Becoming a Photographer.
Let me take you on a journey of my first photographs. Photographs that shaped my becoming a photographer as well as an artist.
Cameras fascinated me as a child. I remember getting into trouble for playing with a camera at a house we stayed at while at a home stay I lied when asked if I had taken any shots. I had. I guess that was my first photograph.
My first camera was given to me on the trip to Geraldton. I was eight and I took some interesting images. I will include them here if I find them. But reviewing them later I realized I had a good eye for composition.
I really entered the world of Photography at the end of year Ten. We had electives each afternoon for the last three weeks to keep the kids at school. I chose photography and video making. The photography teacher gave me a camera with some film and said to use it up. We would develop it the next day. He then called me and another senior student in before lunch the next day and showed us how to develop it. Then in the session He asked us both to teach the rest of the class how to do it. Wow, that was some training by fire.
Brilliant teaching technique and I really had to learn my stuff. He went on to make us both teaching assistants. It paid off because both of us went on to use photography for our major works. Below are the first two photographs from that first roll.
Typewriter
This was my first photograph that I developed and printed myself. This typewriter was in the art room. I was careful of how I took it. I think I had the old colour film mentality of making each shot count. It has always impressed me as a brilliant image. One I’m very proud of.
Mr Bruce Jarvis
The second image on that roll was of my art teacher Bruce Jarvis. Again wow, what a portrait. One shot. Mr Jarvis was much loved by all the boys. I have kept in touch with him over the years. He was gracious enough to open my Art Exhibition in the Purple Noon Art Gallery in 2014.
Blue Gum Forest – Grose Valley, Blackheath.
This Photo was one of my earliest images – it was taken at Blue Gum Forest – near Blackheath NSW, when I was in year 11, 1974 It was during a scout camp. We camped there but camping was banned at this location soon after. Fortunately, my eldest sister purchased this image with another of our campsite. Otherwise, it would have been lost. Fifty years later the photo has a lot of damage which is visible in the light areas.
I went on to study Photography as a Minor subject for my Art degree. I was not allowed to do it as a major as Photography was not considered real art at that time. This changed in the next decade. My lecturer Joe Perone was an East Coast Photographer who challenged this view. He was previously a photography lecturer at MIT. That’s Massachusetts. He was a very big influence on my art photography development.
Sale yards
This image was taken during the first weeks of my degree. It is at Wagga sale yards. Again another amazing shot. Not a one-off this time but a once-in-a-lifetime image. The truck was backing back and I waited to get the right angle before clicking. What luck to get a white cow in the middle like that.
But there was a problem. When I developed the film there was a hair on the white cow’s back. I made a rooky mistake. I saw the hair and when it wouldn’t blow off, I plucked it off. Ripped might have been the better word, as it took off the emulsion with it. So instead of a faint whiter line I now had a dark black hair line right through the white cow’s back. I consulted the lecturer and alas nothing could be done to save the image.
This was the age of analog. Now, with digital editing, I have been able to remove the flaw and now have my image back. Film always has the problem of dust and fingerprints.
Skateboarder
Finally the famous skateboard photo. Well-famous in the mind of the Harris family. I was in Canberra with my friend and fellow artist/photographer Julian Di Stefano. We had just been to the National Gallery in Canberra, where we saw an exhibition of 150 years of photography. All the greats were on display. We were particularly taken with seeing originals by Andre Breton.
After the exhibition, we were casually strong through Civic. It was late afternoon. We were looking for food. In the early nineties Civic, the center shopping district of Canberra, was deserted and food was not found. We were also taking photos. We came across a group of teenagers on skateboards. They were jumping house bricks. One of the lads was easily clearing six house bricks. The moment of a photographer’s madness kicked in and I thought, get him to jump my head and camera.
Meeting the challenge
I approached the skater and proposed the challenge. Julian and all the other skaters thought I was mad. For me, I would be much lower than six bricks but the challenge for the skater was one of guts and nerves. The stakes were higher. Challenge accepted I lay down, camera in hand.
The result was that he was an instant hero and so was I.
I didn’t realise it but I only had the one shot. It was the last frame of the film. It was getting dark, so the exposure was very underexposed. Thus the film was thin. You can just see the hand grasping the front of the board. I’m sure he jumped higher than he had done earlier. This led to several issues with the film. There was no emulsion to work with. Consequently there was no contrast, and as with all film without emulsion, all manner of dust and specs show up when developed. There was a big white spec on his nose and another on his left eye, plus a lot of other marks.
I got the shot but could not use it. It remained an iconic moment in my mind. Fortunately, digital repairs have now resurrected the image.
Influence – Proud of My nephew.
So to record the Harris story as mentioned above. We were all at a picnic with my sister and her kids in a Marysville park. Steve Harris had his bike jumping off various objects. Now for a repeat. I had much better lighting. I put out the challenge to jump off a large log over my head and camera. Photo taken but Steve went over the top of his handlebars and landed on his face. It was later discovered he actually broke his nose. But again, note to self never do this when at the end of a roll of film. I self-wound my own films, and the roll was at its end. The film was black. It was all for nothing. My sister never forgave me for hurting her boy.
Steve Harris went on to be a brilliant photographer. I had some influence in mentoring him early on. But more than this he learnt a big lesson. A low angle makes for great photos. Something he uses to incredible effect in his sports event photography. Ironically they often include pushbikes.
Thanks Phoebe stay safe it’s the long COVID that makes it hard.