DownUnder
Vamoosed (for a while)
How has your photography influenced and shaped your life during the course of your time on this planet?
This is a question I've been pondering since the start of the Covid crisis. I'm a pensioner (architect) of 72, happily retired and (touch wood) in good health. I've been shooting film since the 1960s, digital from 2009.
Trying here to be brief, ha! I did photojournalism and commercial photography in as a student (1960s) with Yashica TLRs and a Rolleiflex 3.5E2 I saved for a year to buy in 1966. Weddings and portraits gave me much needed income in my boarding school and college years. I became a cadet reporter in 1965 with one of several newspapers I worked for in Canada over the next five years.
In 1970 I left print media for TV promotion. I also did a commercial photography course in Toronto but gave up any notions I had of a career in that field after a year's part-time work as a darkroom grunt for a successful but tyrannical pro who taught me only mixing vats of fixer and cleaning enlargers.
From 1974 I traveled to the US West Coast and Southwest (found new spiritual homes in Hawaii, New Mexico and Arizona), the Pacific, Australia and Southeast Asia. I bought a Nikkormat EL - the start of a lifelong love affair with '35' and discovered the world of stock in that long-gone time when everything shot in exotic places easily found markets, even black-and-white images of Bali.
In 1976 I relocated to Sydney, Australia. I did journalism, editing, media marketing, promotions until the mid-'80s, and expanded my cameras to more Nikons and other brands - Rollei TLRs, a Zeiss Ikonta, Leicas M2 and M3 as my career and income improved.
By 1985, weary of the hit-or-miss life in media, I again shifted my life-gears and did a new degree, moved to Melbourne and went into commercial interior design. In the '90s I bought Hasselblads which I liked (the results if not the costs) but didn't really bond with those Swedish ergonomics. My Nikkormat and Rolleis still did it all for me. I also bought Leicas (an M2 and M3) but sold them when I returned to studies, which I've long regretted.
Much of my photo work 1990-2012 was architectural, with occasional trips to Southeast Asia to do stock photo shoots. From 2000 the stock market declined and when with the coming of digital the photo markets were oversaturated. A few commercial clients still bought my images, until the GFC in 2008-2009 seriously impacted my photography and my design work. At this time I again realized I needed new direction in my interests.
Until the 1990s I shot mostly 120 slides with TLRs and MF folders (those good old days when film was cheap and B&W processing was done in kitchens and bathrooms at night) but then moved to 35mm. Fast forward to 2009 and the then-new Nikon D90 convinced me digital could match film in quality. I bought D90s, D700s and now a D800. Also a Lumix GF1 kit which gives amazing results for the mental-shift it requires.
By 2012 I wanted out of design and the day-to-day drudgery of my own agency. An offer to sell out came my way and I took the quantum leap to retirement, freedom and my own life without limitations of work.
Since retiring I've disposed of many of my film cameras and am now trimming down the darkroom to essentials - one enlarger, a Jobo system and very little else.
I still use my Nikkormats, Rolleis and Contax G1s. I also occasionally write for publication, now and then sell images, and travel as much as my age and situation will let me. Am now looking to the end of the current lockdown and the return of overseas travel in Australia, for a reunion and photo excursions with friends in Malaysia, Sarawak and Sabah, but sigh, who knows when. We live in uncertain times.
So. Me, in a nutshell. I'm amazed at the many directions six decades have taken me.
Did I say brief? The meaning of this word seems to have eluded me.
Many of you have similar adventures and experiences to relate, I'm sure. Please let us all hear from you.
This is a question I've been pondering since the start of the Covid crisis. I'm a pensioner (architect) of 72, happily retired and (touch wood) in good health. I've been shooting film since the 1960s, digital from 2009.
Trying here to be brief, ha! I did photojournalism and commercial photography in as a student (1960s) with Yashica TLRs and a Rolleiflex 3.5E2 I saved for a year to buy in 1966. Weddings and portraits gave me much needed income in my boarding school and college years. I became a cadet reporter in 1965 with one of several newspapers I worked for in Canada over the next five years.
In 1970 I left print media for TV promotion. I also did a commercial photography course in Toronto but gave up any notions I had of a career in that field after a year's part-time work as a darkroom grunt for a successful but tyrannical pro who taught me only mixing vats of fixer and cleaning enlargers.
From 1974 I traveled to the US West Coast and Southwest (found new spiritual homes in Hawaii, New Mexico and Arizona), the Pacific, Australia and Southeast Asia. I bought a Nikkormat EL - the start of a lifelong love affair with '35' and discovered the world of stock in that long-gone time when everything shot in exotic places easily found markets, even black-and-white images of Bali.
In 1976 I relocated to Sydney, Australia. I did journalism, editing, media marketing, promotions until the mid-'80s, and expanded my cameras to more Nikons and other brands - Rollei TLRs, a Zeiss Ikonta, Leicas M2 and M3 as my career and income improved.
By 1985, weary of the hit-or-miss life in media, I again shifted my life-gears and did a new degree, moved to Melbourne and went into commercial interior design. In the '90s I bought Hasselblads which I liked (the results if not the costs) but didn't really bond with those Swedish ergonomics. My Nikkormat and Rolleis still did it all for me. I also bought Leicas (an M2 and M3) but sold them when I returned to studies, which I've long regretted.
Much of my photo work 1990-2012 was architectural, with occasional trips to Southeast Asia to do stock photo shoots. From 2000 the stock market declined and when with the coming of digital the photo markets were oversaturated. A few commercial clients still bought my images, until the GFC in 2008-2009 seriously impacted my photography and my design work. At this time I again realized I needed new direction in my interests.
Until the 1990s I shot mostly 120 slides with TLRs and MF folders (those good old days when film was cheap and B&W processing was done in kitchens and bathrooms at night) but then moved to 35mm. Fast forward to 2009 and the then-new Nikon D90 convinced me digital could match film in quality. I bought D90s, D700s and now a D800. Also a Lumix GF1 kit which gives amazing results for the mental-shift it requires.
By 2012 I wanted out of design and the day-to-day drudgery of my own agency. An offer to sell out came my way and I took the quantum leap to retirement, freedom and my own life without limitations of work.
Since retiring I've disposed of many of my film cameras and am now trimming down the darkroom to essentials - one enlarger, a Jobo system and very little else.
I still use my Nikkormats, Rolleis and Contax G1s. I also occasionally write for publication, now and then sell images, and travel as much as my age and situation will let me. Am now looking to the end of the current lockdown and the return of overseas travel in Australia, for a reunion and photo excursions with friends in Malaysia, Sarawak and Sabah, but sigh, who knows when. We live in uncertain times.
So. Me, in a nutshell. I'm amazed at the many directions six decades have taken me.
Did I say brief? The meaning of this word seems to have eluded me.
Many of you have similar adventures and experiences to relate, I'm sure. Please let us all hear from you.
