Tarkine
Mr Ralph Ashton, WWF-Australia, the conservation organisation
The Tarkine is an almost pristine wilderness area in northwest Tasmania, Australia, which includes globally rare temperate rainforest.
Ralph will discuss the production of the wilderness photographic book, “Tarkine”, which he edited during 2003 and 2004 as a tool to raise the public awareness of the varied ecological values present in the Tarkine.
He will explain the rationale for the book, the process of gathering the images, the characters involved, the process of designing and publishing the book, and the effect of its publication.
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Darkroom
Mr Dan Burkholder, www.danburkholder.com
Dan is one of contemporary photography’s digital pioneers. Known as the father of the Digital Negative, Dan continues today with his penchant for combining the charm of the classic darkroom with the precision of digital imaging.
Listen and watch as Dan outlines the historical relevance of pixel-based imaging and how the hardware and software of the digital age have influenced photography. He’ll debunk the myths and praise the truths behind photography’s latest and most powerful tools.
With his trademark irreverence and humour, Dan charts his personal journey through photography, showing how we can have fun in our photography without becoming computer nerds.
Biochromes - A collaboration with Nature
Ms Renata Monika Buziak, QCA Griffi th University, QCP
This seminar introduces the biochrome process; a novel method for producing images from proprietary chromagenic print materials through biological and chemical decomposition. Such images are not only colourful and aesthetically pleasing - they reflect natural environmental processes and stimulate an appreciation of the natural world.
CCP - The new space
Ms Naomi Cass, Centre for Contemporary Photography (CCP)
As Director of the Centre for Contemporary Photography, curator and writer, Naomi Cass will discuss the moving experience to the fabulous new premises, including the past, present, and future of CCP while touring the greatly improved facilities which include 5 galleries, CCP Books and Prints and Visy Education Space.
Contemporary Trends in Photo Education, well, I think they are trends-could be just glitches...nah, they are trends. Damn!
Professor Des Crawley, James Cook University
Photo education is in turmoil. This is probably a good thing. Certainly we need to change and adapt simply because the traditional curriculum patterns of photo education have become outmoded overtaken by the demands of technology, industry needs, new visual/fi ne arts paradigms, aggressive and imperial interdisciplinary relationships all stirred and informed by the changing perceptions of need as well as aspirations of students.
This turmoil is global in character and there are at least four intersecting sets of forces at work. These forces cannot be ignored. They are set to re-shape who we are and what we do. Those factors are:
• Competition
• Convergence
• Choice: conflict or collaboration
• Control
By reference to each theme and use of examples drawn from selected institutions this paper will identify some of the key innovations formulated and offers some speculation as to their significance and possible utility within the Australian context.
From Icebergs to Iguana’s – the life of a wildlife photographer
Mr Jason Edwards, Bio-Images
Jason will give an insight into the real life experiences behind the natural history and wildlife photographs you see in National Geographic, Australian Geographic and other international environmental publications. Jason will talk about the equipment, planning and patience that go into photographing wildlife from Africa to South America and the Australian Outback. The presentation is illustrated with images that have won Jason
awards and a position with the National Geographic Society.
Artistic Truth
Ms Joyce Evans, Joyce Evans Photography
This presentation will focus on how the photographer decides what are the appropriate materials and equipment to use in order to express what she wants to say about a subject, and how to choose the camera, film and process that will most clearly define the form and design, or the dynamic of the topic.
Digital photography has opened up a whole new field of thought by providing another tool for photographers. Joyce will show work from the book, Only One Kilometre, a landscape essay, which she made using a 4 megapixel Fujipix pocket camera.
Her thesis is that quality is in the photographer’s interpretation, rather than the equipment used. Artistic truth is linked to technology but not dependent upon it.
Photography as Epistemology
A case study of representations of Kiribati
Mr Brian Gilkes, Pharos Editions
The isolation of Oceanic islands renders them a unique place for the study of changing human consciousness.
The use of images in this process and in this setting was pioneered in the work of Bernard Smith. Smith considered visual representations of Oceania from the first European imaginings to the early 19th century.
In the latter part of the 19th century photography largely replaced the manual arts that Smith examined.
In this paper I consider photographs taken in the Gilbert Islands, now the Republic of Kiribati.
My aim is to evaluate possibilities and limitations of the analysis of images in the ethnoarcheological process.
In this endeavour, I argue, photographs largely reveal the individual anxieties of Europeans in unfamiliar contexts and the degree to which European ideas of otherness motivated the selective seeing process.
Further I suggest that post structuralist notions that images tell us nothing of what they ostensibly portray and are no conduit to any truth, confounded by unwitting evidence that may be elucidated by analyses of sets of images made over time.
Photosynthesis
Mr Lloyd Godman, RMIT University
This paper looks at the process of photosynthesis as a means of creating images and the similarities and
differences to both silver and CCDs.
Since 1996 Lloyd Godman has been exploring the process of photosynthesis to create photographic images on the living tissue of plants. First noted by Archimedes the photosynthesis is an elemental process that sustains life, as we know it. For his MFA, Lloyd associated the process with his environmental concerns.
Hi Ho Silver....away!
Mr Ben Healley, Museum Victoria
With the removal of silver from nearly all of our everyday photographic processes, what are we losing from the image making process? This paper will discuss the visual and perceptual differences between printing using “traditional” monochrome versus modern inkjet methods.
The Artist as Amateur Photographer:
Glass plates of early Melbourne
Ms Maggie Hegarty, Melbourne University
Colonial life in Australian cities in the mid-nineteenth century was comparable to life in England at that time.
After the gold rush in Victoria in the 1950s, the growth of Melbourne, in both population and sophistication, in the next thirty years was quite remarkable. Magnificent buildings were erected in the boom years from 1860-1890 when the city was likened to Paris, London and New York and the term ‘Marvellous Melbourne’ came into use.
James Marriott, who arrived from England in 1863, was a world-class wood and metal craftsman. He worked on all the major buildings in Melbourne such as Government House, Parliament House, the University of Melbourne and the Museum, now the State Library of Victoria. His private passion was photography and, being an artist and inventor, he was captivated by the possibilities of the medium.
This presentation looks at his photographs, which were taken for documentation and pleasure. They reveal that he could also hold his own technically and aesthetically with the acclaimed photographers of the nineteenth century. He photographed buildings and scenes that are now of historical interest as well as private moments with his friends and family that gives us an insight into social life in Australia at the turn of the century.
Magic Moments II
Mr Mathias Heng, Leica Gallery
The first Leica Gallery founded in Wetzlar in 1976 (today it is found in Solms), others followed: New York, Tokyo, Prague and Vienna underlining the international importance of Leica Photography.
On 6 May 2005, Leica Gallery Melbourne will launch an official opening, being an International gallery for photography for local and international photographers.
The exhibition “Magic Moments II” masterfully assembles a highly significant selection of Leica M photographs.
The pictures that one thing they have in common: they were all taken with Leica M cameras. Among them are pictures by old masters such as René Burri, Inge Morath, Marc Riboud and of course Henri Cartier-Bresson.
The work of famous documentary photographers of human fate such as Mary Ellen Mark, Michael von Graffenried, Sebastiao Salgado and Jane Evelyn Atwood is represented as well as poetic portraits of countries and cultures by Martine Franck, Ljalja Kuznetsova and Luis Castaneda. The work of fine art photographers Ralph Gibson, William Klein, Paulo Nozolino and Elliot Erwitt. Last but not least, the exhibition includes pictures by aspiring photographers such as Fabio Ponzio, Mikhail Evstafi ev, Yves Leresche or Claus Björn Larsen, who adopt a highly committed approach to their mostly self-selected topics.
A special edition of the award-winning “Leica World” magazine has been designed as a catalog for “Magic Moments II”. It features all 40 images as well as some commentary texts.
Effective RAW workflow using Photoshop
Mr Greg Humphries, RMIT University
This presentation will show you how to integrate an effective RAW workflow into your digital photography.
Using Photoshop CS, the built-in Camera RAW plug-in, and a couple of free third party utilities you can effectively view, correct, process, and manage hundreds of RAW files. This will help you spend more time doing the things that are important and less time fiddling with your digital images.
You will also learn about Adobe’s new RAW format and how this new “Digital Negative” will benefit you and what it means for the future of digital photography.
Wild Encounters – a mysterious journey to the unknown
Mr Mark Humphries, Olive Imaging
Mark is an energetic photographer with a strong passion for capturing wild, pristine wilderness areas on film.
Using a self modified large format camera and a heavy rucksack; he regularly disappears alone in the bush for months on end. During this time he aims to create images that touch people in a unique way.
Mark believes that the sublime qualities of wilderness have the ability to awe and calm the soul. His glorious images certainly impart many of these magical and mysterious elements which only nature has to offer.
Mark has recently self published his first book titled, Wilderness – the essence of a wild land, which is the culmination of his photographic pursuits over the past three years. Join Mark as he shares some of his recent experiences from the heart of Tasmania’s remote World Heritage Wilderness Areas.
The Gumoil Process
Mr Karl Koenig
Karl is the inventor of the Gumoil process and a specialist in alternative photographic processes. He has authored several books and articles on Gumoil photographic printing and will comment retrospectively on his discovery in 1990, trying to improve the process, and on the various degrees of acceptance by the public and photographic community.
He will offer an overview of the gum oil process and its several steps, along with examples of prints at each stage, and well as images from his traveling show in the US, “There is No Why Here” (Architectural remnants of the Holocaust)
Medical Magnetic
Ms Karen Landt
From an artist’s perspective, I will talk about my latest exhibition (July 2004), Encapsulating an Environment:
Magnetising the Isle, utilising photography and printmaking processes.
A suite of 6 artist’s books reflects the sensate connection to Magnetic Island, Townsville. The aims are to show how I combined science, curiosity and aesthetic pleasure and educate the audience about artist’s books.
Citing the Site
Ms Carolyn Lewens, Photography Studies College
Referencing scientific data (from geomorphology, biology, physics, chemistry etc.) in the production of a series of exhibitions about water: “Watermarks”.
“Watermarks” comprises a number of exhibitions that raise the profile of water issues through photomedia installations. The actual ‘site’ of water has varied with each exhibition. Site-specificity or context is crucial to understanding the approach to each exhibition. “Watermarks” installations have so far focused on wetlands,
the confluence of rivers with the sea, drought and salinity affected rivers, river crossings etc.
“Watermarks” uses artistic processes to generate critical debate on water issues both in local contexts as well as the broader ecological front. It is a collaborative project, foremost with multimedia artist, Neil Stanyer, but also with local ‘experts’ – scientists, academics, historians as well as the agency of local people who care about and connect with their environment.
“Watermarks” promotes new perspectives on the wet landscape, to move beyond the utilitarian, to see them as places of human nourishment and understanding as well as mercurial beauty and ultimately, to acknowledge our need to reconnects with these places and recognise the complexities of what they provide for us.
The Good Oil on Bromoil
Ms Chris Lim, International Society of Bromoilists and Ms Jane Hinwood, Photographic Conservator, State Library of Victoria
Chris Lim is a bromoilist. She will briefl y discuss the history of bromoils and give an illustrated overview of the process.
Jane Hinwood will present a synopsis of pictorial bromoil photography in Australia. References will be made to examples of bromoil photography in Australian collections. Identification of the bromoil process will be explained. Conservation issues will be outlined.
Images of Science
Professor David Malin, RMIT University
Scientific imaging covers and astonishing range of disciplines, dimensions and distances. Images of science can be made in an instant, in an electron microscope, or can be gathered over weeks by some distant spacecraft. They are made at wavelengths from the shortest, most energetic gamma rays, to the big, fluffy photons of radio waves. They extend beyond the micro, revealing the structure of the atom itself, to the cosmic, exposing detail embedded in the earliest days of the Universe.
How and why these images are made is the story of modern scientific discovery. But being images, they make the science they reveal not only accessible but also often stunningly beautiful. The aesthetic of the images themselves demands an explanation, even from the most casual onlooker. Once they are explained, our casual onlooker becomes aware of the underlying patterns of nature and the deep links between art and science, themes that will be explored in this talk.
Why do we have two eyes?
Dr James McArdle, Latrobe University
This presentation outlines the investigation into the construction and representation of the figure and the ground in photography through overlapping multiple temporal and spatial renderings of the same subject within single photographic images.
This included a critical investigation of the representation of time, perspective, and location in historical and contemporary photography with particular attention to the synthesis, imitation, and distinction of characteristics of human vision in this medium especially where they are indicative of consciousness and attention.
This investigation informed a re-evaluation of the premises of the genre of the photographic portrait and it’s setting, especially within the unstructured environment of the Central Victorian ironbark forests and goldfields. Analogue and digital photographic experiments were conducted in superimposed shifts in camera position and their convergence on significant points of focus through repeated exposures across different
time scales. The images correspond to a stage in human stereo perception before fusion, to represent the attention of the viewer, where, in these images, the ‘portrait’ is located.
The findings were applied to the large format camera production of high-defi nition images that extended the range and effectiveness of selected pictorial structures such as selective focus, relative scale, superimposition, multiple exposures and interference patterns.
The outcome was an exhibition at Smrynios Gallery in Melbourne in April 2004. This presentation includes a discussion of relevant work by Australian practitioners Daniel Crooks and David Stephenson.
Underwater Explosive High Speed Imaging
Mr James O Nicholls, Boeing and James Cowie, Department of Defence
At times ships or submerged structures may be exposed to underwater explosive shock. While the effects of explosive loading can be measured, little is known about the physical appearance of these events. This paper will discuss a unique image-intensified high-speed video facility that has been developed to provide qualitative and quantitative data from underwater explosive events.
Ultra Large Format Photography
Mr David Roberts, Photographer
In a time when photographic endeavours are measured in quantifiable units, speed, and workflow efficiencies why would anyone bother with a slow, cumbersome, inefficient means of image creation using cameras that are 80 years old? In a photographic community increasingly given to current imaging technologies how can traditional means hold their own in the swift current of today’s technology stream – and more importantly, why would anyone bother?
This paper presumes and discusses that what matters most is not the equipment but the images that result. Toward that end the blend of vision and craft come together and we must choose how best to make and present our work. Far from being a competition between modern and tradition there is a happy opportunity to celebrate the diversity in the photographic world.
David is a photographer specializing in ultra large format photography.
The Changing Face of Victoria
Ms Madeleine Say, Picture librarian, State Library of Victoria
The Changing Face o Victoria, a permanent exhibition at the State Library of Victoria uses the Library’s collections to illustrate facets of the history of Victoria. The foundations of both Photography and the State Library collections were formed in the 1850s, and this shared history is reflected throughout the exhibition.
The Library collections record and reflect the places and events that shaped the history of Victoria, including major events such as the Burke and Wills expedition, Ned Kelly and the two World Wars, but a primary focus is on documenting the lives of ordinary Victorian people.
This tour with Madeleine Say, Picture Librarian, will include a walk through the exhibition to give an overview of the library’s collection. This includes a wide range of photographic material, from the exclusivity of the daguerreotype and ambrotype image, to mass produced photographic techniques and the digital age.
When Life Imitates Art
Mr Justin Schooneman, National Gallery of Victoria
An insight into the world of a fully digital workflow within the Photographic Services Department at the National Gallery of Victoria, and the role that photographer’s play within the Gallery structure. Justin will illustrate the various documentation techniques undertaken in the imaging of Paintings, Decorative Arts and Works on Paper, from image acquisition to electronic and hardcopy output.
Red China, 2003
Mr Matthew Sleeth
This series focuses on a culture in transition via the use of a simple compositional and conceptual device – the colour red.
Red coloured objects dominate our field of vision, while all else around them recedes in a monochromatic wash.
In Chinese culture red is traditionally an auspicious colour signifying good fortune and happiness, but of- course it is also the colour associated internationally with communism and codified in the name by which China was known for so many years in the west - “Red China”.
The “red China’ in these photographs is however a different culture from the Red China of old, for now as the political system changes and opens its doors to the west, new and seemingly contradictory elements arise and exist alongside the old.
Red here now also stands for the seductive colour of contemporary international consumerism, of neon, shopping, MacDonald’s and Coca -Cola. These images take a somewhat playful look at these oppositional cultural strands co-existing and colliding in China today
An Investigation Into Hand Made Animation Techniques:
Focusing on Mixed Media and Spatial Layering
Ms Annemarie Szeleczky
Using found materials with traditional media is an exciting challenge, as it invariably will produce a most unexpected result. The surprise element is what gives such work it’s freshness and the material dictates the process. In other words it is the way in which materials are placed together and are manipulated. My aim was to find a great variety of materials to place together in layers and manipulate by hand over the light box.
These were shot with a digital camera attached to a rostrum while simply manipulating the light from left to right, resulting either a fl at or a much deeper depth of fi eld within the same image.
The purpose of my work is to add something a little different in the use of media that is part of animated films and perhaps to inspire or challenge others to try a more diverse media mix. I like the physical feel of hand made mixed media images, the textures and the nuances in the depth created by layering and the use of light.
Image, Message and Object
Mr Gordon Undy, Point Light
The potential for image making is now so accessible and so easy to integrate with our other uses of technology that the perception and role of photography is changing rapidly. Children growing now may never know of film.
However digital imaging has so far failed to deliver in certain areas visually, emotionally and philosophically.
This has driven a retreat to quality through the choice of earlier processes employing larger format film-based analogue approaches. These produce visually beautiful, emotionally satisfying results (photographs) with an intrinsic veracity making the object (the photograph) as important as the subject it represents.
Given this approach the underpinning philosophical basis for photographers’ work then sits more comfortably with many like myself. Even hybrid methods that interpose between film and finished photographic object fail to satisfy. The absence of self-authentication and one’s sense of the collectibility of the object are both factors here.
Though most ‘non-combatants’ may not have thought about it, this all has impact on our attitudes to photography and our aesthetic demands of it. We are in an exciting stage of metamorphosis during which the entire supply and demand chain for both materials and aesthetic satisfaction are resettling. Fortunately there is room for all kinds of approach - new lines are being drawn in the arts to accommodate these, though the precision of our communication needs to be bolstered by stronger definitions of the objects in question.
Facts and Fallacies of Photographic Printing
Issues in Professional Photography
Mr Phillip Virgo, Colour Factory
Phill Virgo has been in the photographic printing business for more than 25 years. As Director of The Colour Factory, he has tested, experimented and refined printing processes for all types of photographic and digital input and output.
Phill will discuss the issues of selecting the right printing for your needs. From chromagenic to ink jet, he will inform you on how to prepare and communicate with your laboratory.
Scientific and Artistic Imaging of the Micro World
Mr John Ward, CSIRO and Ms Bee Rawlinson, Artist
The micro world can be imaged using many different techniques. Here we describe two relatively new techniques and their scientifi c and artistic applications.
The fi rst uses white light and a lens with axial chromatic aberration to reveal important three-dimensional nano-structural information of the surface of everyday articles.
The second uses the various information sources and “lighting” effects available in a Scanning Electron Microscope to reveal a new colourful and artistic world that can be further transformed into works of art.
A mechano-optical lens array to photographically simulate insect vision
Ms Susanne Williams, Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital
With an interest in insects and photography, this research is the result of combining science and photography.
Based on the optics of a compound eye, a simple photographic system was designed to simulate insect vision. A short summary of the investigation will be discussed. This is the fi rst photographic application of insect vision, and the resulting images show a realistic representation of how the optics of compound eyes of insects are likely to resolve images.