Peter Solness
Peter Solness has over 25 years experience in editorial and corporate
photography, and has worked for every major magazine and newspaper in
Australia, as well as completing assignments for overseas publications
such as the London Independent, Conde Naste Traveller, German GEO,
Forbes and the Hong Kong Post.
His corporate clients over the past few years have included; Qantas
Airlines, N.R.M.A., Commonwealth Bank, AGL and Channel 7.
He has been the principle photographer for over 8 books, the writer of
1 book, and a contributor to at least another 10. He also exhibits
photographs on a regular basis.
His images are held in the collections of the National Library Canberra
and the State Library of N.S.W.
The following
is an edited chronology of previous projects:
During 2004 and 2005 he completed regular assignments and feature projects for The Bulletin, Time Magazine, Lonely Planet Publications, various news and photo agencies as well as Fairfax Publications such as The Sydney Morning Herald and the AGE. He has photographed issues as diverse as Australian Army Exercises, a tour of Western Bulldog AFL players to remote Arnhemland communities and the documentation of eminent palaeontologists working in the fossil-rich fields of Riversleigh, N.W. Queensland. In 2005 he also became a finalist in Australian Science's most prestigious photojournalism award, 'The Eureka Awards'.
From his base in Sydney, Solness has been a regular feature writer and photographic contributor to magazines such as the R.M. Williams' Outback Magazine, covering many issues across Northern Australia. This includes cover images, photo-essays on subjects such as cattle mustering, canoeing and adventure travel stories and in-depth profiles on classic Australian characters.
Working with an SBS T.V. crew between July and October 2005, Solness travelled across the top of Australia with Cathy Freeman and Deborah Mailman to illustrate a book entitled, "Going Bush" which was released in February 2006. Solness has also conducted workshops on Photojournalism at the Charles Sydney University and held a solo exhibition, 'Shadowplay' at the University Gallery.
Self-assigned feature projects so far have included a documentation of
Feral Camel research scientists living under the stars in the Tanami
desert.
Also in 2004, Solness completed an essay on the contemporary value of
the Eureka Flag, published in the Goodweekend Magazine and purchased as
a fine-art set by the Ballarat Fine Art Gallery to coincide with the
150th anniversary celebrations of the Eureka Stockade.
Between 2001-2003, Solness worked on several long term assignments for
the Murray Darling Basin Commission, researching and documenting
aspects of Australia's inland river system and the crisis in
Australia's dwindling freshwater supplies. In particular he was
involved in a 12 month project detailing the issues confronting the
Macquarie River Catchment, such as salinity, water quality and
Agricultural practise, which he compiled into a feature article for the
Australian Geographic.
In the same period he worked on the book, 'Slow Food' with writers /
gardeners, David and Gerda Foster, (published by Duffy and Snellgrove),
who have written a personal account of a year of growing their own food
on their small plot at Bundanoon, in the southern tablelands of N.S.W.
In the year 2000 assignments
included stills images for an IMAX production entitled Equus, (Story of
the Horse), which involved action photography of wild horses in the Victorian
Highlands during winter. He also completed a four page self-assigned photo
essay in the Sydney Morning Herald's Goodweekend Magazine, entitled 'Songs
in the Key of Life', which depicted how the action of singing, can enrich
everyday life.
In
1999 Australia was introduced to 'Baby Scottie' a picture of a naked baby
being held aloft by his father at Bronte Beach.
The picture was a key image
in an extensive advertising campaign on billboards and media, for Qantas
Airlines. In the same year Solness also travelled around the world for Qantas,
shooting for their Annual Report, including destinations such as Singapore,
London, Paris, New York, Los Angeles, Buenos Aires and Central Australia.
Also in 1999 Solness travelled
extensively throughout Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, visiting
many isolated villages and documenting cultural, educational and environmental
initiatives being undertaken by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).
Other work in P.N.G. and the
Solomon Islands includes a 5 weeks assigment in 1995 documenting the cultural
impact of industrial-scale logging on the indigenous peoples of these countries.
This Greenpeace sponsored project resulted in an exhibition entitled, 'The
Logging Fields' which was distributed internationally.
In late 1999 Solness realised
his most ambitious project to date. It was a self-assigned book and exhibition
project, entitled 'Tree Stories', (see separate page) which took 4 years
to complete.
The
book includes extensive interviews, portraits and insights from people all
over Australia and as diverse as poets, farmers, scientists, schoolchildren
and Aboriginal elders and is published by Chapter and Verse, Sydney, with
a hard cover edition produced by Australian Geographic. A photographic exhibition
of the same name was held at the Stills Gallery, Sydney.
In 1996, at the invitation
of the Australian- Malaysian Society, Solness travelled through East Malaysia
documenting the multi-cultural character of the Sarawak and Sabah people.
This work was compiled into a cultural exchange project, including a book
and exhibition, which toured through both countries in 1996, entitled, 'Visions'.
Other book projects included
a collection of black and white portraits in conjunction with ABC broadcaster
Caroline Jones, and her 'Search for Meaning' radio and book series, that
extended from 1988 to 1995.
Between 1988 and 1994 Solness worked on a string
of documentary film-stills and book projects, including a book on the 'Sydney
Harbour', another on a peculiar Australian horse sport called 'Polocrosse'
and a major work documenting the three million strong 'Chinese Army' at
their military and training bases, shortly before the 1989 Tienanmen square
tragedy.
Also in 1989 Solness was on
the road for six months producing images for a coffee table book entitled
'The Red Express', featuring the trans-siberian rail journey from West Berlin
to Beijing in China, during the collapse of the iron curtain.
Another book project shortly after, took Solness
on a 6 week trek across Russia in 4 wheel drive cars from Vladivostok to
Moscow, with journalist George Negus and a film crew, to produce, 'Across
the Red Unknown'.
From 1983 to 1988, Solness
worked as a staff photographer with the Fairfax publishing group. During
this time his work was featured extensively in the Sydney Morning Herald
and the now defunct National Times newspaper. It was during this period
that Solness developed a reputation for memorable black and white photojournalism
images.
During this stint Solness pursued
a number of self-assigned photo essays, including features on the Atomic
bomb test aftermath at Maralinga, the 1986 Philippines Revolution (a Walkley
Award commendation) and a Goodweekend magazine cover story, entitled 'Ginger
Meggs in Paraguay', based on research, interviews and photographs of the
remaining descendants of the 1892 'New Australia' movement in South America.
In 1980, Solness took to the
road alone with a motorcycle to document the interior of his country. The
journey continued for two years. An exhibition based from these travels
was described by master photographer Max Dupain in 1984 as, "expressing
an acute awareness about which the ordinary mortal is visually clueless."
Solness began his photography as a 16 year old schoolboy, when his first photograph was published
in Surfing World Magazine.
