It’s all about the light

In photography, especially black and white, it is the quality of light that transforms the ordinary into the sublime, the everyday object into a thing of beauty. I have rekindled my love of photography since moving to Kapiti, an interest that began in 1984 when I began studying fine arts in Sydney majoring in photography and printmaking.

Light is often an important element in my painting and sometimes my photos inspire my artwork, although unlike many painters I don’t often paint landscape direct from photographs, preferring to paint from memory and imagination.

I dug up a few of my old black and white photos from art school days below. These are from a series of self-portraits (an easy subject rather than vanity!) in my first year.

Forty years later my appreciation of black and white photography is just as strong. Below are some of my recent favourite images where I feel I have successfully captured a mood, or created intrigue and mystery.

Finally, I was reflecting on my art recently and realised that many of my photographs are surreal or ambiguous in some way, as are many of my paintings. I think it is a good thing that my body of work has a common theme across media and genre.