I used to think that taking photos was something that took me out of the moment - so I often avoided doing so.
What I've started to find though is that getting into photography means that I have more 'moments' because I seek out opportunities that I otherwise wouldn't have.
Maybe I do stop the car and take a look at the building - because with a camera in hand I suddenly have a purpose for being in that space.
That's a lot of words to say that, I'm not the kind of photographer that spends ages setting up the perfect shot. Rather I like to use photography as a way of capturing a moment as I walk past
In 2023, so far I have been going for lots of walks out and about Melbourne to take photos. As well I've been getting into film a bit more. There is a certain constraint that I find works well for me creatively, that a roll of film gives me a certain number of images I can take whilst walking and constrains me a taking photos with particular light characteristics according to the speed of film I have chosen to take with me.
Now we're into 2024. I might reformat this a bit - or I may not. This website was kinda something I did when I was supposed to be studying but now I've finished uni... anyway. here's a thought on landscape photography: I find it hard to bring an artistic vision to something like a landscape where all i did was stand there. Whereas when I can get up close to things I like to think that nobody else had looked at the subject in the same way.
(Alternatively: things I really like taking photos of at the moment for some reason)
My intention here is to collect a series of chimney photographs taken around Melbourne. I'd been hoping to get most of my photographing done by the end of 2022, but I got busy and still need to check off some locations I've marked down on Google Maps.
I guess the point of this project is to pay attention to something that people around me aren't normally paying attention to. That these chimneys are something we all walk, drive, or cycle past every day. They have these details and beauty - reaching up to the sky. Through photographing them, I hope to bring a microscopic attention to this part of the urban landscape in Melbourne.
Eliot Porter once said something to the effect that a landscape photo typically invites the viewer into a world that they image to lie beyond the boundaries of the image (paraphrased). Something about these organisms does make me imagine of different worlds, and I just love bloody taking photos of mushrooms. I keep wanting to find slime moulds too but I'm not that adept at finding them just yet.
I don't really feel that comfortbable or interested in taking photos of people, and so I often take photos of buildings instead. Often ugly buildings - or really specific parts of buildings.
I'm still very much still in an experimentation phase with film, as I've only been shooting on film since November 2022 approximately - but I find the whole process much more engaging - holistic. I read a book on 'slow' practices and I think film is a good example of being slower and more methodical with a medium that it is all too easy to be hasty with on digital formats, or particularly with a phone where you can take so many photos that you never have time to look back through them. You get a limited number of shots on a roll, and I have to wait a bit after finishing them. I am forced to trust in my ability to expose the shot and be in the moment a bit more.
