I like living in the city. Sometimes its just nice to walk out the door with my camera and no pressure, walk along and find somewhere cool to make a picture and wait for the right moment and composition to come along.....
Two weeks ago I was invited to photograph a friend receiving his ta moko. A moko is a traditional maori facial tattoo and the woman's version is called a moko kauae. Ra was receiving his full face moko and at the same time Donna and Te Ata were also having their moko kauae tattooed.
The day began at Piha beach at sunrise with Ra and his sons cleansing themselves in the Tasman Sea before moving back to town so Ra could have his head shaved. We then went onto the marae for the design, drawing and finally tattooing.
I have presented the images of Ra and his family to him today, but am not going to present them to the public as we have some ideas about where they might be published, as well as them being used in a documentary of the day for TV.
But I do have permission to tease everyone with this image of Donna(left) and Te Ata, right after they've had their work completed. This image shows Donna and Te Ata looking at Troy who is Te Ata's son, just before Troy and other whanau begin a celebratory haka.
The day was full of intense energy and emotion that I will never forget. This shot shows the relief and fatigue and pride on both woman's faces as they look to their loved one. I have hundreds of amazing images showing every emotion from fear to pain to joy. The day was full of song, prayer, speeches, and haka.
I truly feel privileged to have had the chance to share that day and record the events and emotions. Sometime in the future I look forward to sharing more of these images with you all.
Sometimes no matter how hard we try to create beautiful things we just cant beat nature. Im constantly amazed by the lines, curves, and symmetry (or lack) of nature.
So its been a busy week or so.
10 days ago I was privileged to spend a couple of days photographing and helping some mates make a doco about a friend getting a full face ta Moko (maori facial tattoo). The entire time at the marae was one of the most amazing experiences of my life, so much emotion and excitement. I gained a much stronger understanding of the true concept of whanau. We interviewed my friend and his family about the significance of him recieving the ta Moko as well as two women who also had moko kauae done on the same day. Needless to say over two days I shot more than 2000 images and I hope to share these in the future once I get through the enormous task of sorting and editing all of them and presenting them to the families. So many ideas of what Id like to see done with such a visual story will have to discuss this further with those involved but I'm pretty damn excited about what I shot.... so jus wait and see!
I got back late last Saturday evening and early the next morning was out with Julian Beecham and his team to help with the Popup Streetstore for the homeless just down the street from home. Such a cool concept, donated clothing available to be "bought" for nothing by the less fortunate and rough living. I had a fun morning catching up with some streetie mates I've made over the last few months and seeing some people get some new shoes and jackets.
Click on the gallery above to scroll through some of the images
Since then Ive been locked into my computer editing or transribing audio for another project, as well as slipping out to take a few shots on other small shoots. Nice to be busy and meeting lots of new people!
I've been searching for a location for a shoot for a client and today I thought I'd found it. Lots of old grey concrete, lots of dark shadows and one massive lightbox in the form of the glass from a highrise. The glass tint created some pretty interesting tones of light in the area so no colour adjustments were made to this image.
Unfortunately the owner wasn't so keen so the search will continue....
Sometimes when I'm tired of editing images and there's nothing worth looking at on TV(all the time), I go online looking for something inspirational. There are days when I strike out but today was not one of those.
Today I was led back to the amazing tilt shift time lapse short films of Keith Loutit, an Australian film maker based in Singapore. I've looked at his work before and loved his toy town views of such cities as Sydney and London. But today I came across his 2012 short called The Lion City. Not only is this an awesome piece of tilt shift time lapse, but he introduces a dust storm like blur affect to add an extra element of excitement to his work.
So cool just what the doctor ordered. Makes me want to get my camera, remote shutter, and slider and get out there!
I guess this is kind of a follow up to my last post about the fact and fiction of photography. For me street photography is the one of the purest forms of photography in that it is about capturing unplanned moments of everyday life on the city streets. There's no posing, no smiling for the camera, in fact hopefully anyone in frame doesn't even know a picture is being taken.
For me street photography is as close to fact as I can get. But then again I love to see street images in black and white which adds an element of fiction cause the majority of us don't actually see the world in black and white. But by taking away the distractions of colour we're left looking at the subjects, the shapes, the emotions or the movements of everyday life. And just by taking away the colour we create a whole bunch of questions which then add back the fantasy as the viewer has to make their own assumptions on what colours were where.
I like to set myself personal projects to push myself and keep trying new techniques. I have a series I've been doing for a while shooting from the shadows of people on the move. By exposing only for the light the final image has large areas of dark shadow which creates its own mystery and lets everyone make their own fantasy from the facts.
Plus I jus like lurking in the shadows watching the world go by.
A friend sent me a link to an awesome documentary about photography and photographers. It explores a subject I've been thinking about a lot recently, looking at the blurry space that photography exists in halfway between fact and fiction, art and documentary and all of the above at the same time
"Reely and Truly" is a recent documentary(2014) directed by Tyrone Lebon and features images and concepts from 30 photographers from around the world.
Throughout watching the film I was really challenged to explore my own definitions of words such as truth, fact, fiction, reality and perception and how these words apply not only to my photography, but to my perceptions of my life. How I see a person or a situation, and the impressions that remain with me afterward, how I form my own memories. All of these concepts are particularly relevant to photography and the feelings and memories my and other photographers images create.
These concepts are of course applicable to any art form, but I find them really interesting when related to photography which is quite often perceived as a factual or visual record of a moment. Since the birth of photography there has been an ongoing discussion about whether or not photography is art, and the comments in this movie continue to challenge both sides of this argument.
There's a lot I could say about what I got from this film but I thinks its best if you just watch it yourself and challenge your own ideas......
I was walking home from a gig Friday night when I came across these guys on Queen St. Reminded me of a long while ago when the crews used to drag their vinyl downtown and strut their moves.
These guys were pretty damn good apparently theyre in the King Kapisi video.... George Reuben spinning.
I love finding random fun like this
This week I had a fun shoot with Borni and Natalie from Smackbang Theatre Company to create some promo images. Always fun to shoot an actress in a onesie with a Barbie and a pink bunny posing in front of a christmas tree in a public shopping mall.
Natalie was awesome to shoot with the ability to show about 20 emotions on her face in 20 seconds. And I love the pixies mischievous face in the background.
I've just been to see the photographic exhibition produced by Ilan Wittenberg on at Silo Park in the Wynyard Quarter here in Auckland.
Wandering around I realised how much work and money went into organizing such a large scale show. From the editing to printing and mounting on to the hanging of the images. Such a massive process! I really hope Ilan gets the support and rewards he deserves for producing such an event.
I love black and white images so there were plenty there that I really enjoyed. One of my favorites were a gargoyle atop a cathedral in Europe keeping watch over the city. There were a number of other black and white portraits that were truly beautiful as well.
One abstract colour image I was particuarly drawn to was a colour wheel made up of kina shells that seemed to play tricks with my eyes as I moved into and away from it. Really awesome.
I love to look at other peoples work, the subjects they choose and how they are edited. It makes me think about how I would shoot something similar and gives me inspiration and ideas about future subjects I could shoot. Even the way the images are presented and mounted gives me inspiration.
Altogether it was an amazing show and I completely recommend to anyone in Auckland to put an hour aside and check it out.
So its been an exciting week to have a good sized shot published in The Herald, New Zealands biggest paper. The image of Kate Elliot as Famous Flora was used as part of the review for the stage show. Awesome to see one of my images in print at a good size.
Hopefully the first of many to come.....
I've been thinking a lot lately about how my photography has progressed since late 2006 when I really started to get interested in making images.
I started off trying to record the amazing places I was visiting through working around the world. At first it was the landscapes, architecture, and street art I passed by. I had always been interested in becoming an action sports photographer as I have skateboarded, surfed and snowboarded since as long as I can remember.
Over time I became excited by street photography and capturing the beauty of everyday life on the streets of the cities I visited. I was purely an observer and tried to remain invisible as much as possible.
When I got an iPhone I was blown away by how much fun I could have with such a tiny camera sensor and all the image processing software there was available to add emotions to the subjects I was capturing. For a while I barely used my "grown up" camera as I experimented and learnt. There's a lot to be said for a single device that takes photos, processes them and then allows me to share with others as well as consume other people's work! I even had an exhibition of images entirely shot and processed on my iPhone 4.
Toward the end of 2013 the outward facing camera on my iPhone suddenly stopped working. At this stage in my life I had a fair bit more time available to really use my Canon 5d Mk3 that had been patiently waiting to spend more time in my hands.
Over the last few years I'd also come to start to like working with people which hadn't been such a priority in my life before then when I'd been working with machines, networks or riding things that slid or had wheels.
I now find myself on the brink of starting a new career of making images of people, capturing events that involve humans and recording their movements, expressions and activities and I'm excited. If someone had told me 10 years ago that I might be taking photos of theatre shows, weddings or creating advertising images I would have told them they were crazy!
It's amazing how our direction can change, how easy it is to re-invent ourselves if we really want to and take the right actions. I'm not 100% sure what I'll be photographing in 12 months time and for once in my life I'm not too concerned or trying to really control that outcome. I am certain though that I will have learnt a whole bunch of new skills, met some awesome new people, seen some cool events, and as always have some crazy stories to tell.
Bring it!!!
Kate Elliot as Famous Flora
So I'm lucky enough to been "adopted" by a couple of Auckland drama production directors to help them produce promotional images for various theater shows in the future. Although its not paid, it's an amazing opportunity to build my skills and portfolio, and work with actors and actresses, makeup and props.
This week I went to the White House on Queen St, Auckland, to shoot some images for an upcoming show titled Famous Flora. Flora Mackenzie was a colourful woman who ran a brothel in Auckland from the 1940's onwards. Famous Flora is a show about her interesting life.
Kate Elliot plays the younger Flora and Yvette Parsons plays the same role later in Flora's life. The show opens in Auckland at the White House on Thursday November 13th, 2014, at 6.30pm and runs through until the 29th. Tickets are available from iTicket.
So I've just moved house into downtown Auckland.
Last year I left the South Island to make a new start in Auckland. I've lived most my life in small towns or cities so it was a real change to move to a city. I've gone from roaming the tops of mountains and the deserted back roads of rural New Zealand, to lurking in the busy cafes and alleyways of urban Auckland.
If I was going to do the city I really wanted to live smack bang in the middle. I was lucky enough to find an awesome apartment in Downtown Auckland where I can walk out the front door and see this building or a massive cruise ship across the road and walk 50m to Queen St or Britomart.
I love street photography so whenever I'm bored of editing images, I've got no excuse but to pick up my camera and walk out the door and see whats going on.
Last night was the finale of the Last Chance Cafe play by the Hobson St Theater Company. I've been following the cast at rehearsals for about 3 months because their story is one that needs to be told. A group of "rough living" (or as they say "streeties") from Auckland that work together weekly to put together a drama production. Its been a real privilege to get to know each and every member of the crew and their stories.
I'm hoping to build a photo story with the images I've captured. This shot is from the standing ovation they received on Thursday night.
So I recently went out on a shoot with a couple of aspiring actor/models. Adam came up with the concept of deciding, in advance on a couple of emotions. Then it was up to the photographer to direct the models to try and obtain an image that expresses those emotions.
I had gone there with the ideas of "lonely and desperate" and "happy and carefree". The "lonely and desperate" was definately achieved, but the "happy and carefree" proved more difficult. I did get a lot of good images and the whole exercise was a big learning curve for me so I was for sure satisfied. Adam and Maria were really willing to have fun and experiment so it was something well worth doing.
Click on the image to scoll through 3 of my shots.
I've been involved in a project for a few months following a group of Auckland "streeties" as they rehearsed to put together a drama production. The show is called the Last Chance Cafe and will be opening this Wednesday, 29th of October, at the Herald Theater in Auckland.
Its been an amazing process to watch a group of people with very little acting experience, attend weekly rehearsals for months on end to put the show together. All of the actors either live rough at present or have done so in the past. Its really humbling every week when I'm catching the bus home to my warm bed to think of some of these guys walking back to wherever they're going to sleep that night.
I've felt really privileged to be allowed to attend the rehearsals and watch everyone gain in confidence and self belief as they've grown into their characters. In the beginning everyone was nervous and it was a group of individuals. Over time they've gained a sense of purpose and belonging, and worked hard to fine tune their own acting skills.
Watching some of the final scene rehearsals this week was really satisfying to see how far everyone had come in such a short time. Its exciting to think they will get the chance to perform to a paying audience and I cant wait to see what this does for everyone involved
The crew have been supported by a few amazing people who have coached and supported the whole project. Boni Tukiwaho, and Bronwyn Bent have been the directors and acting coaches and put so much time into supporting and devising the whole project year on year. Wilf Holt and the Auckland City Mission help out so much with venues and support for everyone. Sahar Lone and Auckland Live have worked hard to organize the theater and promote the final shows. There have been so many people who have generously given so much to provide this experience for the cast and eventually the viewing public of Auckland.
I hope the Auckland public will support the show by attending what is a pretty unique event on a world scale.
Tickets can be purchased from Ticketmaster
I like to shoot things, but I'm not a big fan of guns.
I love to take photos, and I enjoy the processing them afterwards with different software to bring out the details that attracted my attention. I get excited when I take that SD card out of my camera and plug it into the card reader on my computer. I feel impatient while I wait for them to download and I have to wait and see if that shot I hoped for is really what I got.
I'm not your average landscape, sunsets and cute puppy photography. Its not that I don't like these subjects but I find I'm just as fascinated by the beauty in little things that other people miss. I enjoy exploring the dirty spray painted alleyways we rush past without a second glance, or the sharp corners and angles of a building.
For me photography is all about taking time to stop and appreciate the little things we miss in this world. For a long time I became so busy working, racing around fixing problems, building systems, always going somewhere. I loved my busy life and the excitement and satisfaction that went with working hard. But I felt like I was missing out.
It's so good to have a reason just to stop, take a moment to really look at things. To really examine the shapes and lines of an object, check out how it was designed and constructed, or to consider what makes that person beautiful in their own way. Even if they aren't a super model or some luxury item we can find beauty in everyone we meet. Sometimes it's hard for me to find the words to describe something and so that's why I choose to use a camera.
This blog is as much for me as it is for those who read it! Over the last year or so I've learnt that its a really good exercise for me to use words (and not just images) to express myself. The process of writing my thoughts down and really thinking about the actual words I use to describe my feelings gives me a greater understanding of where I'm at and where I'm going.
I've heard it talked about that goals written down are far easier to achieve, and I do believe that by writing down my ideas and experiences, and re-reading them, I can understand they way I think and see things better.
I look forward to the challenge of coming up with posts, thinking about the subject and trying to organise the mess of ideas I always have inside my head into something others might just be able to understand.
And I also hope that anyone who reads this will comment, give me feedback, tell me I'm full of shit or relate something similiar.
I learn something new each time I'm out with my camera or editing my images and hopefully by writing something about that experience or new knowledge someone else can get something from it.