Here is a little photobat origins story…
Way back in 2000 I was in my final year at uni. The last half of the year was focused on developing a research project and also a folio. Many of the other studients did folios that suited the Scientific Photography degree, I was a little different (can you believe it?)
From the first week of uni in 1998 I had been photographing comedians, mostly on stage. I decided to take photos off stage, portraits of comedians. Up until that point I had shot very few portraits. I had many miss starts, did shoots and my lecturer said they weren’t good enough and that I had to reshoot them. Towards the end of the semester I had 0 of my 6 shots required. I went back to me lecturer and asked if I could change my folio to Landscapes. I had a huge folio of landscape images ready to go and I would have just had to print them for the final submission. It was the easy way out.
My lecturer Phred wouldn’t have a bar of it. He wasn’t angry but his disappointment could easily be seen. He sat me down and had one of the most important talks of my life. He told me it was my choice on what I wanted to do, he also looked at the landscapes and told me to look at the images and study them. Why wasn’t I using the principles of composition that I was using so well in those images for the portraits? He inspired me to keep going and fight through. It was hard and I finally got there and here are the images from 2000.
Thanks to Janet McLeod, Adam Richard, Scott Brennen, Christine Basil, Duff and Adrian Calear for letting a uni student take some photos.
Major thanks to Phred Peterson for changing the direction of my life. I’m sure without that talk I wouldn’t be shooting what I do now or as well as I do.
