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It felt that John Howard would always be a permanent fixture of the political scene in Australia. Certainly for any Australian under the age of 21, Howard is all they have known. I took this photo as part of a Time Magazine assignment, to cover the Liberal Party election night events. As Howard headed for the exit sign at the Wentworth Hotel it was amazing how quickly he slid out of public consciousness. Minutes later the TV crews and journalists packed up their cables and microphones, Howard posters were pulled down off the walls and the ballroom was left with a faintly surreal air. He was gone like a puff of smoke.  Postcard from Dolphin Street - Father's Day 2007 A little alien arrived in our life three months ago. He materialised onto a clean white sheet in our bedroom and has been hovering about ever since. The last time I had any association with aliens was a couple of years back in the Northern Territory. There an old fencer bloke called Tom said he would often see flying saucers from another galaxy fly past his camp at night while he was sleeping in his swag. When I awake at night, I don’t see flying saucers but a wooden cot in the corner of the room. I sometimes climb out of my bed and stagger over to it in the middle of the night and look down admiringly at my son’s tiny fingers curling in the dark, listen to his curious gurgling sounds and try to imagine, what if anything, inhabits his dreams. Friends and family say that these little aliens are called ‘babies’. (As a first-time dad I’m on a steep learning curve) They say that if you feed them, love them, read to them and sing them happy songs, that one day these little aliens will come to resemble us. So that’s what we’ve been doing. With a name like Tuomo Solness, I can imagine him one day becoming secretary general of the United Nations or perhaps a Greenpeace eco-warrior. One of his major achievements so far is to sprout a pair of wobbly aerials from the top of his head. I don’t know what they mean, but I’m extremely proud.  This portrait of actor Tom E. Lewis in rehearsal for his role as Othello, has been chosen as a finalist for this year’s ‘Head On’ portrait photography awards. (www.headon.com.au) I took the shot for the Bulletin magazine in 2006. Tom E. Lewis is probably best known as the young actor in the 1970’s Fred Schepsis film, The Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith. The ‘Head On’ award has undergone exponential growth in the past few years and has established itself as one of Australia's major photographic portrait exhibitions. The show will be mounted at one of Australia's major photography galleries, the Australian Centre for Photography in April-May and then travel to the Daylesford Foto Biennale in June. (check local guides for details) Race is a particularly critical factor in Othello, the story of the "dark Moor" who succumbs to sexual jealousy amidst a white society. The choice of an Aboriginal actor makes for an interesting twist given the production’s Australian context. Produced by the Darwin Theatre Co. the lovely young ‘white’ Desdemona falls deeply in love with the Moor, Othello, and travels with him to continue their idyll on the island of Cyprus. Jealous eyes and sick minds follow them and, before long, the ugliest of whispers echo in Othello’s ears like approaching thunder. (realised here by Andrew Hale, playing the role as the treacherous Iago) When the storm breaks over their island of dreams, nothing will stand in its path.  TWO IMAGES NOMINATED AS FINALISTS IN THE 2007 MORAN CONTEMPORARY PHOTOGRAPHY PRIZE – March 2007 Two of my photographs were selected as finalists in this prestigious national photographic award. According to the entry criteria, judges were sympathetic to images that effectively captured scenes from everyday Australian life. http://www.moranprizes.com.au/photographic.php - This picture of John Oswald and Anna Hingley riding their horses across the top of Australia was one of two images chosen by the judges. It was taken in July 2006, whilst I was on assignment in the Gulf of Carpentaria for Time Magazine. It's a bit of an outback love story about a Northern Territorian horseman getting together with an English vet and realising their dream of riding across the top of Australia from Broome to Cairns. It took five months to do the 3,273 kilometre trek. The other image chosen by judges is a tribute to an old mate Damien, who I happened across in a taxi in Darwin one night (it’s already posted on this site. Just scroll down to Darwin Postcard October 2006) The images were hung at the State Library of NSW between March 13th and May 6th 2007.  CHRISTMAS POSTCARD– The Road Ahead for 2007 One of my previous New Year’s Resolutions (apart from kicking an acute chocolate habit) was to approach life in new way. I decided everything I did from January 1st would include a sprinkling of ‘love’ in the action. This I deemed would ensure that an element of quality would be present in everything I did. Of course the idea felt good on ‘day one’, but by the time Australia Day came around, life had gotten out of control again, and such idealism had become nonsensical. So this year, rather than just talk about it – I’ve decided to photograph the notion, so it feels a little more real and credible. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.  LIFE IN THE LONG GRASS – Darwin Postcard - Nov 2006 Verona White and Barney Tipiloura sleep in the bush at Fannie Bay, just down the road from some of the most prestigious homes in Darwin, Northern Territory. Not that such details interest them. Despite appearances, they couldn’t be happier. Verona was in hospital recently for respiratory problems (hence the white sheet, courtesy of the NT Health Department) and she’s feeling tired, whilst Barney had had a few drinks when I arrived at their camp with my camera, but they were still happy to be photographed. I came to this rudimentary bush camp expecting to hear a story of misery and desperation. Instead I heard a conversation of gratitude and quiet wisdom. It was rather disarming. First impressions can often be deceiving. Most cities have their street people. Darwin has its Longrassers – a disparate group of between 150 and 200 homeless itinerants, predominantly Aboriginal, who have left their traditional lands. They choose a different life for themselves in camps amongst the many reserves and bushlands around the city. Many regard Longrassers as a public nuisance. Like any homeless community in any modern city, they are unemployed, like a drink and tend to exist in contradiction to the status quo of the general citizenry. This can create friction, not to mention basic health and safety issues for local councils. There are all sorts of plans to eradicate the Longrassers. It’s a work in progress. For Verona and Barney though, Longrass life has been a salvation. They met in this camp about eight years ago. Shortly afterwards they married in the bush, ‘Kangaroo Style’ (as Barney so eloquently puts it). There was not a lot of formality, but it worked for them. At the time Verona was escaping a life of domestic violence in her traditional community. Barney had problems in his home country of the Tiwi Islands. They were both glad to find each other and this bit of pandanus and mangrove scrub where they could camp. Barney hides his cooking gear behind certain pandanus palms and bemoans the regular incursions of council workers, who come to tidy up the place. But he still reckons the lifestyle is pretty good. “Its peaceful and quiet here” he says “We have our ups and downs but we solve our problems.” Verona adds, “We have everything here that we want. Each day we have a feed, a yarn, and a drink, … and then we go to sleep.”  DHARAWAL ENGRAVINGS - Jibbon Point. Bundeena, Sydney 2006 This place is special due to the survival of fragile Aboriginal engravings that cover the surface of this rock platform. It provides an extraordinary juxtaposition, with the glow of modern Sydney situated on the distant skyline. I have had a long family association with Bundeena and have always loved the figurative nature of these simple renditions. Sadly the engravings are fading and will eventually be lost to future generations. There are a number of such sites around Sydney. Such engravings are notoriously difficult to capture photographically. Even the National Park information board vainly tries to make suggestions: “Early morning and late afternoon are the best times to photograph the engravings,” it reads. But if you follow their advice, the result is invariably uninspiring. Over the years idiots have run chalk lines along the engravings to make them stand out more in photos. At Bondi the council actually re-ground a number of the engravings with what looks like an angle grinder. That was back in the gun-ho 1960's. A recent issue of Australian Geographic details the dilemma, by explaining that amongst the living Aboriginal descendants, all those who were qualified to tend the engravings by right of initiation are gone. So authorities today can either touch them up and risk corrupting them forever, or just watch them fade into history. The jury is still out. Earlier this year I hit upon the idea to recreate the outlines using a light. It does energises the artwork and serves as some sort of record. In the foreground is 'Mummaga' (local law keeper). The six fingers on the left hand and the unusual shape of the figure indicates that it is one of the mythical spirit heroes of the Dharwal stories. Behind is the 'Birri Birri' or Killer Whale. (Indigenous custodians have cleared Publication of this image. This example was accepted into the 2006 'Art and About' Exhibition in Sydney's Hyde Park. It was featured as a 2 metre x 3 metre banner hung high in the branches of the old figs along the centre of the park. For more information on this annual exhibition you can go to: ttp://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/artandabout/ExhibitionsEvents/SydneyLife.asp  THE KISS - Bull Bar, Mareeba Rodeo July 2006 The late French photographer Robert Doisneau did a good job at photographing kissers. Doisneau's classic image, 'Kiss by the Hotel de Ville. 1950', of two Parisians caught in a moment of passion in a busy street, embodied Paris as a city of love, and was championed as such. It proved a tidy earner over the years for Doisneau, but was eventually revealed for what it was - an opportunistic set up with a couple of aspiring actors performing the kiss on command. It created great controversy when its deception was revealed and Doisneau died a tragic sort of figure - haunted by his most exhilarating photograph. It's ironic that it engendered such bitterness, as surely its message of romantic love could only be a positive thing for our collective humanity, in a world today often defined by violent imagery. I reckon we need emblematic images of love in our lives. (authentic or otherwise) to hang on our walls and remind us of things that binds us, rather than divide us. Well for what it's worth, my 'Kiss at the Bronc Bar 2006' published in the special 'Journeys' edition of Time magazine on the 9th of August, is fair dinkum. I stood beside the bass guitarist on stage (nobody seemed to mind) for about 45 minutes scanning the dance floor through my lens, trying to pick off a moment of bliss, in a sea of sweat and beer. I eventually caught one. My most famous Kiss Photo was taken 20 years ago, The Sailors Waltz 1986, and can be seen on the Photos page of this website. Like Doisneau, it has been my most universally admired image. As Doisneau was to realise, photography's ability to harness 'the moment' is never so priceless as when it captures something as delicious as a kiss in a public place. There is such exquisite poignancy in witnessing two souls seeking the comfort of each other's lips. Nothing captures such a moment of tentative communion better than a still photograph. But then photography itself can be like seeking a kiss in a public place. (I'm probably pushing the metaphor a bit. But here goes) As a teenager, photography for me was a tremulous search for connection in a little understood world. A good photograph became a moment of recognition or affirmation of my place in the world. Something like encountering the receptive lips of a stranger, on 'life's-dance-floor' of sweat and beer. The late Max Dupain wrote a review in the Sydney Morning Herald about an early exhibition of mine back in 1985 when I was 26 years old. As we stood in the narrow space of the inner Sydney gallery, I tried to explain the motivational force behind my image making at the time. “If there is no love or compassion in the act of one's photography” I ventured, “you may as well forget it” Dupain was startled. He later wrote, 'Love and Compassion? I have never heard such emotion begetting words from the lips of any other photographer.' I currently have this whimsy of travelling Australia seeking out typically laconic Aussie blokes in hats, caught in spontaneous acts of love and kindness. But then lots of Aussie blokes are very sentimental if you sit down and have a chat. Maybe they read too much of C.J. Dennis's, 'A Sentimental Bloke' when they were younger, like me. “There's little breezes stirring in the leaves, and sparrows chirpin high the whole day long, and in the air a sad-sweet music breathes, a bonzer song. The sort of tune that gets a bloke, fair in the brisket, ere' and makes him wanna choke”.  ASTRAL SWAGMAN - Darwin Postcard - June 2006 Dennis Tito, a Californian multi-millionaire was the first tourist in space. He forked out around US $20 Million and blasted off aboard the Soyuz spacecraft in April 2001. Tito is an advocate for the 'citizens in space' program, a burgeoning movement of entrepreneurial stargazers who see huge potential and dollars in shooting people off into the stratosphere on 'adventure vacation packages'. Well I'm an advocate for a 'citizens in space' program too, but my method is a lot simpler than Tito's. As a citizen of the Territory there's plenty of space around here for me to explore. A few weeks ago I was out photographing on a cattle station called 'Coniston', about 200 kms N.W. of Alice Springs, on the southern fringe of the Tanami Desert. Central Australia is renown for its crystal clear air and lack of ambient lighting from urban centres, which translates into the most vivid night-skies any terrestrial being could ever hope to witness. In the same way that silence can be deafening, Territory night-skies can be blinding. Determined to enjoy a 'Tito-like' experience at a fraction of the cost, I threw my swag down on the station airstrip, a location which placed absolutely nothing between me and our further most galaxies. I then zipped open the mossie dome, fluffed up my pillow and settled in for the ride. Despite never leaving the airstrip I was in fact still travelling faster than any Qantas jet. I was probably clocking in at around 1,600 kilometres an hour, (that is the speed that the earth spins - like a giant top - on its axis of rotation. Hence the reason for our nights and days) I took this photo to prove just what I mean. You have to face the camera to either pole to get the spinning effect. In this case I chose the South Pole because the night-sky in this part of the world is currently ablaze with the Milky Way, the Southern Cross, Jupiter, Scorpio and an infinity of other amazing stuff that I'm sure Dr. Karl could explain more eloquently than me. This exposure was made over a 6-hour period, during which time I had in fact travelled 9,6oo swag kilometres. The camera recorded this journey as a sweeping stream of star trails. I then made a second exposure from the same camera position using my torch to paint up my mossie dome into a sort of swagman's lunar module. Denis Tito got a heroes reception when he returned from space. For me? Well I sauntered across to the station homestead in the morning and was kindly presented with a cup of tea and a plate of bacon and eggs from Max and Jackie. It was a real truckies treat. But then it had been a big night out on the celestial highway. My swag and I had done about 16,000 kilometres in total, so I reckoned I deserved it.  THE BIKINI TREE 20TH ANNIVERSARY REUNION - Alice Springs - June 2006 There's nothing like a tree to remind us of the temporal nature of our lives. Twenty years ago I happened across the 'Bikini Tree' north of Alice Springs, just off the Stuart Highway. I was a young newspaper photographer from Sydney on a travel story and I noticed the tree as we were driving past. The pink bikini was already on it. The image became galvanizing to an extent. In my youthful zeal I saw the tree as a statement of the way 'colonial society diminished and humiliated the sacredness of the Australian bush' (yes I was an idealist and Labor was still in power) and further that it was 'an insightful symbol of the suppressed sexuality of outback males'. Of course Germaine Greer could have put it there for all I knew - but such a thought never entered my mind. Anyway the image was published in the National Times Newspaper with the appropriate caption 'This tree is a reflection of outback make sensibility'. In 1988 it was published again, in Australasian GEO Magazine as a full page in the Bi-Centennial edition. This time one of the readers regarded the image as nothing more than ocker trash. The sort of thing you'd find in old Australasian Post magazines in barbershops. Both points are true to an extent. It is trashy ockerism but it was also compelling enough to become a seminal image in the development of my Tree Stories book and exhibition project. (see home page) The compelling thing was the tree's anthropomorphic character, which created a doorway into the imagination. I was hungry to find a narrative and this tree gave me hope. For that I will always be grateful. Revisiting it recently I expected it to be more ravaged - to have gotten fatter - to be more middle-aged like me. But apart from a bit of fire damage and blistered skin she seems to have barely left adolescence. Which brings me inevitably to that sobering yet gloriously spiritual realization, which trees, by their very longevity, have a habit of inciting within me. Yes, we are but bits of skin and blood. Yes, our digital cameras will be worthless by 2026. And Yes, she is destined to outlast us all. But that's O.K. (I think) Anyway, …. Long live the Bikini Tree!  credits | photos | cont@ct | current projects | illuminated landscape | curriculum vitae | home |