Melbourne & Victoria

“The world is divided into two types of people: those who have tattoos and those who are afraid of people with tattoos”. ~ Author Unknown In researching ideas for a project I stumbled on the above quote. My intent was to challenge what was implied by the quote using a documentary approach to my image making. The decision to work from one studio and get to know the people there was an intentional one; however the choice of studio was pure chance. I was fortunate to stumble into Green Lotus Tattoo Studio in Brunswick. Many visits over 3 months followed however it didn’t take long to quickly find the people involved to be highly skilled and interesting individuals to spend time with and they were supportive and genuinely interested in my work from the start. My challenge was to represent their artistry and the tattooing visually through my images. Whilst the original intent remained throughout the process, as the work progressed and I reviewed and assessed my images it became very much about the artists and their interactions with the clients rather than try to prove or disprove a point. The final result provides an insight into a group of individuals many people may never meet or interact with and a place that most people would never visit. Larger image Larger image Thankyou to Tashi and the rest of the artists and staff at Green Lotus Tattoo Studio (and their clients) for putting up with me hanging around all that time.

So as I close off the fourth book I scanned in some more images: Some old, some new Some cynical, well most cynical and even the newer style I’m trying, Felt tip marker on A3 sheet (as opposed to the heinous Ballpoint pen on A5 visual diary) but Visual Crash is posting a few more of the images. Have a look.

I don’t see my Dad much, he lives about 2000 km away from me. He is a very clever man, a genius even. Here is a picture of me and my Dad having a breathtakingly beautiful time in wooden canoes which he designed and built himself. I haven’t talked to him much recently, but I did the other day and this is what happened. He rang on Wednesday. We must have talked for an hour, and I told him about my pinhole cameras and coffee developer . I mentioned that I needed a way to use a tripod with my biscuit tin cameras and other cameras that didn’t have threads on them. We discussed this for a while and he said he would make something. He must have gone straight out to the workshop because on Thursday I received an email saying that “the thing” was in the post….today, Friday I received the wonderful tripod thingy….My clever Dad, 83, had turned a recycled block of cast bronze into a precisely threaded fitting, screwed it onto a piece of plywood and varnished it. Then he posted it to me. Bravo Dad, thank you!

I recently made a personal profile outlining how I got into my underwater photography Hope you enjoy the information Steve

Last weekend, on a cold Wintery Saturday, a group of friends from Redbubble who call themselves the Geelong Throng ventured up the road to the big smoke, well close to it anyway, to have a day out at the Melbourne Zoo. / This is a bit of a look at what I saw…. the rest of them are over here / / 1 / / / 2 / / / 3 / / / 4 / / / 5 / / / 6 / / / 7 / / / 8 / / / 9 / 10 / / / 11 / / / 12 / / / 13 / / / 14 / / / 15 / / / 16 / / / 17 / / / 18 / / / 19 / / / 20 /

The fabulously talented jemimalovesbigted and I have done a little combo and my words combined with her incredible design, graphic and general artness has produced this fabulous t-shirt putrid and magic.

Wave One of the collaborative juggernaut that is the Game of Kings has officially gone live today. The four characters making up wave one are: The White King / The Black Queen-Knight’s Pawn / The White Queen’s Pawn / The Black King’s Rook Also available for your reading pleasure are: The White King’s Story and: Game Of Kings Artist Interview: Quigonjim Stay tuned for a sneak peak at wave two of this mammoth project at the end of this week.

There’s frantic activity on this end as we prepare for my new venture Red Door Creative (photography and photoshop workshops) with a grand Opening Night and Exhibition to launch the project on 24th of July here in Dural, Sydney, Australia. If you will be in the area and would like an invitation (from which you could win a redbubble canvas print, or a photo shoot or other great prizes !!!) let us know and we’ll get one to you! Email: reddoorcreative@bigpond.com If nothing else, free nibbles, drinks, great company and a live jazz group will make it a pleasant night out. On exhibit will be photography (of course), as well as fine art, paper sculpture and calligraphy, stained glass, 3D digital art , even art on T Shirts – sourced from all over the state.

Too many projects, too many interests and not enough hours in the day or days in the week…...my Dad won’t be happy if I find he has one of these in his camera collection (that’s right, my 83 year old Dad has great camera collection which I am yet to pinch from him…including 2 polaroid cameras and a kodak Retina) I couldn’t resist this in the Op shop today, complete with film. The lens is really grotty….should make for some great texture!!

NOT the CORE but the FRINGE check this site to understand the DIFFERENCE!