Interview with digitalis mag

1. Your photographic career started with taking photos of your baby. What was the reason you fell in love with photography so much?
the speed of which it translates an image ...
the split second of a moment captured , still ,frozen...
the mobility of the camera...
the invasion of space...
a spontaneity i was craving...
the creative possibilities...
 
2. You left painting for photography, but seems painting is coming back to your art in the form of overlay technique. How did you find the way to this technique?
purely by accident! when experimenting and playing in the darkroom or on the light box...
i knew of the sandwhiching technique and experimented . I loved the picture fragmentation and the  color collisions, creating  new visual and emotional images, so  painterly and somewhat surreal.
 
they say....My photography is similar to and reflects the techniques and working styles of the early European Dadaists by whom i am surely influenced along with Impressionism and Baroque.
 
3. Why is this technique important artisticaly?
its creative ,  experimental and very intoxicating.
 
4. Can you tell us about the relation of the human body and natural textures in your photos.
i strive to achieve the other world, the  space beneath,  in between, of life, birth, death, the spirit and the essence.
 
5. How do you make in practice the overlaying of transparencies?
in the b/w darkroom ..the technique is to overlay the two b/w negatives/transparencies , *insert  the film into the carrier of the enlarger and print ...long exposures  assured!
on the light box ..placing two colour  transparencies/negatives on top of each other , then taping just at top to hold  in place .... 
then as above *, but  print to cibachrome (archival) in a very darkroom.
 
 
6. Did you ever think to go digital? As the overlaying especialy can be done by softwares and digital files with much less efforts.
i dont agree its less effort, as all images still have to be scanned , downloaded, sized, filed, named etc..the layers etc and on it goes ....
what would be exciting  would be the colour/tex ture change that photoshop and the like allows at hand! ....
i also like to have many images infront of me at once to be able to juxtapose and change fast..the computer can be very frustrating and its all so transient  and so easily, gone!!!i like the hard copy stuff i think ..lol.....
the process i print to  (especially the color) is also affected, as its cibachrome and is only done from a transparency ..a quality hard to surpass..
 
7. Please explain us about the messages of your photos.
there is no clear message ........
I don’t care for the certainty of what’s in front of my lens, but  the creativity, the fantasy, the invention, that can gush from a thought.
Between the certain and the uncertain there’s a possible space, like in dreams and  fables. 
 
 
8. Here in Europe we do not have too much information on Australian photography. Tell us about it. Who are the most wellknown photographers in your country?
oh gosh ....big question ....Max dupain, (died recently), David moore, Bill Henson, Trent Parker, Narell Autio, Tracey Moffat...
 
but now also many digital photographers...but its truly a boys club! and there are many....photography is alive here!!!....
 digital , analogue, exprimental, documentary and traditional....
 
 
9. How is the photographic art valuated in Australia? Can you earn enough money with your artistic works or you have to do other jobs?
 
i have another job (part-time) ..though i do sell well locally and internationally..... especially at exhibitions  .... sadly photography has always been the lesser in value of the arts.
 
10. You run photographic workshops. What do you teach and who are your students?
 
i do not teach any more , bit i did for along time......i taught basic camera, lens  and  film knowledge , film processing  , darkroom printing and creative techniques..b/w and color..
my students varied, as i taught in schools, adult night classes , weekend workshops that attracted a very broad range of very interested students.
 
11. Tell us about your plans for 2005.
 
i am currently working on new images for a show ..its still at a very raw stage and bordering on more abstract than realistic..softer floating image, s no identification...... the new landscapes seem to be more impressionistic..its always a dream journey for me and not sure just where i will land ....but i will keep you informed........