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.
Underexposed – An Exhibition by Brisbane Music Photographers
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!
