts and families get together and eat enormous amounts of food, drink too much wine and collapse into a comatose state while watching reruns of Christmas specials that have seen better days. For a majority of people Christmas and New Year can be a moment to relax and enjoy time out with the people that they love surrounding them. For some its an enjoyable and luxuriant time of the year. And for some it is a sad reminder of everything they lack because the forces of commercialism insist that all of our jollity comes at a great financial cost.

So how can we best deal with the festive season if we really wanted to uphold the true tennets of what has become an all encompassing ritual that seems to have have lost its meaning for many of us in our struggle to meet rising costs?

I think community events such as those held at The Strand at Dee Why, which was sponsored by Warringah Council, are a good example of how a clever use of recycled materials can create joy for children and a sense of pride for adults as they participate in activities that don't cost anything much at all.

Artists Bess O'Malley and Chris Rettalack constructed a 7 meter tall Christmas tree complete with decorations produced by a partnership of parent and child in a triumph of material reuse and savvy, fun and creative design developed by the artists. The tree was constructed out of light weight materials and painted gold to match the sandy beach and the decorations were made from materials largely located at Sydney's  famed artists resource Reverse Garbage.

In keeping with a beach theme the decorations included fish and star fish as well and the children could also make angels to take home with them. The result was a fantastic presentation of one of the most pervasive symbols of Christmas all created by the community and with materials that had been rebirthed from their original use.

To me this activity represented the real spirit of Christmas where community, sustainability and reuse of waste material came together in a fantastic display of genuine artists ingenuity and respect for the bonds that are forged in a creative environment. I would love to see more Australian Councils and other institutions undertake to produce these kinds of events.

Todays photo is of Chris and Bess decorating the Christmas tree...

The Snake Oil Salesman and The Two Hearts...

There are few things in life that anger me more than people taking advantage of other people and their vulnerabilities. It is perhaps the most sickening thing in the world to hear of the cruelty that is perpetrated on animals and small children, by people who are in positions of power over them... or to people who are in weakened positions because of financial distress or mental illness. So many of the people who have terrible things done to them are often the most needy and easily targeted by conmen of all descriptions.

While actual incidents of those kinds of rampant abuses make media headlines, there are much more subtle examples that are flagrantly advertised over the internet as cure alls to every condition, whether that be a medical problem or a problem of the heart or soul.

We have clinics for this, dating sites for that and even the completely debunked NLP for a problem of the spirit. So much of what people are touting through the endless marketing platforms of the internet are clearly just a twenty first century version of 'Snake Oil'. And it often comes at an astonishingly high price. Much of the new age physco babble that is available to middle class people who wish to be 'enlightened and empowered' often pay hundreds of dollars for the privilege of sitting around listening to an 'inspirational' speaker and sipping a nice red of some sort.

So it was with great joy that I read about Rhys Morgan a seventeen year old Welsh school boy who seems to have the intelligence and stoic sense of his ancestors. Such perspicacity is rare in one so young, but Rhys Morgan's battle to bring back sense to a nonsensical world is admirable.

While 'antineoplaston' and 'tantric sex' therapies might be all well and good to convince people to part with their money to make them feel better, they have no real value in real life living situations and are often as fraudulent as the people who espouse their successes.

I am all for trying new and interesting paths through life but I believe the greatest thing we can do is very simple. The ability to be kind to one another is the one great human grace and its simple and free and you don't need to do expensive courses or treatments to learn how to do it. If we are truly kind to one another and cherish one another selflessly then the only outcome can be a good one... and while the zeitgeist demands everyone to know 'The Secret' and to think 'positively' I believe they are  self centered ideologies and rather grasping concepts with which to align yourself.

So my advice is clear. And free. And very very simple. And at this time of year truly is my hearts desire. If everyone just did one kind thing for someone that felt small and vulnerable or powerless in some way then we would all feel better about ourselves in a real way.

Imagine that...

Todays pic is Allen and Lucky from the Sydney Street Choir.

I Wanna Be Protected....

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=gPm7iWo0Tg4] Mwhahahahahaha.... I absolutely love this...I laughed so hard I nearly cried....But how is it beer advertisements are always the smartest, the funniest and often the most intelligent ads in the new world... I mean how many brain cells get killed every year by the stuff? 

The premise of this is so true... A question to my readers before my blog devolves into what appears to be preparation for the silly season.. Is the new technology assaulting your sense of personal privacy as well?

I speak from experience when I say I believe it is... 

X Portraits...

Meet George... He is the spruiker at one of the infamous strip joints on Darlinghurst Road at Kings Cross. He is a friendly chappy... after a very few conversations with me he willingly offered himself up, firstly to be my boyfriend and secondly to be my pimp. Whilst it was a charming offer, I did have to decline because really I can't see myself in either of those positions... But thats how it rolls up at the Cross, easy come easy go... no hard feelings, anything goes... The seamier side of the area has long been one of the great fascinations for the droves of visitors that teem into the few blocks that house the Burger Kings and the late night strip shows and waterholes.. but there has also been a deterioration in the general style of patronage, a sort of sameness and brutality has crept into the inevitable late night drinkers and would be revellers.

Perhaps its because many of the faux chic, but always accessible places like Barons, the Piccolo, Deans and even the old Les Girls have been closed down and now there is nowhere for people to frequent who wish to sit down and have a late night coffee and chat . This has always been one of the most endearing aspects of the Cross, after a film or photographic shoot or painting late into the night you could always get a coffee somewhere...

I will keep shooting and telling the stories of the characters and personalities of the Cross and detailing them here. After all it still has that little touch of visceral uniqueness and culture that I would hate to see disappear completely...

Cross Dogs...

[slideshow] Cross Dogs has been born of a commission to shoot some reportage of Sydney's once infamous red light district, Kings Cross. I have a particular love of the area as its where my family lived for 15 years and I had my first tentative beginnings. Strangely my reconnection to this area has begun as the Cross seems to have lost its 'mojo' and is in desperate need of invigoration.

When I grew up in the area, it was the bohemian capital of Australia, with famous artists and eccentrics sharing the footpath with villains and police, the drug addled and the elite of Sydney society. It was an area that due to its proximity to the naval base HMAS Kuttabul and the hoards of defence force members who would visit Sydney during the Vietnam War became synonymous with drugs and prostitution. And one of Australia's favorite traditions the 'Drag' show had its spiritual base at the wonderfully lewd and glitter strewn 'Les Girls'.

The sorry state of Kings Cross reminds me of a line by John Donne "Love built on beauty, soon as beauty, dies." It seems to me that all the interesting, intriguing and unique atmosphere has been defaced by the iconoclastic tendencies of the various stakeholders in the area and it has lost its lustre to the new masters who have only understood the Cross on a very superficial level.

Alas as I have started shooting this body of work it appears that all that is left of the golden era of Kings Cross are those oh so loyal creatures, dogs. I hope that as I work through the process of shooting this story that the powers that be will pay attention and perhaps further commission not only myself but other artists to 'occupy' some of the empty spaces and once again create a district where anything that goes can be fuelled by creative spirits once more.

Occupy Your Life...

There is a song by the Ferrets called 'Don't Fall In Love' and the first lyric is "city girls have got night lights in their eyes"... I guess the reference in the song means that life in the city is far more superficial and fast paced  and yet while I find the city can be stimulating and creatively energising indeed I do find a kind of vacancy that is instilled in its fine denizens.

Perhaps because there are so many people... searching... all searching for something that they believe will make them happy and it often manifests itself in people filling their lives with unnecessary diversions. Drugs, alcohol and gambling are fairly common but its the more subtle forms of delusion that bother me. There are so many people who seek comfort in pseudo psychological babble and creative communication that seems somehow pointless and merely a way of justifying their own existence.

Kind of like real estate agents and banking employees, they are merely following procedures but in the process they give away their individual power for the betterment of corporate greed. Without thinking deeply or truly engaging in issues that effect others in negative ways many people simply buy into the structures that benefit the few, not the many...

Hence the series of protests called 'Occupy the World' where the crux of the issue is to try and open a dialogue between the people who are 'occupying' spaces in an effort to create a place where people can come and share dialogue about how best to distribute resources and knowledge to create a better planet. Its a hands on activity and the protestors have great courage in attempting to stand their ground in the face of massive reaction from bureaucrats and police who would see them as a source of irritation.

Whilst I admire the protestors and their selflessness in putting themselves at risk I also understand that some view their protestations as simply a vehicle for left wing righteousness. I disagree. Acting on changing the world is far more important than anything we can do... witness the Egyptian protests and the toppling of an unfair government.

When groups of people work together to advance the entire community rather than their individual wants or needs then these actions display some of the finest traits of humanity. Looking after one another, being sensitive to the needs of the earth and treating each and every being with respect are the path of real spirituality...Perhaps what we are finally witnessing is the long awaited age of enlightenment afterall...

The photo is of a protestor being arrested by the police at 'Occupy Sydney'...

Three Spots and a Time Lord...

Once when I was hitch hiking around Europe in my late teens...not a good idea but well you always think you are immortal and immune to the bad things in life at that age...I was picked up by a middle aged Dutch guy somewhere in Denmark. I guess he probably thought I was local cos that's where my ancestors come from originally. Strangely he had just come back from visiting his friends in Broome, they had relocated from Amsterdam to the 'Top End' of Australia several years before. This nameless and faceless (now) Dutchman, when I asked him what he thought of Australia told me something I have never forgotten, which I believe is still one of the most incredibly intelligent things that I have ever heard... 

He said 'Its a funny thing about Australia, I could see it in my friends...In Europe its like the people dominate the landscape and in America the people shaped the landscape. But in Australia the landscape has shaped the people..'

After four months of sitting with the landscape here I certainly believe that is true. Its like the land comes and grabs you by the ankles and wraps you around with its earthy arms,  it imparts a certain calmness and stillness which is vital for growth. Sometimes I imagine I am just like a snowgum sapling that must bend with the wind until there is a point where its own inner strength can resist the buffeting and stand by itself. 

Though did you know there is no such thing as a single gumtree? Gumtrees grow in groups and die off if the rest of the group is removed...they can not exist in isolation...And so too with myself. When I headed out on this adventure to live in the mountains it was borne of financial desperation and necessity. I have grown and learnt many things about the nature of what is important because I have had a front row seat watching mother earth and all of her beings interact. If you are going to be broke I can't think of a better place to live in poverty...

What I have learnt is that indeed the landscape has shaped me but more importantly that its the relationships that we have with the people that we love that are the things that sustain and nurture us. These relationships and of ours to the earth are the most important things that we have...and if we have music, art,  love and some yummy food then we have all we need...

Life is really meant to be simple. It doesn't need to be complicated anymore by the machinations of politicians or corporate entities. Or a desire for stuff that is singularly unimportant. The landscape here is unbelievably beautiful, magnificent and like Three Spots, my little wallaby family patriarch pictured above, standing at my window, will be very hard to leave. But this landscape is a part of me and me a part of it and so I can never leave it really. 

Now its time for me to share the message of what I have learnt here, that there are other landscapes that need to be tended to so our children and grandchildren will be able to learn the same sorts of lessons I have...In that way I understand the grand continuum of time and essence far more now than ever before... we can never own anything... we can only ever be a part of the whole for what ever time there is..

...Albert and Vincent...

When I was a child I think I must have wandered around only barely conscious to many of the things that happened in my world at the time...I sometimes feel like my memories are only punctuation marks in the sentence of time...I remember for instance really tiny things and atmospheres better than actual events or people... Like my Uncle Rolley. All I can remember of him was he used to hook his thumbs into his pockets and all I can visualise now of him is his middrift to above his knees. No face. I guess as a kid thats the section of a human that you see because of the height differential. I clearly remember though that he was working as a submariner and as a five year old I got to go aboard a sub. I remember it smelt really bad... musty and I guess of old socks.

It was Albert and Vincent I remember best though. Thats Albert Namatjira and Vincent Van Gogh. Two of the most amazing artists on the planet. Both had very difficult lives and both had works that were reproduced widely in posters that adorned primary school walls everywhere in Australia for a while. Both artists made a huge difference to my life.

I mean I don't remember where I saw either of their paintings first but I do remember that the light shining in through the windows of what must have been a classroom somewhere, had that bright crystalline quality of Sydney light on a summer afternoon. When I saw their paintings I knew Vincent and Albert would become my friends, they seemed to understand something that I too understood. Something about  light and hope and the joy of life. Thats an amazing thing to feel when you are this homely, gawky kind of kid whose knees were big and boney and who knew for the most part they didn't quite fit in.

I believe that all great artists take enormous risks by exposing themselves to things and conditions, interior and exterior that most people can't actually even envisage. I guess its like pushing through the pain barrier if you are an athlete... you get to a point where it hurts so much that you either give up or go past it and reap the rewards. Probably like giving birth really. Except in giving birth you have no choice in the matter, you just have to keep going.

And great art is given life by great artists. No matter what medium, whether its visual, musical or performance based there is always a pain barrier to overcome. I think thats why so many artists have drug, alcohol and other dependency problems... its a way of masking that pain. But it is in realising the joy in the painting or the music that the artist becomes a channel from a high power. Its what Leonard Cohen described once as 'the god moment'.

Occasionally, very occasionally I have experienced that feeling. Todays picture is one of those moments. The light was incredible that afternoon and I was looking everywhere for a photo that just 'got it'. I turned and there it was right in front of me.

I leave this beautiful sanctuary I have hidden away in for the last four months, in a few days. This place give my soul rest. It has cement walls to prevent me from being buffeted by the wind which blows so wildly around here and huge glass windows so I can look out upon the world as it was created. It has not been easy though. I have lived by myself quite separately from most of humanity and I have learned some painful lessons.

Yet I hope I have broken through the pain barrier now and I look forward to what will eventually take life from here...

...Spirit in Rock and Water...

By this time I doubt I would have many readers left as I haven't posted anything for so long... But sometimes it is time to take a backward step and examine where we are and where we are going. Luckily for me, while things have been pretty difficult for the last four months that time has past and I look forward to getting back into the swing of life again having had a very, very quiet sojourn in a very beautiful but isolated place. Though while I have been here I have not been lax. I was in fact working for a very small local newspaper but again, luckily for me I managed to follow the entire story of the Snowy River 'environmental flushing flows' which has been an incredible victory for environmental commonsense and an interesting piece in vested stakeholder co-operation.

This is the link to the story here

I have to say that as a photojournalist it was probably one of the most spiritually uplifting events I have ever witnessed,  the water channeling through the dam spillgates  with such incredible power was amazing...and to shoot the entire scene from the air in a small helicopter was electric... but it was when a few days later that I drove down into my backyard and saw my part of the Snowy River  flowing alive and free that it was a complete revelation...

It was like hope had begun to flow through the earths veins again...

The fella in the photograph is Ngarigo Elder Uncle (Angel) John Gallard and a very special human being. We watched together as the first water flowed back from the dam into the Snowy River for forty years. It was a very life revealing event...

The Goal Is The Journey...

...But the journey is the goal....

This is a photo of the first sketch I have made for what feels like several years and is of my cat Wilhelmenia AKA Willsy or (the royal) Wills... I guess I drew her because for the first time in ages I actually took some time out from worrying about the rest of the world and its injustices to just do something that I really enjoy and that is to sketch..

Its a very luxurious position to be in really, to be able to sketch my cat. A very middle class indulgence. Drawing the things around me is what first took me to art school and a degree in painting...Yes, that's right, I never studied photography I was always going to be a painter but then I picked up a camera in my final semester and immediately had one of those 'Eureka' moments...I knew then that a camera and my life path where always going to be intertwined...

Lately though, it has been a struggle to make a living out of my chosen career and I wonder how many others out there feel that somewhere that they made a decision that really hasn't benefited them... I mean I look at some of my friends and where they are and how they seem to be happy and stable  and I think, wow, my life has been interesting so far and its a perfect day but I only have $1.14 in the bank and I am not sure where my next job is coming from...

I often wonder if I made a conscious choice about being where I am right now or whether it was a matter of fate?

I have a friend, Lisa Nicholas, that has just opened the Sarasvati Yoga School in Martigny in Suisse. Affectionately we call one another the 'other Lisa' as we spent a number of our earlier years in the mountains causing trouble and then blaming the 'other Lisa'... It was fun and a bit of mischief but we have always been bonded in a way because of that. The 'other Lisa' has been based in the mountains ever since those early days, while I have lived in cities all over the world...Finally I am back to where I begun now...in the mountains... and I am older, wiser and more centered than ever before. Even though I only have a $1.14. to my name...

The 'other Lisa' though has always pursued this kind of life, one of spiritual awareness and examining 'well-being'. I know her school will be a great success and she will be able to impart a great deal of the knowledge that she has gained through her yoga practice and I also know that her path to this point has not always been easy, but when I remember who she was when we were in our early twenties, it seems kind of inevitable that she should be be a Yoga Master...

So while I know how privileged I have been to have had the kind of life I have had I wonder would it have been different if I had chosen to stay in the mountains and not chase a dream that was really based on a whim...

And if I had, would all I have ever done is draw cats...contented and happy though they seem...

Alec Soth and Me....

Today's lede photo comes courtesy of Alex Wisser the very, very smart exhibition assistant of the Headon Photo Festival exhibition 'No Direction Home' that was held at Dank Street Depot in Waterloo Sydney. It features me, Alec Soth and his dog...or a random dog, I am not sure which. Overall I think Alex's, rather  than Alec's is a better photograph, but that's perhaps biased because not only am I in it, I think Alex Wisser, who curates INDEX Gallery at St Peters in Sydney  is not only smart, but also a very, very nice human being. The difference in how we judge images is sometimes as superficial as that.

I am currently editing a few emerging photographers work for one of my collaborative internet publishing projects Photojournale and I am often hard pressed to express to people what it is that makes a truly great image tick. 'No Direction Home' was an important inclusion into the Headon Photo Festival not only because Alec Soth is famous, but because it defined a point of view that while was quite ambient when you looked at the pictures, was quite strong when you walked away from the work and thought about what exactly it was creating for you to think about.

Of course the reason I have used Alec Soth's name in the title of this blog is quite self serving because I want the readership that 'that' kind of SEO attention could bring me (Alec if you ever read this, I do apologise) but I also think it was an interesting thing at the exhibition itself that when I was asking people to photograph me with the screen showing Alec's work, someone mistook me as saying 'Alec Soth and Me' for 'Alec Soth is Here' and became quite excited at the prospect.

Unfortunately while I understand that Alec Soth and the labradoodle were pressing theoretical envelopes and exciting people with his absence, it was actually the artist and curator of the show Stacy Arezou Mehrfar's work that stopped me in my tracks. It resonated at a very base level with me and I recognised the aesthetic as something that any immigrant to a strange land develops. I think that this was a very important thing to see, while Stacy lives in Australia now, her photographs of the American landscape were as unsettling to me as many of the photographs that were taken of Aboriginal people by the first white settlers...

Then there is the most unsettling work I have seen for sometime by Canberra photographer Hilary Wardaugh showing right now at INDEX Gallery under the Headon banner. Hilary is doing an artist talk on June 4th and having spoken to her at length at the opening, I can assure you it will be well worth dropping into the gallery to experience. Her exhibition 'Die Like A Dog' chronicles the evening a group of friends gathered to attend a very special party to farewell the host who passed away that night.  Accompanied over that final horizon with the love of his friends I have to say I stood in front of one of the images and openly wept...something I am not inclined to do at exhibitions...But the poignancy of the moment is overwhelmingly summed up with the photographic studies of his dog...I will leave it there for you to judge but I believe its a must see show...

Headon Photo Festival draws to an end over the next week or so but I am pretty impressed by much of what I have seen... I look forward to it growing in strength and depth next year and maybe we can get the real Alec Soth out here to attend...

I Only Eat Cheese...

....well not really, otherwise my pancreas would surely have packed it in by now, but if you ask anyone that knows me they would definitely agree its a big part of my diet. One of the best presents any one has ever given me was a cheese plate and knife and a selection from Simon Johnsons Fromagerie. That came from an assistant who I trained and was leaving to travel, camera in hand.

Now what this has to do with photojournalism and the Head On Photo Festival whose logo I am running for the header for this post today is actually quite fundamental. It is a true statement that I eat a lot of cheese. Eating cheese is as important to me as making photographs...they are both occupations I believe truly define my character...

Which brings me to the Head On Photo Festival which is running in Sydney at the moment. It is a festival of gigantic proportions for a town like Sydney, where the new 'hipsters' and old 'litterati' have taken to photography like ducks to water, finally recognising its artistic breadth and vision as an artform.

I have to give it to Moshe Rosenzveig the Director of Head On Photo Festival, he is somewhat of an organisational and marketing genius to have created this type of event with its plethora of galleries and styles of photography. And its headlining Photographic Portrait Prize competition. Lots of people have tried to do this kind of thing in Sydney before but Moshe has succeeded quite beyond anyone else's attempts. He has made this fly as a viable annual event. I haven't seen a whole lot of it yet but what I have seen has been interesting.

Seeing this amount of photography around the shores of one of the most beautiful harbours in the world leads me to remember a comment made on an internet photojournalism forum by an American photojournalist about the state of photography and indeed photographers in Australia. The commentator mentioned how competitive and ambitious Australian photographers are and that the level of investment in photography seems to be restricted to photographic competitions rather than art buyers. Of course Australia is home to the DIY mentality so just about everyone who totes a camera here thinks they are the next Nachtwey or Capa, but it doesn't necessarily mean that they are or that they will be in the future.

Which brings me back to cheese and lots of it...While all festivals of this nature tend to inconsistency in the single exhibitions there are some excellent things to be seen... Nadia Janis's show at Global Gallery is just one of them. Nadia did a Masterclass in Photojournalism I taught at ACP and the took herself off to Chernobyl to mark the 25th Anniversary of the nuclear accident, she buddied up with Antonin Kratochvil to produce a body of work that is as haunting as it is lyrical.

So back to cheese... speaking with Nadia the other night was an inspiration. She remembered something that I said in class about photography needed to be an essential part of your nature for it to succeed. She has demonstrated this perfectly as she has reached back to her Ukranian roots and shows a real connection with the subject matter. The work then speaks to me as authentically linked and an honest interpretation of  the voices of the people who suffered the consequences of the accident. 

So while Nadia has come from a legal background I believe her work succeeds unequivocally  in telling the story because it is also a fundamental part of her being to be telling this as she has. I believe she is one of the ones that could take this career a long way.

Unfortunately there is work that I feel less empathetic toward in the Head On Festival and while it has some merit from a documentary viewpoint it seems that some photographers are struggling with an expectation of themselves to perform. I guess jumping on the band wagon of what is a burgeoning major photographic festival is one way of getting known as a photographic entity but I just don't think that work that is not an honest exploration of the form and the photographers place within it is particularly edifying. 

So while I applaud and cheer for the continuing development of Head On I would just like to say that I think the very best photographs are produced when the photographer is true to themselves first and foremost...

And I will have a little Stilton with that cracker thanks...

Our Outrageous Aunty...No Wedding Invite Unless She Behaves!

Now this simply takes the cake... the wedding cake that would be...and a particularly 'naice' Royal one as well!

Many of the readers here are from countries that have no affiliation to the British Royal Family what so ever, so may not really understand, that while the Americans (I always knew they were smart people) and the Indians (Gandhi was 'the Man') and many other countries around the globe that were initially colonised by the Brits and have flung off the chains of the British Monarchy, the British Royal Family are still in fact the official Heads of State of Australia.

In Australia we were British subjects until 1949. We are not the Republic of Australia, we are still governed by the British Queen's representative, the Governor General. While our Head of State arrangements are apparently a meaningless titular agreement between the two countries of Australia and Britain it still would appear as an anachronism that has failed to be addressed by successive Australian governments. We are not a Sovereign Country in our own right, fundamentally we still must answer to the British monarch.

The reality is of course, that it is not exactly a meaningless arrangement and in fact the Queens representative, ergo the Queen, sacked our democratically elected Prime Minister Gough Whitlam in 1975. This is a huge amount of power to invest in one individual who doesn't even live in the country.

So how much power does the British Monarchy still have in Australia? Heaps apparently. As our dear old Aunty, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (the ABC) has just found out.

Many of you may remember the debacle that was APEC (Asian Pacific Economic Conference) here in Sydney. I clearly remember it, as I was punched by a policeman in the face while shooting for WpN, who broke my very expensive 580Ex II flash in half. That aside the only real story that came out of the whole thing was a comedic team called the Chaser (famously known for their satirical TV series "The Chasers War On Everything', so named as a take on George Bush's 'War On Terrorism') managed to evade the enormously expensive and ridiculously over the top security measures to protect George Bush and actually reach the hotel where Mr Bush was camped.

This would perhaps have just been a silly stunt except for the fact that one of the 'Chaser Boys' (as they are affectionately known) was sitting in the back of  the limousine that infiltrated the security lines dressed as George Bush's nemesis and public enemy number one Osama Bin Laden. The resulting television footage was as hilarious as it was illuminating and since then has obviously marked the 'Chaser Boys' out as a dangerously subversive outfit!

Now that happened several years ago and while the whole APEC event and its organisers were made to look remarkably foolish and the 'Chaser' managed to make us chuckle at an otherwise dry and public money wasting affair apparently Buckingham Palace wants no such repeat of the satirical tactics used by the 'Chaser' to be applied to the wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton who could conceivably be, at sometime in the future, the Australian Heads of State.

Now Wills seems like a nice fellow, I photographed him down at 'The Block' in Redfern when he dropped over here to Sydney on an official flying visit. He seemed approachable and gracious but not a person who is particularly knowledgable about the underlying issues that would be part of a burgeoning democracy such as Australia. That Clarence House has apparently stymied our National Television Broadcaster the ABC (our Aunty) and their proposed progam by the 'Chaser' by threatening them with cutting off the television feed to broadcast the Royal Wedding if it is shown with a bit of satirical commentary, seems a little like telling us what we can and can't watch on television in Australia.

We can watch the official version of it but  since these guys are effectively our Heads of State, does that not appear to be a bit like censorship?

Now one MUST wonder at the wisdom of the Clarence House decision...I mean injecting some humour into this would be a good thing, as while Wills and Kate seem to be nice people I for one could not be  bothered watching their wedding because I am just not that interested, I am not invited and well I have something to do tomorrow . In fact I am not impressed enough by this couple as future Heads of State to Australia to think that their wedding is at all pertinent to me or the country that I live in.

And that is the point surely? If the British Monarchy want to continue as Australia's Heads of State one would imagine they would want to remain relevant to the people of that country? Alas it appears not and well while I wish them well, I really don't desire to be intrinsically governed by Wills and Kate. If they don't get my sense of humour why would I be interested in them?

As Aunty ABC is my relative and I pay her way I would actually like her to pull the Royal Wedding broadcast completely now and put something on that I would like to watch instead. How about a repeat of Scott and Charlene from 'Neighbours' or Vicky and Simon from 'A Country Practice' tying the knot? At least I understand their accents...

Sliding Doors...Tim Hetherington And Chris Hondros

I am enormously saddened by the deaths of the two great photojournalists Tim Hetherington and Chris Hondros in Libya this last week. I didn't know either of these men in real life but their work left an impression that will stay with me forever. They were humane photographers, first and foremost. You can see how much they cared about people from their photographs.

They existed in the same circumstances, breathed the same air and felt what their subjects did and their documentation of that process are incredible bodies of work. I need not single out any of the memorable images they made, you can make your own judgement...needless to say some are so poignant as to make you cry when you see them... and they remind you of the need not to succumb to  an entirely superficial world view portrayed by a commercial media that rarely looks further than who Justin Timberlake is dating or how 'Wills Will Marry Kate'

I send my deepest condolences to their families, friends and loved ones. They put their lives on the line for the greater good of humanity but that is a bitter pill to swallow for those who personally feel their loss.

I didn't really want to write this post, I don't want to turn their passing into some sort of debate... for this year has seen me lose two close friends myself, one who took her own life and the other who was killed in the Christchurch earthquake. The circumstances of their deaths are equally tragic and I miss them greatly and yes... both of their deaths were senseless as well.

Yet Tim Hetherington and Chris Hondros died for a reason. That is cold comfort to their families and friends I know, but it is true.

Some are questioning the validity of the work of combat photographers and correspondents. Some have asked what point is there in photographing combat zones when a dwindling investigative media landscape exists in a world where corporations rule governments and the multitude of voices all telegraphing their own opinions seems to drown out a general sense of moral outrage for what occurs in the field of battle.

No-one could doubt the bravery of Tim Hetherington and Chris Hondros in trying to tell the stories of the people afflicted by war. To question the necessity of the work produced by such great photojournalists is to simply ignore that without the media focus, if NO story is told then the atrocities, the inhumanities will continue unchecked and unabated. That two such fine human beings should pay the ultimate cost of losing their lives in trying to point this out to the rest of the world is absolutely tragic but not unexpected. It says all about how threatening most regimes believe photography is to their  control.

Yet perhaps the most compelling reasons for photojournalists to always continue their presence in regions that are war torn are the voices that I have heard on this Facebook page. In several comments made by Lybian citizens, Tim Hetherington is called a 'hero'...an epithet I am sure he would have denied but none the less appropriate in its symbology. He and his colleague Chris Hondros were champions of the people and that is a rare and significant honour.

So as the sliding doors of life once again open and shut and obscure these two photojournalists from our view we will remember them as the lionhearts of our profession and see beyond the time and place of their departure into the worlds of the people that they photographed. May they find eternal peace.

Gone Daddy GoDaddy!

It is the astounding arrogance of them that I just can not believe!

Some of us thought that with the inauguration of Barack Obama and the election of Julia Gillard that perhaps the world was evolved enough to be able to see beyond the colour of our skin or the gender we belong to...The symbology was potent that we were headed for a kinder, gentler, more equal world where the despots of the Middle East would be over thrown and that greedy, white, gun toting, capitalists were on the wane...

But how far have we really come in the age of pervasive digital technologies?

Not very apparently...

This was posted first at mashable.com and here and hopefully will spread across the world via the social media network which it was obviously squarely aimed at AND (far be it for me to suggest the generation of a possible internet backlash as an even handed commentator on the news) cause some real damage to the company for the reprehensible stupidity of the man who is the gun toting elephant shooter CEO of GoDaddy.

Shooting elephants is the last bastion of the would be  'Raj'. Dress it up as you might, the symbol of the white man sitting on the largest land mammal in the world in an 'exotic' country smacks of imperialism and the unforgivable sense of entitlement that these white men possess. To advertise it on the internet is about the most despicably dumb thing I have ever witnessed.

The underlying message to this action , of course, is one of domination. I can kill an elephant, ergo my company can be a giant killer as well. Regardless of the actual sense in the killing of an elephant -what, the herd crushed a bit of sorghum on a farm? Oh hang on a second the villagers came and stripped it of its flesh so obviously it didn't get wasted... Well maybe if the villagers had access to the vast amounts of food available to the fat white CEO of GoDaddy they wouldn't need to behave like starving African villagers. Don't be fooled by the bonhomie this video tries to create out of such an act of environmental vandalism as this, it clearly gets its message out in a way that it was designed too.

Why make a professional quality video of yourself shooting an elephant? In the way of the sitters for portraits by the Dutch Masters its about possession, discreetly exposing your wealth to an appreciative audience and documenting your self for prosperity. All of this adds up to a colossal disregard for just about everyone that isn't a white gun toting CEO. But I guess thats the point isn't it?

I had hoped that the kind of elevated sense of ones self that led several American visitors to Australia to recently exhort Gumaroy, an Aboriginal professional musician and street performer to 'play for me boy', had long been deflated by the overwhelmingly diverse number of intelligent, literate and sensitive men and women of all races, religions and ethnicities gaining a voice on so many digital platforms.

The beauty now is that changing the tide of opinion and opening these very topics for debate is just as easy as posting a video on a social networking site. It is also just as easy to respond on a world wide basis.

After viewing that video I know that if I had a GoDaddy account that I certainly would be looking to cancel it right now.

Or am I over reacting?  Should GoDaddy be GoneDaddy?