Brisbane’s creative community can feel like one big happy family at times, so shooting for Finders Keepers this weekend was lots of fun. An event originating in Sydney, the Finders Keepers markets supports local designers and artists through a two day independent market. I spent most of the day strolling around, listening to music and chatting to stall owners about their creations and the ideas behind them. It’s really left me feeling re-inspired to focus a bit more on my side projects like VonVintage, and the BNE project, to bring more to a photograph than just a print on a wall or an image online. Here are some of my favourite stalls and shots from the day. More images can be found in the Finders Keepers gallery.
In support of the Inspire Foundation and to help raise funds and awareness for the prevention of suicide and improvement of mental health and well being in men, the “Man Book” was launched today. Put together by the very inspiring Mark Pollard and Gavin Heaton, the book titled The Perfect Gift for a Man – 30 Stories about Reinventing Manhood, focuses on the stories of 30 contributors on topics such as respect, fragility and loss. Although I didn’t manage to write anything for the book, I was honoured to play a part through my contribution as a photographer. 2 images, destined to spend the rest of their lives on my hard drive, were given life and purpose again through use on the front cover and within the book! For more information on the book, head to theperfectgiftforaman.com.au or you can support the Inspire Foundation by buying an
Earlier in the year, as part of my BNE Project, I did a shoot with Joshua Levi (Brisbane photographer, gallery owner, entrepreneur), while he was working on the construction of a second new gallery. I had always intended on doing the second portrait for the series back in the same space once it had been finished, but also really wanted to somehow incorporate more of Josh as well as his trademark bathtub at his main gallery. Residing mainly at Joshua Levi Galleries in Woolloongabba, the vintage clawfoot tub had been used in helping to promote his past shows as well as in his latest combined photographic exhibition “Coke Can Spirituality” where it even found itself on the back of a ute in front of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s electoral office.
Like most of my shoots, we threw around a couple of ideas and tried out a few different approaches before deciding how we wanted in the shot to look and everything to work. After rehanging and rearranging all of Josh’s own “bathtub” photography a few times and having to refill the tub (and clean up) after a few explosive splashes, we finally ended up with what we wanted.
As I did with the previous shoot, I also shot a time lapse video:
The first portrait and timelapse of Josh from the BNE project series photo shoots:
Every year, cities around the world participate in “Global Illumination” to raise awareness of Breast Cancer, through the bold pink lighting of buildings, monuments and well known landmarks. Affecting 1 in 8 women, including those in my own family, breast cancer is a disease that touches so many of us in one way or another. This year, in support of the Breast Cancer Month and the National Breast Cancer Foundation, I got behind the Brisbane Global Illumination Cocktail Party as their photographer. It was a night full of entertainment with hosts Camilla Severi from b105 and Lidia Box “Brisbane’s Leading Gender Illusionist”, fire twirlers, a 12 piece soul band (SoulZu), auctions and an after party at Cloudland.
Some photos from the event can be found below and in the following web gallery: www.marklobo.com.au/nbcf
If you were there and would like some photos of yourself, please feel free to contact Rachael Moni – rachael.moni@nbcf.org.au
For more information about Global Illumination and to support breast cancer research through the National Breast Cancer Foundation, please visit their website: www.nbcf.org.au
I recently started a new project called VonVintage. Put simply, it stands for Vintage on Vintage, which is exactly how I intend to shoot it: Vintage content, shot on a Vintage camera. Through it’s use in preservation and storytelling, photography can be a powerful tool. Coupled with an artistic approach, I hope the project can help bring back some value to beautiful vintage design and the keepsakes of the past.
Thanks to the generosity of friends and strangers, I now have 7 vintage cameras which I’m running film through. If you know anyone that collects film cameras, or would like me to put a roll of film through an old camera you have, please get in touch!
You can see my “scrapbook” of related imagery on the VonVintage website here: http://www.vonvintage.com/scrapbook/,
follow the feed of images on tumblr
or if you are interested in the progress of the project, be sure to follow @VonVintage on Twitter.
Here are some shots from my last roll. Shot on an old Nikomat FT2.
In February this year Brisbane “Tweeps”, along with thousands of other users of online social media community Twitter, from over 200 cities around the world, came together to help raise over $390,000 AU for Charity:Water. Following the success of the International event, September 10-13th 2009, now marks the dates set for Twestival Local, where Twitter communities will be holding events to support their local causes.
On September 11th 2009, Brisbane Twestival will be helping to raise funds for the Inspire Foundation, who through a number of programs, support young people through the prevention of youth suicide and improvement of mental health and well being. Twestival will be held at Joshua Levi Galleries, a great supporter of local artists and musicians, where I have showed my work before. The night will showcase local bands and acts, raffles and also an art auction to which I am donating one of my framed photographs (above + below). So please come along, have a few drinks, listen to some great bands, buy some artwork and help support the Inspire Foundation!
Last month I had a photo shoot with Gold Coast band Hobo Obituaries. I was told they had a space where they did all their recording and spent most of their time hanging out, and although I hadn’t seen it until the day, was pretty sure it would make for some interesting photos. I approached the shoot with a few fairly loose ideas, but with the main intention of just capturing the brothers being themselves in their own environment. From Jack Russells to low rider bicycles we had a lot of fun incorporating as much of their lives into the shoot. It really reinforced my view of working with people to achieve something fun and real, rather than just directing them.
I recently did a photo shoot for Cook’s House, luxury country resort, in the Sunshine Coast Hinterland’s beautiful Maleny. Located in one of my favourite countryside spots in Queensland, the rolling hills have always made for some great backdrops for portraits. During the shoot, I also had the chance to shoot a few landscapes and farm life in the area including this curious creature:
Over a year in the planning, Alanna and Scott’s wedding was as organised as a wedding could possibly be. One thing about weddings though, is there are so many variables that come into play on the day that could easily turn a good shoot into a bad one. Starting out with a few concerns about the cold and overcast/rainy weather, the the skies soon cleared and the day was perfect. However, with a late ceremony at 4pm and sunset at 5pm. We were unable to use any of the available daylight for the location shots and had to cut out a few ideas. We had no choice but to do the entire location shoot post sunset, which was actually a first for me. I’m thrilled with the results though. I suppose it goes to show that you can plan as much as you want, but in the end you can’t always rely on your initial ideas and will need to work off of what you have.
I love visiting Japan and I specifically love the city of Tokyo, where I spent a lot of my childhood. Although I’ll often spend a lot of time catching up with family, and this time, actually spent a lot of it catching up on work, I made some time to take some photos around town. I’m fascinated with documenting the lifestyle, and history of the country, all within such a rapidly evolving culture. I’ve chosen a few images to share, from ‘Old Japan’ to the faces of Shibuya, one of Tokyo’s famous shopping and entertainment districts.
Last night I attended the preview opening of ‘Underexposed’ an exhibition showcasing some amazing live band photography from Brisbane Photographers. With well over a dozen photographers, such as Dane Beesley, Kylie Keene and Elleni Toumpas showcasing their work, the walls were filled with hundreds of images over the last 20 years of music history. It was great to finally meet some photographers who’s work I have seen through various street press, online and social media. With local music from local bands and musicians the atmosphere couldn’t be more fitting. Underexposed opens tonight at Joshua Levi Galleries in Wooloongabba and will be featuring live music in the gallery every Friday and Saturday until the end of the show. More details and gig dates below.
Pecha Kucha Night – Volume 10 was held as part of the Brisbane Ideas Festival on the 27th of March. I had the opportunity to present at the event and speak about some of my work and projects.
Pecha Kucha is an event where any designer, artist, architect, interactive media or alike, are given the soapbox to present their designs, thoughts and ideas. Each presenter gets 20 seconds to showcase and talk about 20 slides of their work.
This is a video of my presentation. Lots of “umms”, I know, but with a packed crowd of 300 in the room, 200 on the 2nd floor balcony, and another few hundred on the ground floor watching the live feed, I was pretty nervous!
As part of the “second degree” of the BNE project, a photographic project looking at people’s inspirations, chosen by the subjects of the photos themselves, I did a shoot for Matt Rabbidge from 9 Lives. Matt was chosen as the inspiration of Nick Crocker, one of the first portraits of the series as his inspiration for the project. Trying to capture someone you don’t really know well in a portrait can be quite a challenge, but I suppose that’s what makes the project fun to shoot. One of the inspiring stories behind Matt is the collaborative effort with his friends to get the 9 lives gallery off the ground. With this in mind, we chose the gallery as the perfect location, and invited everyone along for the shoot. We started off with a few solo portraits at the front of the gallery and set up a second camera to record a time lapse of the shoot. I later found that my favourite shot was one off of the second camera. The shot that really captured Matt was one of him sitting, looking into the main room of the gallery, as I set up for the shoot. I couldn’t have hoped to capture a better moment without even holding the camera! Check out the resulting shots from he shoot as well as the time lapse video:
For the last few weeks I’ve been working on a number of photo shoots for my ongoing photographic project entitled BNE. As part of the project I take a look at the inspiring people that surround me and tell their story through two images. I recently photographed Josh Collings, from Joshua Levi Galleries, at his new space at the Bell Brother’s building in the Fortitude Valley, Brisbane. After seeing what Josh recently did with an old antique shop, transforming it into a unique space for artists and musicians, it seemed fitting that I shoot his portrait at his new gallery whilst still under construction. The second image of the series is scheduled to be shot after his opening in a few weeks time. As part of the project, I ask each of my inspirations to select the next inspiration in the series, playing on the idea of six degrees of separation. You can read more about the project here:
This Tuesday, over 175 cities around the world will be hosting ‘Twestivals’ in an effort to help raise money and awareness for charity: water, a non profit organization bringing clean, safe drinking water to people in developing nations. The event will bring together the world’s online Twitter “micro-blogging” communities for an evening of music, art and entertainment. Brisbane will be hosting their very own Twestival this Thursday the 12th February at 6.30pm at Metro Arts in the city. For those interested, be sure to check out the Brisbane Twestival Website, where you can donate and also buy tickets to the event. There will be live bands and entertainment as well as a live auction for which I have donated the two images below. Hope to see you there!
I recently did a photo shoot for freelance writer Rebecca Leigh. Shot in Maleny, in beautiful Sunshine Coast Hinterland, I was inspired to take a short time lapse video of the shoot. This is the first of many time lapse movies I hope to make in 2009.
Earlier in the year I won 2 awards at Shooting Raw 2008. Part of the prize was 3 days, 4 nights in the Whitsunday Islands. It took me a while, but I finally found some time to head out and re-discover the islands which I had visited on a road trip in my student days. This time, armed with digital camera, I shot a range of panoramic images of the beautiful beaches and lookouts on a number of the islands. This is one of my favourite views from the trip.
I was recently asked to do a shoot for local Brisbane hair stylist, Michelle Morrison, who wanted me to help showcase 6 solid looks for a hair stylist competition she was entering. Due to the variable nature of the styles, we needed to work out of the salon to ensure that full control of the hair and makeup was maintained. Equipped with a portable backdrop and studio lights, setting up a small ‘fashion studio’ for the shoot in the limited space proved to be quite an entertaining challenge! With a full team of make up artists and hair stylists on hand, we delivered some stunning looks with some of what I have been referring to as ‘Killer Fringes’!
I was recently interviewed and featured on a great website called Australian Edge – “Showcasing Australian Creativity”. You can have a read of the interview here.
I love sites like this and it features some great work, make sure you check them out!
Australian Edge is a collective helping promote Australian creativity in all forms. Australia has an exciting and vibrant creative scene. Australian designers, artists and industry professionals through their contributions have had a strong influence locally as well as globally in their related fields.
After an amazing, layed-back set at the opening of the River City Exhibition at Joshua Levi Galleries yesterday night, Brisbane musicians Dan & Dilmah will be continuing their residency at the gallery over the coming weeks. To be a part of their intimate, heart warming performances, make sure to RSVP, as each gig is limited to only 50 people! Bring a bottle of wine and a cushion too!
As mentioned in my previous post, I am also exhibiting work at the gallery as part of my BNE project! Hope to see you there!
More info:
“Joshua Levi Galleries has unearthed the hidden talents of Dan & Dilmah, a brother and sister folk duo.
To launch their first album ‘Inside Out’, the gallery will be holding 4 intimate performances, showcasing their unique soundtrack.
In this private setting you will witness their splendour among only 50 people per show so RSVP quickly.
Bring a bottle of wine and a cushion and hear the unmistakeable lyrics of Granny, Chicken Soup and Awkward Turtle”
Dates: 17 September 2008 (Sold Out)
18 September 2008
25 September 2008
3 October 2008
