Once in a while you come across a stunning example of a period piece, in this instance Federation-style architecture. The attention to detail throughout is something else. Note the hand painted corridor archways.
Head On Photo Festival
I’ve entered three portraits from The Cage Fighters series into this year’s Head On Photo Festival.
Head On Photo Festival is Sydney’s major innovative showcase for Australian and international photography, reflecting a vibrant, diverse cross-section of new and traditional photographic practices covering all genres. Head On aims to present good photography regardless of the celebrity of either the subject or photographer.
The three portraits entered were:
Launch of ModernDayDads.com
I’m very excited to announce the launch of the web site for my next documentary project about stay-at-home dads. The web site is intended, not only to serve as a place to display the latest photos and interviews with those dads that I meet, but also
as a recruitment tool for the project and, most importantly, as a support resource.
Moderndaydads.com is an intensely personal project. It’s a path of discovery in many ways. Being a “stay-at-home” dad myself I have encountered numerous challenges, predominantly mental and emotional ones. Given that we’re a minority, we often find yourself alone and without peers. By the simple process of searching and finding others in the same boat, I hope to better come to terms with the experiences and issues I am going through.
I want to bring to light some of the challenges faced by “stay-at-home” dads; feelings of emasculation, gender non-conformity, finding the strength to look beyond criticism and moving beyond stereotypical viewpoints, the sometimes (silent) ostracisation from some mothers, balancing one’s old career/work with new-found household and parental needs, and many other challenges faced by parents in general.
This is about exploring new roles in times where women’s careers are just as pressing and important as men’s. It‘s about understanding and alllowing discourse regarding, what some would say, the outcome of women’s liberation.
It’s about having self-belief. It’s about empathy and understanding for what women have done from the beginning of time. It’s about believing that there is value to be added in having a direct involvement in the bringing-up of one’s children—that it’s not a chore, a demotion, an embarassment or an impediment.
The Cage Fighters
This is a story about paradoxes.
Now shown in 36 countries, mixed martial arts (MMA), commonly known as ‘cage fighting’, is one of the fastest growing sports worldwide. The UFC (Ultimate Fighting Competition), an American-based MMA promotions company, boasts a pay-per-view industry revenue of $227 million, surpassing World Wrestling Entertainment and boxing combined.
In sharp contrast to the bright lights and big pay packets of mainstream MMA, this narrative is set in the Southern Highlands of country New South Wales, Australia. The local community hall played host to two trainers and four fighters as they prepared to compete in their first amateur cage fight. Their preparation was a physical and psychological journey.
I had intended to capture the personal transformation from man to warrior by recording their training sessions leading to competition night. Instead, what resulted were “rapidly paced photographs of ‘unemphatic moments’, the ones audiences don’t applaud but that establish the spell of the evening”.1
The photographs capture the countless hours of training. They are not typical of current sports-style photography. There is no grandeur to the moment, no records being set: they are of the mundane. There is no glory in these behind-the scenes moments; there is no audience and the fighters are invisible to all except themselves.
The violent nature of the sport is abhorrent to many, but the glimpse I had proved it otherwise. Capturing the fighters in black and white and freezing their movements left little graphic violence. Ironically, what came to the fore was an ambiguous sensuality and an emotive quality far distant from what was, in the moment, a fast paced and furious struggle.
1 Brodovitch, Alexey. Ballet , with an introduction by Edwin Denby (New York: J. J. Augustin, 1945).
The Secret Garden
It’s exactly the kind of garden you could imagine flourishing on an English country estate: all lush lawns, established trees, towering hedges and twists of beautifully weathered stone walls. In fact, this garden is very Australian, located in the Southern Highlands of NSW, and also relatively new, planted just 13 years ago.
Client: Nicholas Bray Landscapes
Beauty is in the detail
A private client engaged me to photograph her country home, in particular the interior decoration she’d completed. Situated on the banks of the Hawkesbury River north of Sydney, this once ramshackle country abode has been painstakingly and lovingly restored into a true period piece. Complete with the original pressed tin walls and ceilings, certain sections of the house now boast all the luxuries of a contemporary home.
McMahons Point Terrace
A fantastic example of a converted home-to-office-and-back-to-home. In an area with an increasing number of architecturally significant homes this is a great example of just what can be achieved. From the deceptively small front facade the interior opens to a central outdoor courtyard.
Frensham College
Frensham, established in 1913, is a girls’ secondary boarding and day school which lies in the heart of the cool-climate Southern Highlands. There was an abundance of colour on display throughout the gardens despite it being mid-autumn.
Client: Nicholas Bray Landscapes
Mittagong Marketplace
In a harsh environment of heavy traffic and temperatures, landscape architect Nicholas Bray, has succceeded in producing a sustainable riparian design.
Client: Nicholas Bray Landscapes
Dark Side of the Lens
Dark Side of the Lens presents the art and inner voice of Irish surf photographer Mickey Smith. It’s a little pearl. Keep it and open it when you need that extra push to get you back on that creative horse.
“For fires of happiness and waves of gratitude. For everything that brought us to that point on earth at that moment in time, to do something worth remembering with a photograph, or a scar -I feel genuinely lucky and hand on heart say I love doing what I do. And I may never be a rich man, or live long enough, then sadly I have a tale or two for the nephews. And I dig the thought of that.”