We all have to start somewhere.

I never studied to become a photographer nor worked as a photographer's assistant. I simply started taking photos at sixteen during a family trip to Nowra (a small seaside town south of Sydney). For the following decade, during high-school and later at university, all my photography was self-taught and pursued as a hobby in my spare time.

Below is a selection of this early work. Some of them are okay, but others clearly show I had a lot to learn.

Image Gallery

postgrad

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  Darling Harbour sandpit

  (Feb 1993) • 60.2 KB • GPS: 33:52:30S, 151:12:06E

  The playground at Darling Harbour. Yet another lazy gimmick shot

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  Circular Quay park

  (Jul 1992) • 77.7 KB • GPS: 33:51:40S, 151:12:32E

  An office worker having a lunch-time snooze in the sun at Circular Quay. A strange pastiche of Kertész, Moholy-Nagy and Dali

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  Pitt Street Mall shoppers

  (Aug 1992) • 60.7 KB • GPS: 33:52:12S, 151:12:30E

  Lunch-time office workers at the Pitt Street Mall in Sydney. A bit of a half-baked photo: should have moved three metres to the left to center the mannequins between the couple

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  Sydney Royal Botanic Gardens schoolgirls

  (Jul 1992) • 176.7 KB • GPS: 33:51:51S, 151:12:57E

  A group of schoolgirls reading in the Royal Botanic Gardens in Sydney. I'm still surprised by how close I managed to get with a Nikon F4S [1], with only the front pair of girls noticing

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  Office workers, Martin Place

  (Aug 1992) • 57.1 KB • GPS: 33:52:04S, 151:12:29E

  When critics fuss about a lack of connection with the subject, presumably this the kind of thing they would rather see.

  The pic also illustrates the perils of relying on auto-focus for 1990's candid work. Here the AF detector locked onto the sandwich kiosk in the background, rendering the main subjects completely out of focus

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  Martin Place Sydney

  (Aug 1992) • 113.2 KB • GPS: 33:52:04S, 151:12:34E

  Martin Place at lunchtime. At the time I considered the composition clever, but it looks more like a self-conscious gimmick now

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  Hurstville CD shopper

  (Oct 1992) • 49.2 KB • GPS: 33:57:57S, 151:06:18E

  An example of the kind of frustrations I faced in the early 90s.

  Although the film-grain is more under control (T-Max 400 at ISO 1600 developed in Perceptol 1+1), the results still had too much noise and contrast.

  The limited DOF is nice, but the belly-button angle (necessitated by the Nikon F4S waist-level finder) is distractingly timid. I should have also waited for a better expression, although this was a problem with all my photography back then.

  Nevertheless the shot was taken indoors in a retail (ie. photo-belligerent) environment, so it's among the earliest of many attempts which would eventually develop into Sydney Unposed [1]

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  Coogee cottage

  (Sep 1992) • 124.7 KB

  A sarcastic kick at mortgage slaves. Many friends were signing up for the Great Suburban Dream, so I created this to use on Having Fun Yet? Christmas cards

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  Renaissance Hotel, Sydney

  (Jul 1992) • 88.5 KB • GPS: 33:51:46S, 151:12:34E

  What was then the Renaissance Hotel, as seen from the Cahill Expressway above Circular Quay.

  Was obviously spending far too much time admiring Steiglitz's 1920s photographs of New York

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  Australia Square workers

  (Aug 1992) • 62.4 KB • GPS: 33:51:53S, 151:12:29E

  HCB Lite. Three women have a break while the photographer fiddles with geometric exercises

portraits

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  Paul Gas Mask

  (Apr 1983) • 165.9 KB • GPS: 33:53:50S, 151:11:08E

  Another STHS [1]/ Oatley mate, Paul Underwood, pauses from running amok with a .45 automatic [2] and M17 Gas Mask [3] in Macdonaltown.

  Always cheerful, we noticed Paul became a little too laid-back as we reached the end of high school. At the time we assumed it was due to his fondness for reggae music and a certain green weed… Only later did we learn that it was actually the preliminary stages of Leigh Syndrome [4], which was misdiagnosed as epilepsy in 1984 and finally killed him in 1996

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  Warringah Expressway Picnic

  (Apr 1981) • 93.2 KB • GPS: 33:50:25S, 151:12:38E

  A Dylanesque shot of one of my STHS [1]/ Oatley friends, Paul Saintilan [2], taken during a picnic on the Warringah Expressway (!) in North Sydney.

  Paul has become perhaps the most successful of our high school group: a BFA in composition; AGSM MBA; EMI and Decca London; Music Viva; AIM; and most recently a PHD in Marketing [3]

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  Anitra Portrait

  (May 1985) • 228.1 KB • GPS: 33:52:45S, 151:13:32E

  UNSW Law Revue director and producer Anitra Hadley, vamping it up during a UNSW Med Revue cast-party.

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  Wendy Portrait

  (Aug 1984) • 292 KB • GPS: 33:58:16S, 151:06:30E

  Wendy Hanlin, one of my 1980's UNSW Chemistry friends [1].

  We took this shot one evening while mucking around in my room, in between an all-afternoon lunch at Jenny's Wine Bar near Central and smoking two packets of cigarettes (her directly, me indirectly). Realised later I had drawn a bit too much inspiration from Kertész's Satiric Dancer (1926), a print of which I had seen in the early '80s at the NGV in Melbourne [2].

  A warm and funny woman, we caught up for another photo shoot in June 1991 and also via a couple of e-mails in July 2005. At the time she was working as a physiotherapist [3], had finally quit smoking, and was happily married with two young children.

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  Sharon Portrait

  (Dec 1990) • 150.9 KB • GPS: 33:53:08S, 151:15:30E

  Sharon Freund, one of my 1990's UNSW Law friends [1].

  Only got to know her well during our final year. At the time she seemed a little bit adrift, but so did most of us.

  A few years later she landed firmly on her feet — postgraduate degree and then career, marriage, children and nannies. Last I heard (Jul 2011) she was working as a NSW magistrate and deputy coroner [2]

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  Dave Mason, The Reels

  (Mar 1982) • 23.8 KB • GPS: 33:51:45S, 151:12:41E

  Dave Mason, lead vocalist of the band The Reels [1], at the Sydney Cove Tavern.

  This was when Sydney still had a live music scene [2]. A couple of decades later this particular venue was converted into a supermarket, while other pubs have replaced live-bands with poker machines [3].

  I used to photograph gigs in the early '80s with vague hopes of breaking into the rock photography circuit. Unfortunately things didn't work out, but I did learn how to work discreetly in often hostile surroundings.

  ( Oh yeah? Nick Cave and The Birthday Party [4], in a mosh-pit full of head-butting punks, three spiked heads from the front. The Nick sees my camera, starts spitting in my direction, and then takes a running dive into the audience, aiming directly at me. Luckily I was surrounded by taller punks, so they took most of the blow… )

university

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  Burning Palms, Royal National Park

  (Feb 1991) • 472.3 KB • GPS: 34:11:11S, 151:02:35E

  Same location as before, but taken early morning and facing the opposite direction. This image isn't too bad, despite being a subconscious rip-off of the background in Sydney Long's Pan 1898 painting [1].

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  Sydney Royal Botanic Gardens family

  (Apr 1982) • 60.5 KB • GPS: 33:51:52S, 151:12:57E

  A family moment in the Royal Botanic Gardens in Sydney. A very early candid shot, and at the time I was thrilled at how close I thought I got. Of course the image would be rejected today due to its ugly lens flare, stab in the back angle and because it isn't close enough.

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  Burning Palms, Royal National Park

  (Jan 1991) • 203 KB • GPS: 34:11:13S, 151:02:33E

  A place called Burning Palms in the Royal National Park, 50km south of Sydney. The influence of my (then) hero Steichen is obvious.

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  UNSW Law Revue

  (Jul 1990) • 433.9 KB • GPS: 33:55:06S, 151:13:48E

  I participated in over ten student revues [1] while at UNSW, either as photographer or sound or video or lighting bloke, or even once as a stage manager.

  This photo is from my last gig, the 1990 Law Revue, and is a reprise of a similar shot done for an earlier Med Revue

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  Summer evening storm, Hurstville

  (Jan 1983) • 211.6 KB • GPS: 33:58:14S, 151:06:31E

  A southerly buster [1] roars through suburban Hurstville after a hot summer's day.

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  Franklin River Dam Protesters, Tasmania

  (Feb 1983) • 398.9 KB • GPS: 42:31:41S, 145:39:56E

  In February 1983 I stayed in Strahan with greenies who were protesting the building of dams on the Franklin River in Tasmania [1].

  Because the Franklin river blockade site was restricted to those who had paid for a 2-day NVA training course, this Macquarie Harbour landing in the picture was as close as the general public were allowed to go by the protest organisers

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  Art Gallery of NSW couple

  (May 1991) • 168.1 KB • GPS: 33:52:05S, 151:13:03E

  A sunday afternoon cuddle on the grass outside the Art Gallery Of NSW.

  A notorious image in that it was the first of my photographs deep-linked (ie. stolen) by another site, in this case a Russian women's e-zine. What was amusing was that they used it in a lovey-dovey context — I guess they didn't notice the steel bars looming in the background…

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  Hurstville Westfield foodcourt

  (Jul 1991) • 49.7 KB • GPS: 33:57:57S, 151:06:20E

  An early experiment with indoor candids, shot in a suburban shopping center in Sydney's south. Nice and moody, but T-Max 3200 had a limited dynamic range and was excessively grainy.

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  Stanwell Park beach

  (Apr 1990) • 84.5 KB • GPS: 34:13:44S, 150:59:30E

  A couple towelling themselves after a swim at Stanwell Park Beach, 70km south of Sydney.

  The image almost works, but it is spoilt by the low taking angle and distracting ground clutter. A few years later I also realised it was an unintentional copy of Max Dupain's Form at Bondi 1939 [1]

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  Sydney Harbour Bridge

  (Aug 1991) • 338.8 KB • GPS: 33:51:10S, 151:12:38E

  Sydney Harbour Bridge as a pot-rivetted steel cactus. Lots of fun as an intellectual exercise, but what was I doing rehashing material from someone else's past?…

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  Manly Beach

  (Feb 1991) • 85.1 KB • GPS: 33:47:48S, 151:17:19E

  On the beach at Manly, pseudo Moholy-Nagy in colour.

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  SCC steps, George Street

  (Jun 1982) • 57.2 KB • GPS: 33:52:27S, 151:12:25E

  Schoolboys waiting for the afternoon bus outside the (then) Sydney County Council building, across the road from Sydney Town Hall. Here for a change I got things right: in close, in colour, the people in their environment, undisturbed by me. Consequently this is one of the few early images which still works.

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  Shark Beach, Nielsen Park

  (Jan 1990) • 137.1 KB • GPS: 33:51:04S, 151:15:57E

  A sunbather reading at Shark Beach (sic!) in Vaucluse, eastern Sydney. Love the headphones and kids frolicking in the surf. Hate the stab in the back angle and (again) subconscious rip-off of Max Dupain's famous The Sunbaker 1937 [1].

sydneytech

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  Winter sunbather, The Domain

  (Jun 1981) • 449.9 KB • GPS: 33:52:03S, 151:13:06E

  Another entry for the SMH competition, this time taken in the Domain park outside the Art Gallery of NSW.

  This was my first ever don't ask, just shoot candid (and I was terrified while doing it). Amazingly it was chosen for the competition Merit Entries Exhibition at the Sydney Centerpoint Tower. Unfortunately my untitled image had been rechristened Lazy by some unknown hack — I still remember the teenage fury this unleashed

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  Pyrmont Bridge

  (Jun 1981) • 227.1 KB • GPS: 33:52:14S, 151:12:01E

  In 1981 the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper [1] held a student photography competition. This photo, taken with a borrowed Yashicamat 124G, was one of my entries. It depicts a quiet moment during the evening rush-hour on Pyrmont Bridge at Darling Harbour, looking westwards at the Fielders bread factory and Pyrmont Power Station.

  Today most of these landmarks are long gone, demolished to make way for the Star City Hotel & Casino

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  Berrys Bay, Waverton Park

  (Jul 1980) • 197.8 KB • GPS: 33:50:29S, 151:11:54E

  A couple of teenage girls at Waverton Park.

  My first ever photo of complete strangers, although not a true candid because permission was obtained before taking it. I still like how it radically changes meaning when you notice the empty bottle at the lower RHS shoreline…

  The colour is a bit off because the cheap, non-professional C41 film has not aged well

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  Speakers Corner, The Domain

  (Jul 1981) • 355.8 KB • GPS: 33:52:06S, 151:12:55E

  Sunday soapbox orators in the Domain outside the Art Gallery of NSW [1]. In the early 80s they could still attract a sizeable crowd, but decades later the handful of speakers rant mostly to themselves.

  As a teenager I was fascinated by the David Potts rear-view photograph of a man with rosary beads walking along a street in Nicosia Cyprus [2] — so much so that a lot of time was wasted trying to reproduce the effect

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  Scarborough Primary School

  (May 1980) • 38.2 KB • GPS: 34:15:58S, 150:57:59E

  A deserted view of Scarborough Primary School on a winter Sunday afternoon.

  Although a spectacularly banal shot, it's from my first ever roll of film. Again the colour is off due to cheap C41 and poor storage

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  Macdonaldtown rail viaduct

  (Feb 1981) • 427.1 KB • GPS: 33:53:47S, 151:11:11E

  From my first roll of B&W film and it shows: (1) find some unusual graffiti, (2) take a shot when an Ironic Juxtaposition occurs.

Growing Pains

None of this material as anything special. Many of them are just simple mistakes made by a young photographer. They have only been included to provide a comparison with more recent work.

Their biggest problem is a naïve tendency to treat people as props in a geometric landscape. What makes it worse was that I was aware of doing it at the time, but couldn't find a work-around which still retained the spontaneous, no-permission nature of what I wanted to shoot.

Only years later did I realise part of the solution was being more self-confident, low-key, moving in closer, and having the determination and patience to wait until the subject's expression was right. Unfortunately a lot of my early work was done when merely the composition was right, which of course is a different thing.

The Wrong Gear

Another problem was an endless struggle with inappropriate film(s) and camera(s).

I desperately wanted to shoot in colour, but at the time every E6, C41 or Kodachrome film was too expensive, slow, grainy or yielded (to my eyes) weird results. So it was B&W by default, if only to keep costs down and gain full control over the final image.

Then there were the cameras. At the time I was convinced that the only way to obtain truly candid (35mm) shots was by using waist-level finders on Nikon Fs. Usually this worked well, but after a few years it became frustrating to always shoot in a landscape format at stomach height. The incredibly loud Nikon shutters didn't help either, forcing me to stay outdoors in busy locations, just to disguise the noise.

What about using different types of camera? Due to outrageous prices in Australia, Leicas were out of the question. Rolleiflexes? No — I had been turned off TLRs a few years earlier by endless focus problems with a mis-calibrated Rolleiflex T. Minoltas? Canon Fs? Just as loud as the Nikons. So I kept struggling with Nikon Fs for a few years, and then in the early 1990s gave up.

What I should have done was trade-in my gear, buy a second-hand "beater" rangefinder, and then try something different. Well it took a while (and a cancer scare), but I finally got around to doing it in 1999.

Only 30–something images?

Yes. A few more portraits might be added later, but as noted earlier, this material has only been provided to act as a point of reference for more recent work.