| After University |
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 Renaissance Hotel, Sydney
(Jul 1992) What was then the Renaissance Hotel (currently it's the Sydney Harbour Marriot), as seen from the Cahill Expressway above Circular … (more)
... Quay. Obviously I was spending far too much time admiring Steiglitz's 1920s photographs of New York. |
 Coogee cottage
(Sep 1992) A sarcastic paean to mortgage slaves. Many of my friends were signing up for the Suburban Dream, so I created … (more)
... this to use on "Having Fun Yet?" Christmas cards. As a colour image it would have been ruthless, but unfortunately in B&W it's just a harmless abstraction. |
 Martin Place Sydney
(Aug 1992) Martin Place at lunchtime. At the time I thought the composition clever, but it looks more like a self-conscious gimmick … (more)
... now. |
 Darling Harbour playground
(Jun 1992) Is more interesting. I went on a pleasant date the night before with a law school acquaintance, so I took … (more)
... this to capture the cheerful, up-beat mood. I used a Nikon F4S, a super-conspicuous monster even back then. Of course any attempt to photograph a child in a playground today, with any kind of camera, would be begging for trouble. |
 Darling Harbour sandpit
(Feb 1993) The playground at Darling Harbour again, a few months later. Another lazy gimmick shot. (more)
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 Sydney Royal Botanic Gardens schoolgirls
(Jul 1992) A group of schoolgirls reading in the Royal Botanic Gardens in Sydney. I'm still surprised at how close I managed … (more)
... to get with a Nikon F4S, with only the front pair of girls noticing. |
 Circular Quay park
(Jul 1992) An office worker having a lunch-time snooze in the sun at Circular Quay. A strange pastiche of Kertész, Moholy-Nagy and … (more)
... Dali. |
 Office workers, Martin Place
(Aug 1992) When critics fuss about "a lack of connection with the subject", I presume this the kind of thing they would … (more)
... rather see. Yeah well, the "staring at the camera" business always struck me as ineptitude rather than Engagement! The pic also illustrates the perils of relying on auto-focus for candid work. Here the AF detector locked onto the sandwich kiosk in the background, rendering the main subjects totally out of focus! |
 Pitt Street Mall shoppers
(Aug 1992) Lunch-time office workers at the Pitt Street Mall in Sydney. A bit of a half-baked photo: I should have moved … (more)
... three metres to the left to center the mannequins between the couple. |
 Australia Square workers
(Aug 1992) HCB Lite. Three women have a break while Andy fiddles with Geometric Exercises. (more)
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 Hurstville CD shopper
(Oct 1992) An example of the kind of frustrations I had to face in the early 90s. Although I managed to reduce … (more)
... the grain (T-Max 400 at ISO 1600 developed in Perceptol 1+1), the results still had too much noise and contrast. The limited DOF is nice, but the belly-button angle (necessitated by the Nikon F4S waist-level finder) is distractingly timid. I should have also waited for a better expression, although this was a problem with all my photography back then. Nevertheless the shot was taken indoors in a retail (ie. photo-hostile) environment, so it's among the earliest of many attempts which would eventually develop into Sydney Unposed [1]. |
 Circular Quay shadows
(Jul 1992) Kertész-lite at Circular Quay. Here I was venting spleen at my job as a baby-shark in a Sydney law-firm (which … (more)
... I quit a fortnight later). Begs the question — why didn't I photograph things I hated in the office, rather than looking for harmless substitutes outside? ( There was plenty of material to work with too! Junior staff gathering around partners like pigeons at feeding time; half-drunken Suit's chasing each other through empty offices on Thursday nights; corporate spinsters stomping around in mile high heels; Team Players trooping off to games in rain or 45°C sunshine… ) |
| Portraits |
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 Dave Mason, The Reels
(Mar 1982) Dave Mason, lead vocalist of the band "The Reels" [1], at the Sydney Cove Tavern. This was when Sydney still … (more)
... had a live music scene [2]. Not any more. Twenty years later this particular venue was converted into a supermarket, while other pubs replaced bands with poker machines [3]. In the early 80s I used to photograph gigs in a vague hope of breaking into the rock photography circuit. Unfortunately things didn't work out, but I did learn how to work discreetly in often hostile surroundings. ( Oh yeah? Nick Cave and The Birthday Party [4], in a mosh-pit full of head-butting punks, three spiked heads from the stage. The Nick sees my camera, starts spitting in my direction, and then takes a running dive into the audience, aiming directly at me. Talk about a hate-magnet! Luckily I was surrounded by taller punks, so they received most of the impact… ) |
 Warringah Expressway Picnic
(Apr 1981) A Dylanesque shot of one of my STHS [1]/ Oatley friends, Paul Saintilan [2], taken during a picnic on the … (more)
... Warringah Expressway in North Sydney. Paul has become perhaps the most successful of our high school group: a BFA in composition; AGSM MBA; EMI and Decca London; Music Viva; AIM; and most recently a PHD in Marketing [3] (!) |
 Wendy Portrait
(Aug 1984) Wendy Hanlin, one of my 1980's UNSW Chemistry friends [1]. We took this photo one evening while mucking around in … (more)
... my room, in between an all-afternoon lunch and smoking three packs of cigarettes (her directly, me indirectly). Notice the bean-bag, slouch ankle boots, lycra leggings and Zelda haircut — all back in fashion after more than twenty years! A warm and funny woman, we caught up for another photo shoot in June 1991, and more recently via a couple of e-mails in July 2005. At the time she was working as a physiotherapist, had finally quit smoking, and was happily married with two young children [2]. |
 Paul Gas Mask
(Apr 1983) Another STHS [1]/ Oatley mate, Paul Underwood, pauses from running amok with a .45 automatic [2] and M17 Gas Mask … (more)
... [3] in Macdonaltown. Always cheerful, we noticed Paul became a little too laid-back as we reached the end of high school. At the time we assumed it was due to his fondness for reggae music and a certain green weed… Only later did we learn it was actually the preliminary stages of Leigh's Disease [4], which was misdiagnosed as epilepsy in 1984, and which finally killed him in 1996. |
 Sharon Portrait
(Dec 1990) Sharon Freund, one of my 1990's UNSW Law friends [1]. I only got to know Sharon well during our final … (more)
... year. At the time she seemed a little bit adrift, but didn't we all?… A few years later she landed firmly on her feet. A post-grad degree and then career, marriage, children and nannies. Last I heard (early 2006) she was secretary to the Arthritis Australia foundation [2] and had also been appointed a part-time NSW magistrate. |
 Anitra Portrait
(May 1985) UNSW Law Revue director and producer Anitra Hadley, vamping it up during a UNSW Med Revue cast-party. (more)
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| University |
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 Burning Palms, Royal National Park
(Jan 1991) A place called "Burning Palms" in the Royal National Park, 50km south of Sydney. The influence of my (then) hero … (more)
... Steichen is obvious. Over the years I've also become irritated by the photo's clumsy emotionality (at the time I was in love with an unresponsive divorcee). |
 Burning Palms, Royal National Park
(Feb 1991) Same location as before, but taken early morning and facing the opposite direction. This image isn't too bad, despite being … (more)
... a subconscious rip-off of the background in Sydney Long's "Pan 1898" painting [1]. |
 Sydney Harbour Bridge
(Aug 1991) Sydney Harbour Bridge as a pot-rivetted steel cactus. Lots of fun as an intellectual exercise, but the point is?… What … (more)
... also bothers me is that it is such a blatant rip-off of 1930s modernist works. What was I doing rehashing material from someone else's past?… |
 Hurstville Westfield foodcourt
(Jul 1991) An early experiment with indoor candids, shot in a suburban shopping center in Sydney's south. Nice and moody, but T-Max … (more)
... 3200 had a limited dynamic range and was excessively grainy. |
 Manly Beach
(Feb 1991) Pseudo Moholy-Nagy, in colour and on the beach at Manly. Ah yes, but what does it mean and what does … (more)
... it have to do with Australia/ Sydney/ Manly/ Me in 1991? |
 Stanwell Park beach
(Apr 1990) A couple towelling themselves after a swim at Stanwell Park Beach, 70km south of Sydney. The image almost works, but … (more)
... it is spoilt by the low taking angle and distracting ground clutter. Years later I also realised it was an accidental crib of Max Dupain's "Bondi 1939" [1]. |
 Shark Beach, Nielsen Park
(Jan 1990) A sunbather reading at Shark Beach (sic!) in Vaucluse, eastern Sydney. Love the headphones and kids frolicking in the surf. … (more)
... Hate the "stab in the back" angle and (again) subconscious rip-off of Max Dupain's famous "The Sunbaker 1937" [1]. |
 Art Gallery of NSW couple
(May 1991) A sunday afternoon cuddle on the grass outside the Art Gallery Of NSW. A notorious image in that it was … (more)
... the first of my pics "deep-linked" (ie. stolen) by another site, in this case a Russian women's e-zine. What was amusing was that they used it in a lovey-dovey context — I guess they didn't notice the steel bars in the background… BTW I worked around the heist by setting up a redirect to load a replacement pic of a busy "shemale" instead :?) |
 UNSW Law Revue
(Aug 1990) I participated in over ten student revues while at University, either as photographer or sound or video or lighting bloke, … (more)
... or even once as a stage manager. This photo is from my last gig, the 1990 Law Revue [1], and is a reprise of a similar shot I did for an earlier Med Revue [2]. |
 Sydney Royal Botanic Gardens family
(Apr 1982) A family moment in the Royal Botanic Gardens in Sydney. A very early candid shot, and at the time I … (more)
... was thrilled at how close I imagined I got. Of course today I would junk the image due to its ugly lens flare, "stab in the back" angle and because I wasn't close enough. |
 SCC steps, George Street
(Jun 1982) Schoolboys waiting for the afternoon bus outside the (then) Sydney County Council building, across the road from Sydney Town Hall. … (more)
... Here for a change I got things right — in close, in colour, the people in their environment, undisturbed by me. Consequently this is one of the few early images which still works. |
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| High School |
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 Speakers Corner, The Domain
(Jul 1981) Sunday orators in the Domain outside the Art Gallery of NSW. In the early 80s they could still attract a … (more)
... sizeable crowd, but today the handful who turn up rant mostly to themselves. As a teenager I was fascinated by the David Potts rear-view photograph of a man with rosary beads walking along a street in Nicosia Cyprus — so much so that I often wasted a lot of time trying to reproduce the effect. |
 Pyrmont Bridge
(Jun 1981) In 1981 the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper held a student photography competition. This shot, taken with a borrowed Yashicamat 124G, … (more)
... was one of my entries. It depicts a quiet moment during the evening rush-hour on Pyrmont Bridge in Darling Harbour, looking west towards the Fielders bread factory and Pyrmont Power Station. More than twenty-five years later most of these landmarks are gone, pulled down to make way for the Sydney Casino and Darling Harbour re-development. |
 Winter sunbather, The Domain
(Jun 1981) Another starter for the SMH competition, this time taken in the Domain park outside the Art Gallery of NSW. This … (more)
... is my first ever "don't ask, just shoot" candid (and I was terrified while doing it!). It made it into the competition Merit Entries Exhibition at the Centerpoint Tower in Sydney. Unfortunately my untitled image had been christened "Lazy" by some unknown hack — I still remember how furious I was about this. |
 Macdonaldtown rail viaduct
(Feb 1981) Trite nonsense and cheesy kids stuff. Find a piece of graffiti, snap a photo when something ironic happens nearby. Ho-hum, … (more)
... yawn. |
 Berrys Bay, Waverton Park
(Jul 1980) A couple of teenage girls at Waverton Park. My first ever photo of complete strangers, although not a true candid … (more)
... because I asked for permission before taking it. I still like how it radically changes meaning when you notice the empty bottle at the lower RHS shoreline… The colour balance is a bit strange here because the cheap, non-professional C41 negative has not aged well. |
 Scarborough Primary School
(May 1980) A deserted view of Scarborough Primary School on a winter Sunday afternoon. Although a spectacularly banal shot, it's from my … (more)
... first ever roll of film! Again the colour is a little wobbly due to cheap C41 and poor storage. |
