Fleurieuscapes exhibition

My forthcoming exhibition at Magpie Springs in January 2016. It is the first step in the Fleurieuscape project and is a sampler, as there are many more images in the project. Some of the images in the exhibition can be seen on my website.

The project is premised on photographs having an almost innate seriality: their sense is more easily accessed in the company of others; not just other photographs in a show, but also by other photographs by the same photographer. In our contemporary digital world, with its networked technologies, seriality is reworked as re-blog with the image being re-configured and modified as they proliferate across the web.

The Fleurieuscapes exhibition starts to explore the regional land/urbanscape of the Fleurieu Peninsula in the contemporary world of a borderless global capitalism, with its society of the spectacle. The regional is where we live amidst the commodity structure of a capitalism that transforms things into ghostlike appearances of themselves.

The project is a representation of the sensuous particulars of the Fleurieu Peninsula as a place to be in, rather than as a tourist destination or a wilderness. It is a landscape that has been largely shaped by human beings who cleared the land for sheep and dairy farming. The aboriginal presence prior to the white settlement has been more or less obliterated. Their presence is marked by absence and memory.

an outtake

I made a number of 5x4 negatives for the 2015 Magpie Springs Photography competition. This is one image that failed to make the cut, and as it didn't work in colour, I converted this underexposed negative to a black and white image using Silver Efex Pro 2 software.

Though it looks better in black and white, and I've overcoming the over sharpening problem caused by the Epson software, I still have the other problem of blown highlights caused by scanning the negative. However, looking at this image of straight photograhy makes me uneasy and this unease is over and above these technical flaws.

I cant help but feel that straight photography, exemplified by this image, appears as a rather archaic discipline—even in its digital form, let alone the chemical one. There is still the attitude in the art institution that contemporary visual artist's love for the photographic medium is because it is so “simple,” so “non-artsy,” so “direct.” Photography, in this sense, has always been an important counterpart to modern art, The corollary of this is that straight photography has gradually acquired a strange status of something not completely artistic and yet highly artistic.

along the Heysen Trail

I came across a fallen log whilst walking along the Hesyen Trail near Jagger Rd, Victor Harbor yesterday. This is part of the Cape Jervis to Kuitpo Forest section of the trail and it is standing to Encounter Studio.

I was looking for some subject matter to finish off some old film that had been sitting in the 6x7 and 6x9 film backs of my Linhof Technika 70. This is the digital scoping picture that I made in the late afternoon whilst on a poodle walk with Ari and Kayla.

Though I used to use this camera a lot, it has has been sitting in a wooden box in a cupboard unused for several years. I have been using the Rolleiflex 6x6 instead. These are much quicker and easier to use as the baby Linhof functions like a view camera. You line the image up through the ground glass, take off the viewing plate, put the roll film back on, expose the film, take the roll film back off, then put the viewing plate back on to line up the next image. It is a slow work process--- very similar to large format photography.

I had pulled the Linhof out of the box a couple of days ago as I'd wanted to finishing exposing the old 120 rolls Kodak Portra 160 VC film in the two film backs so that the 2 rolls could be taken to Atkins on Monday along with some 5x4 sheet film to be developed. This scoped image suited the 6x9 format.

I scanned the film last night and I noticed the expired film is flat compared to the new film. It was made just before the showers crossed across the landscape. So the light is flat. This image was converted from colour using Silver Efex Pro-2.

I actually enjoyed using the baby Linhof. Since it offers alternatives to the square format the camera and the two lenses have been taken in to be serviced in Adelaide. I also ordered a second hand Super Rollex 6x9 film back from England to use instead of the very old one that has wooden rollers and is lacks an automatic counter resetting.

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at Hall Creek Rd

The recent shift to Victor Harbor Life is making it difficult to do large format photography. It has gound to a halt as we sort out all the stuff from the Sturt St townhouse in Adelaide.

I did come across a suitable subject for a 5x4 colour shoot on a recent poodle walk before Kayla arrived, but I cannot get to it for the early morning light at the moment as I am walking Kayla along the Encounter Bay beach at dawn.Nor can I take her yet on a photoshoot as she is only 6 weeks old.

So photography is on hold.

Fleurieu Four Seasons Prize

I've started scoping for work for the Fleurieu Four Seasons Prize for landscape photography. It's a competition and I don't have much success in them.

The Prize is for a suite of four photos that are taken in the western part of the Fleurieu Peninsula over the four seasons. I don't know this area very well photographically so I've started exploring it on my away to and from Victor Harbour.

On the way down this trip I was looking for a late afternoon coastal location that would be suitable for 5x4 film work, and which had fairly easy access. This location looked a possibility. The picture was made at midday and so the light is terrible. I will scope it out in the late afternoon on my way back to Adelaide to see what the light looks like then.

Leica snaps

The iMac at Encounter Studio is now up and running, though it is still disconnected from the network. That connection requires tech support.

I scanned some recent black and negatives (6x6 and 35m) last night with the flatbed Epson V700 scanner. The pictures were made just before, and on the holiday at America River on Kangaroo Island.

The photo above was made with my Leica M-4P, a Summicron 50mm lens, Ilford 50 ASA black and white film. It only has minimal post processing Lightroom 4.

I had bought the 35m film by mistake --I was after 120 for the Rolleiflex---so I was trying it out to use up. It is 20 years since I've made pictures with 35m black and white film. I'm pretty pleased with the result--there is a nice tonal range.

bark abstract

This is an abstract of the trunk of a river gum in the reserve across the road from the studio in Encounter Bay, Victor Harbor

The tree that had been bought down from Arkaroola by Suzanne's mother as a seedling back in 1982 . It was planted in the reserve and it is now a solid tree.

I am fascinated by the river gum's bark. It is quite different from the local river gums in terms of both texture and colour.

I've taken a number of photos over the Xmas break with a digital camera--a Sony NEX-7--- mostly as a study for a large format shoot. I am thinking about using the 5x4 Linhof in an early morning shoot.

scoping for 8x10

Whilst my 8x10 black and white negatives are being developed by Chris Reid at Blanco Negro in Sydney I've have been looking out for, and scoping, more subject matter.

This picture is one possibility. The form is okay and it is reasonably easily accessable from the car park at Petrel Cove:

I pre-visioned the picture in black and white:

It looks okay. The rock face works better in black and white.

The problem I have is that I don't have many other pictures lined up for the 8x10 apart from a studio picture.

on back country roads

When I was down at Victor Harbor on the weekend with Suzanne and Barbara Heath I drove around some of the back roads looking for material for my conceptual photography book. I spent several hours in the car driving on dusty roads and, to my dismay, there was little roadside vegetation that was suitable.

The main problem I encounted was that most of the roadside vegetation has been so cleared by the dairy farmers, that there is so little in the way of pink gums and Xanthorrhoea on the raodside for me to work with.

I'm begining to think that there may not be enough material for me to be able finish the Blurb book.

sea abstract #2

The weather has been stormy along the southern coast of the Fleurieu Peninsula these last few days. So I have sat on the rocks on the edge of the boat ramp at Encounter Bay, Victor Harbor with a digital camera making abstract photos of the water.

I've done this before and I wanted to experiment with no sunlight and the early morning sunlight. Looking at the uploaded images on the computer screen afterwards I can see that sunlight works best. The lack of sunlight makes the image very drab and flat.

I've started a little series of sea abstractions in the form of a DIY book.

Encounter Studio: experiments + journeys

brief notes on experimental photographic journeys

Posts for Tag: Fleurieu Peninsula