What Caught My Eye Today in Milano, Italy

 Milano is so beautiful. And today is reflection heaven, blue skies, clear air, brilliant sunlight. There is still snow on the Alps, visible from the top of the Duomo, the air is cool and fresh. Here are some photos from today's shoot, mostly reflections, but a couple that are not! So fantastic to spend the day shooting, it's been too long since I've had time to indulge, but my love affair with my camera continues . . . how can I not be inspired with such a location.
       

 

Foto Freo Opening Event

Opening nights are often boring, endless speeches where organisers drone on about the fantastic support they get - which of course is vital to the existence of the event, but perhaps would be better acknowledged in a different environment. And before guests are fueled by alcohol and busy chatting with people they haven't seen since the last gathering. Last night didn't disappoint.

As a social gathering it was a spectacular success. A special thanks to Brad Rimmer who was the best unofficial 'host' I could have asked for introducing me to everyone. I'm always on the look out for interesting people to interview and Martine Perret, a UN photographer based in Timor, is my next subject. I'm catching up with her tomorrow to discuss her work photographing transexuals in Timor. Fascinating.

Foto Freo Interview Score

Am in Fremantle, Perth at the moment for the Foto Freo Festival. Arrived this morning from Melbourne. Already viewed five exhibitions and tomorrow am going to interview the five women photographers whose work I've been enthralled by today. 

Joy Horwood-Cooke - who spent two years traveling around Africa in the 1950's. Her black and white photos capture moments that are timeless and still relevant today in terms of sharing the cultural richness of this vast continent

Amy Stein - from New York whose exhibition Stranded is an extraordinary portrayal of abandonment and loss shot over a protracted road trip across America

Magda Stanova - a Slovakian visual artist who incorporates sketches, painting, and photography into her art. Until I saw her exhibition today I wasn't familiar with her work. She is quite unique in her interpretation of photography's role in our lives and her inclusion of words in her work takes the viewer to a headspace that perhaps we wouldn't arrive at on our own - that's the power of art

Claire Martin - an Australian photographer whose documentary style has the ability to draw you into the moment in the most vivid and intense way. I am really taken with her portraits of squatters in the Californian desert and the work she's done in the "slums" of Vancouver 

Narelle Autio - another Australian who has spent the past decade capturing our obsession with the beach except there are no photos of people, rather photos of the things we leave behind and the detritus the sea throws on shore. Not a topic that initially interested me until I saw her images which are really works of art - crisp and vivid, with almost a pop art feel

These women will feature in upcoming articles in Pro Photo magazine. 

Rock Chicks US edition is on its way

Totally pumped. Just finished the update for Rock Chicks US release which is out in October 2010. Was psyched to be writing about the girls again adding in Kim Gordon (Sonic Youth), Kim Deal (The Pixies and The Breeders) and Karen O (Yeah Yeah Yeahs) and doing updates on those rock chicks who were in the original book - the ones that have been super busy like P!nk who in the two years since the first book came out has been touring the world, putting down a heartbreak album after her split with hubby Corey and then reconciling. That's a lot in a short period of time, but she's not one to muck around. The update on Tina Turner gives me hope - she's thinking about doing a final, final world tour. At 71. She's one rock chick that I would love to see live. If she doesn't tour to Australia I'm going to fly to see her. Doesn't matter where. That's one gig I don't want to miss.

Am now waiting to see the new photos from Tony Mott. And the new design. 

More China Photos

Here are a couple of shots of the Great Wall of China which I took in September when I visited Beijing. We chose to visit a less popular spot on the Wall at Mutianyu and had the great pleasure of being able to walk without crowds - on the day we went there were no more than a dozen people over a couple of kilometres. We took the chairlift to the Wall (the only way up) and then rode a 2.5km toboggan down the mountain. What fun!

Max Pam's Unique Journey

The Cover of Max Pam's Atlas Monographs

This year each freelance feature I've written for Pro Photo magazine has brought me in contact with the most inspirational, insightful, talented and generous artists. My December feature on Australian photographer Max Pam is no exception. Max was a delight to interview - intelligent, honest and somewhat eccentric, a state I think Max has happily inhabited all his life. His latest book, Atlas Monographs published by T&G Publishing in Sydney (a fantastic company dedicated to producing the highest quality art and photography books) features this photo on the cover. Max has spent decades documenting the melting pot that is Asia and Atlas Monographs charts his epic journeys from the early 1970's to the most recent photos taken in 2006. Look out for this story in Pro Photo December out early in the month.

Beijing

 If this panda could have fitted in my luggage he would be sitting on my bed now rather than the very cute stuffed panda from Beijing Zoo! I've just returned from a week in Beijing. It's an extraordinary city, a clash of cultures, the modern and the ancient, a city with a rich and complex history that sits side by side with the glass towers and modern architecture of the new China. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and came away with a newfound understanding of Chinese culture, albeit an abridged version. And some awesome photos of which this panda is just one. More photos will be uploaded in the days to come as I go through the hundreds of digital images that have captured my journey - the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace, The Temple of Heaven, the Ming Tombs and the Great Wall. 

Max Pam is a legend

I had the pleasure of interviewing Max Pam today for my Pro Photo December profile feature. What a fantastic, interesting, articulate, wise and generous man. Now 60 years young, Max has carved an enviable career in visual arts with works in collections around the world.  We spoke about his latest book Atlas Monographs, his tenth publication, a book that takes you with him on journeys through China, Yemen, India and the Philippines. It is a beautifully produced book that does justice to his work and his obvious passion for the medium. And for the human condition. One of the best interviews of the year.

Sunday Morning

9am Sunday morning. The air is still the gales of yesterday subsiding to a cool, gentle sigh. Rain has cooled the ground, houses, the trees. From the high twenties we are now in the high teens, a drop of ten degrees. It is a welcome change. 

Today I head to the State Library of Victoria to undertake research into my next subject for my December Pro Photo feature, Australian photographer, Max Pam. Now in his sixties Max has an impressive body of work behind him. I am going to enjoy this project.

I have also started a novel and am halfway through another non-fiction book. The creativity is flowing.

This photo, below, is of the Yarra River at Southgate. It was taken on a Sunday around noon. Such a beautiful city.

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Melbourne Rain

One of the few wet days we have had this year. This photo was captured whilst sheltering from the rain on the steps of the Shrine of Remembrance in the city's botanical gardens. One moment the sun was shining and the next the sky had darkened and down came the rain in great pellets splashing on the ground before me. I raced up the steps keen to keep the rain off my new Olympus super zoom lens. I huddled against the stone wall as the rain was whipped up the steps by a cold southerly. And then the wind paused allowing me to take this shot.

Today there are spring showers. The sun shines through grey clouds and rain glistens on freshly washed leaves. Petals fall from newly budded flowers and there is jasmine lying on the ground. The scent of spring is in the air.

Ed Burtynsky Done and Dusted

Uranium Tailings No. 7,
Elliot Lake, Ontario 1995

It is a fantastic feeling when an article is finished, scrupulously polished, checked and re-checked and then "sent".  My interviews with Burtynsky, an extremely gracious and generous man, were entertaining and incredibly insightful. Listening to him talk about his work gave me a greater understanding of its messages, and of its artistic beauty. 

When photographs of open pit mines and the detritus of a resource dependent world become abstract works of art the gap between photography as a science and photography as art is truly bridged.

I post here a photograph taken by Edward Burtynsky in Ontario in 1995 of the uranium mining tailings.  And I thank Ed for sharing this, and his other works, with us.  

Look for my story - Edward Burtynsky - Redefining the Landscape - in the October issue of Pro Photo.