Thursday, November 25, 2010

New Beginnings...

Well what a busy couple of months, apologies for leaving it so long since my last post. Lots has been happening with work and our home life. My family and I have finally made the decision to move to Queenslands beautiful hinterland. We have spent much of the past month filling out forms, running to and fro to the bank(s) and my lovely wife has been packing whilst I have been scouting for work in sunny QLD. The kids are excited about the move and are already planning what they will be up to. We are lucky enough to have found a piece of paradise, a beautiful house with 7 acres of land and my personal favourite a decent sized swimming pool. Heaven. In terms of work I am currently shooting new content for wonder chef Darell Falsteads 'Foveaux' restaurant in Surry Hills in Sydney. Last weekend Darell and I set up in the back lane to get some perspective on the food. The shots look beautiful as we had lovely conditions to shoot in, helped along by some handy reflectors and a sturdy tripod. As usual shots were produced on my trusty Mamiya 645 II with Leaf Aptus 65 Digital Back. Post work is done in Leaf Capture and Adobe Lightroom. I have also been shooting artwork and illustrations for Anne Townsend. Check out her beautiful work at heavenlyworks.net.
Coming up is my major show 'The Nature Table'. This work is very personal to me and part of a longer term project which will culminate in a book to be published by myself and my wife and distributed by the great guys at Berkelouw Books ( Thanks to Chris Town - Wonderful Artist and Book Purchaser ). The show has received good press and none other than Robert McFarlane himself has agreed to write a piece on the show. Robert is an absolute legend in art circles and a wonderful photographer and writer ( ozphotoreview.com ). The work stems from a change in fortune in my life. Four years ago I was struck by a car and nearly lost my life. Thanks to some loving children and a wonderful caring wife I am back on my feet after 4 years of recovery. During my rehabilitation I had to learn to walk again, my children and I used to walk around the local area and collect leaves, sticks, feathers, seed pods and many other interesting things. My children attend a steiner school which encourages free play and no commercialism. They have a nature table at home which they use as a display of the particular seasons gatherings, it's truely wonderful to see them play with this and build something out of their imagination. So for me I started to see something of myself in the forms and shapes and the photography followed. The images have been toned but I have not done any retouching as I wanted them to retain their original blemishes, something I still have like scars . The show runs from 29th November - 17th December ....Opening 3rd December @ 7pm ...Please come along for some yummy food and wine...

Anyway I hope this finds you well and thank you for following me this year......











The Nature Table


Hi Everyone, Well I have finally finished my show. I have posted a preview to the show here and on Facebook. The show offically opens on Friday 3rd December 7pm @ Storm Gallery 2/65-67 Foveaux Street Surry Hills....Tel 02 9211 3193. I look forward to seeing you all there and thanks for your continued support.

The photographs are part of an ongoing series based on 'Steiner' education and the practice of having different seasons on the table ie Spring, Summer etc. The photographs were made during my rehabilitation after a serious car accident in 2006. The whole process of collecting the flaura and fawna, walks with my children and being with family are all the things that have made my recovery possible. I really would like to thank my beautiful children Amalia and Hunter for being so caring and grounding me when I needed it. I owe a huge vote of thanks to my gorgeous wife Narell who has always supported me. 
Also I would like to thank a few people who gave me a start and help along the way. As always Philip Hargrave-Smith for giving me my start, Steve Baccon for constant inspiration, Stelios Papadakis, David Maurice Smith, Sasha Kenyon and Julie Sundberg.