Wedding, 1910

At the moment I’m scanning some photos from my fathers collection for a book he has written, and came across this one: his parent’s wedding day exactly 100 years ago in 1910. I’m pleasantly surprised at what good condition the print is in, and how well it was photographed, no doubt with a large plate camera. I can look at this photograph 100 years after it was taken and feel I know a little bit about people I never met.

It made me think about today, how everyone is a photographer of some description, using cellphones to grab blurry images for Facebook or whatever.  But how many of these are valued or kept after their 5 minutes of fame?  Most are lost, deleted, or even end up saved on media that will be unreadable in a decade – how many of us have old floppy discs lying around? How often to you hear someone’s laptop died and they lost all their photos? Digital is great but unless you keep backing up onto the current media they won’t be here in 100 years – not to mention the issue of different software and file types rendering old data unreadable.

The best way to preserve images is to print them – and get good prints on archival materials.  In scanning my father’s prints it’s so obvious how the studio prints from 100 years ago are still far superior to some of the cheap colour prints from not too long ago, massive fading and colour shifts are going on.  Quality today is a mixed bag, professional lab prints to archival standards are extremely stable but those from home printers can look horrible in a few short years. Like most things, you get what you pay for.

Of course a lot of photos taken today won’t be missed if they aren’t preserved, quantity of images doesn’t translate to quality.  Here’s a plug for those professional photographers out there who’s business it is to create the photos that will be here in another 100 years – it’s what they do for a living so naturally their images should stand out. If you want to find a real NZIPP qualified professional near you go here

I’ve been keeping a low profile lately, business interrupted with travel and house building but the good news is we have our new house/studio plans finished, building consent issued and builder sorted.  I can’t wait to have my new studio, it is built to make full use of natural light, my favourite.  Watch this space!

Nancy Tichborne, artist and gardener

If you have any interest in expansive gardens find a copy of this month’s Latitude mag. I photographed 3 of the gardens featured, including the cover shot of Nancy. It was a bit of an eye opener for me seeing just how creative (and maybe a little obsessed!) gardeners can become, I suppose it is just like any other creative outlet you become passionate about.

I spent last weekend in Wellington at the annual NZIPP (NZ Institute of Professional Photographers) conference.  As well as a series of interesting speakers, trade displays and catching up with other photographers from around the country there were the Iris Awards. Full time photographers can submit work to be judged.

I’m ambivalent about entering awards because I firmly believe the only opinions that matter are those of the photographer (and client if a commercial job).  While there are some obvious elements of technical skill and innovation in some work, the emotional response of  like or dislike from any images is rather subjective.  In short, I make photographs that please me – if other people like them, that is a bonus. But the process of entering awards not only involves much valuable self-criticism but also gives the opportunity to analyse what everyone else is up to.

My entries in the Landscape and People categories picked up bronze awards which I was happy with as the judging seemed to be particularly tough this year.  Out of over 1200 entries only around 20 made gold standard.

The most enjoyable part for me was seeing what everyone else is doing in the people category.  While I have leant more towards landscapes in the past I’m hatching plans to photograph people more.  One at a time though, not family groups, weddings etc.  What I enjoy most and am best at is working with people one on one, coming up with images that are beyond your average portrait, unique to the individual. Often more art than portrait. Such as the one below, one of my award winners last weekend.

Austen Deans

Race on down to your nearest bookstore and buy the latest issue of Latitude magazine (no.6, Summer 2008).  It is one magazine that actually has substance rather than being just a vehicle to sell adverts.  I thoroughly enjoyed spending a couple of days with Austen Deans photographing him for an article including the cover shot.  He is a real inspiration, still following his passion and remaining full of life at 93. 

Also in this issue is my regular ‘Insight’ spot where I have one of my current favourite images.  This issue it is from my series of photos around woolsheds, have a look at the Projects page on my website to see more.