Comic Sans: Gotham City...

Kantipur Temple Guest House, Thamel, Kathmandu, Nepal

I See Red, I See Red, I See Red...

In preparation for the Nepal Trek, I'm practising walking and creating, to get both my physical and photographic fittness up to speed. So I set myself a little exercise at lunchtime on Thursday, where I decided to focus on "Seeing Red"... I parked at Broadway and walked to Chinatown - it's a short walk, but filled with photographic possibilities... The 'Red' thing was recalling an old Artschool exercise, of defining a set of parameters before going out with a camera, placing limits on what you will focus on, to narrow down the seemingly endless possibilities when one sets out to 'create' in response to an environment. It was also interesting to me what a perceptive shift occurred in 'deciding to see red', because all at once, my awareness was heightened to things I had not noticed before, details I might have passed over in a blurr suddenly came into sharp relief. I noticed how much effort lots of people had gone to with their outfits, how they had sought to co-ordinate their accessories, and what that might say about their lives and dreams and aspirations - and even on a grander scale, how the whole city seemed to hum with this resonance of appreciated Redness, how there's a shared aesthetic that unconsciously arises within a culture. I guess we don't always 'see' the creation of that in our own culture, but it's part of what's so appealing about travel, that we bring fresh eyes to appreciate the rhythms and aesthetics of the places and people that we visit...

Artist's Statement:

I went to a writers soiree last Sunday organised by Beth Yahp of a reading by students and teachers of memoir and travel writing. After hearing some of the fascinating stories and motivations of the people I met there, I was inspired to pen an 'Artists Statement', defining some of what I do when I engage with photography

Beth also announced the launch of her latest Writer's Trekk to Nepal in October 2011. I'm very tempted to go, if it's not drawing too long a bow to say that I want to 'write stories with my camera'...

"When I practice photography, I am engaging in a creative space in much the same way as I might practice Yoga or meditation. It is an entry into a sublime space of contemplation. Which is not to say it is always quiet or retiring: sometimes it is fast and active, strident and joyful; and at other times it may be about hours of waiting, silently, observing the light. Or it might be all at once: playful, serious, determined, engaging, free. Outward and inward. It is an action that moves me through all states of mind, all states of being - and challenges me to transcend. In the moment that I make a photograph, I am not attempting to 'capture' anything. When I press the shutter, it is very often to express appreciation for something I have seen, or more often something I have felt: a connection; a presence; a moment of being. It is an applause for what IS. When I press the shutter, it is, for me, the sound of one hand clapping."

  

Broome Photographic Tour

This time last year, I was planning a trip to Broome, to take my parents on a holiday to the North-West. Prior to travel, I had consulted the Oracle - (Google) - on things to do in Broome and came across Nigel Gaunt of Red Dirt Photography, offering photographic tours of the region. This was an inspired discovery - Nigel is an accomplished teacher and superb artist and the twelve hours I spent in his company with a small group of other photo-enthusiasts was enriching on both technical and creative levels. Seeing the landscape through Nigel's eyes really changed how I 'saw' the desert of the North-West - revealing the rugged beauty of the remarkable landscape west of the Pilbara.

With my background in both Chinese Medicine and Photography, I was initially lured by the idea of there being a ‘Chinatown' in Broome. But along with learning about the fascinating and chequered history of the pearling industry in Australia, it was the startling blue of the sea and sky contrasted with the red earth of the Pindan desert that really captured my eye.

So I share with you here a few of the images that came from this journey.
September 2008.

Goulbourne by Night (haiku)

Hume Highway pit-stop.
Dinner at the Workers Club:
Travel sustenance