November Update #1?

I have to say it has been another very busy year with a big rush at the end towards a spectacular finish… but here we are in November with university teaching commitments over for another year and time to really get gun-ho into turning some of those big-ideas sitting in the back of my head in to real projects. Several major things have happened since I last updated that Im going to go in to some detail with below, so bare with me on this, there is room for collaboration and I do need your assistance! ALSO new site design? you dig?

Master of Arts (Honours)
Well, this thing nearly killed me (not really) but I got there in the end, and it has been huge. I have had several major exhibitions, one that toured on a 7 date international schedule, have had my work collected by several major institutions including the National Gallery of Australia, and completed writing a 184 page book on Sublimity, Transcendence and Loss particular to american formalist landscape photography. A huge relief to have it handed in and now I just wait for assessment feedback to make minor edits then its off to the publishers, yahoo!

The Photo Critique
Wagga and Photographic theory and practice just are a match made in heaven. We have so many talented photographers in this area who’s skills, above technical capacity, are in advanced creative problem solving and conceptual capacity. Some of us have formed a collective and will be releasing our manifesto shortly on our new website.

Australian Portrait
I have just not had the time to get this freaking thing done, and I need help. I am looking for an assistant editor for this journal… I am also going to turn it from a quarterly paper into an annual so that it can more accurately reflect the strength of work from those involved. The turn around for the quarterly proved too intense, and as such the journal will become an annual from now on. You can view more about the project at the website.

Gamestudies Journal
I have begun working on an abstract for the gamestudies journal which is a scholarly journal on the video games industry. I have been writing a paper called, The Perceived Infinite: The use of the Vista in Computer Game Design. The paper make an argument for character-led narrative having a requirement for users to subscribe to the façade that their explorations only form part of a larger body of interwoven explicit or potential narratives. These explicit and potential narratives sit as perceived histories and observed accounts played out concurrently to a deep-play in the minds-eye. Here the symbolic is utilised to generate meaning in the digital vista of the observed infinite. I am after occurrences in recent video game history where the avatar is met with a vista that shows a game world that extends beyond the actual technological boundaries of the game world itself. Please contact me if you feel as though you can help in this.

Thanks for sticking around and reading! Hope you like the new site design!

Where does time go?

Well, 15DAYS has now been on exhibit for several weeks, with only about three weeks till I have to take it all down. It has been a very exciting time lately with loads and loads of new projects happening all over the place. If you want to get involved and see some of my projects here is a list of where you currently can;
Wagga Wagga Art Gallery – Solo Exhibition 15Days until 24th of June
Museum of The Riverina – Now/Then Project (Opens Soon)
Fitzmaurice Street Gallery – Laser Acetype Photographs on show until June 10th.
Gallery 43 (Tafe Wagga Wagga) – Cacti Studies.

My work from Beneath The Skin is currently for sale through ArtFido here.

I will soon be launching several new projects too… a few national and international trips I hope… and a conference… sounds good? Sometime soon I might get some sleep! NOT LIKELY!

15DAYS / Now&Then / Other Projects…

15DAYS
This solo exhibition of photographs is now on show at the Wagga Wagga Art Gallery until June 24th. The images in this show form part of what will become a greater body of work towards fine-art landscape. I see these images as the beginning of where my practice is headed. In the catalog I describe this as ‘ 15DAYS becomes a documentation of spirits in transit where both the photographer and the land are asked to reach an uneasy equilibrium’. There are two catalogs for sale, $20 ($10 bought at the exhibition itself) for Silver Ed. or $199.00 for the Gold Edition. Please consider attending the opening on the 12th of May at 2pm at the Wagga Wagga Art Gallery.

Now & Then
I have photographed a series of images for this ABC Open project in the Riverina. One of these images has been selected to be utilised for the promotional material and you can view it here. Plenty more images to get out and shoot for this project before it goes on exhibit at the Museum of the Riverina later this year. Hopefully we can get a few other local photographers involved like my work colleague Tim Crutchett.

Australia Project – Heat Stress
I have organised to have two Canon 30D Digital Camera’s with 17-85mm f4-5.6 lenses converted for shooting in alternate wavelengths. One to shoot ‘Super-Blue Infrared’ without needing channel swapping, the other and 830nm deep black&white IR. The concept is that the two conversions will enable the effective recording of heat stress in foliage, this should provide some interesting results in Australia’s desert regions.

Now/Then – ABC Open

I have been invited to exhibit in the Now/Then project with ABC Open and ABC Riverina. This exhibition will be on show at the Museum of the Riverina in June and also at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney later this year. It is not the kind of thing I would usually find myself drawn to, and certainly not in the realms of fine-art photography that I am usually eager to be involved in, but realistically the opportunity to exhibit at such prestigious institutions proved too good to pass up.

Attached is an image of unknown dignitaries at the front of the Museum of the Riverina… If you know who these dignitaries are, that would be very helpful!