New (old) toys

Over the years I've accumulated a small collection of old postcards and ethnographic images from the various places that I've visited. These include a number of the stereo photographs made by the Keystone View Company. Called Stereographs, these were a pair of near identical images that were taken at a slightly different angle to each other. When sat side by side and viewed through a special viewer the images merged and gave a 3D effect. .

Mounted on stiff card with an image caption, these Stereocards were immensely popular and from about 1860 until the 1920's this was the way many people saw the world beyond their shores... Until movie newsreels and then television finally relegated them to the attics, trunks and junk shops.

When I was studying photography at college, I majored in Scientific & Industrial Photography and we spent some time learning the formulas to determine exactly how far apart the lens needed to be placed for two images to ensure a three dimensional scene when observed through the viewing glasses. Something about lens separation equaling the depth point factor multiplied by the far point factor multiplied by the lens factor... or something like that. Was kinda fun getting the results, but f***d if I can remember all the formulas and calculations to get to a successful result now. But, it was something that I always thought that I'd like to have a crack at again. 

Fast forward to 2011, fellow photographer 'Dan the man' Grant and I are planning a trip to Burma a little later this year. Doing some research and looking for some stuff on ebay I find this little beauty. 

 A 1950's era Kodak Stereo Camera!!! Uses 35mm film to produce a 24mm stereograph. Heavy bastard, made from bakelite and metal... and comes complete with it's own built in spirit level. Just downloaded the manual from the Orphan Cameras.com Camera Manual Library ... A bloody great resource that everybody should bookmark and support. If you've got an old or second hand camera and need the manual, it's the place to go. Now to load some film and give it a test run. May have to take it along on the trip and put my twist on some of those amazing old Keystone Stereocards. Stay tuned folks.

Welcome to the night train

Simple Living: The Detritus of Life (I)

Welcome to the Night train. Buy the ticket, take the ride. A sneak peak at a new series that I am working on 

Killing time with Goya and Levinthal

The Charge of the Light Brigade

© Julian Tennant - Polaroid Spectra, Artists Proof print

I took this Polaroid earlier in the week. The end result of procrastination and my usual attempts to avoid doing any meaningful work. I should have been doing prep for my classes at TAFE, but as usual I became distracted. At least it wasn't porn this time. I was looking at some of Francisco Goya's  Disasters of War and Otto Dix's Der Krieg prints. Disturbing stuff ... powerful images that convey to me, the same level of horror, pitiful waste and sadness as much of the hardcore war photography that came out of the latter half of the twentieth century.

And as I meandered through the net looking at pix and thinking about stuff I rediscovered David Levinthal, a photographer whose style has been defined through his use of elaborate miniature sets to explore concepts and ideas. Probably best known for his Hitler Moves East series, I found his Mein Kampf body of work to be quite powerful in how it caused me to respond to what are essentially pictures of toys. He uses models paying careful attention to light, composition and depth of field control to create  scenes of drama, tension and narrative. In his photographs, the harmless children’s toys’ that society uses to socialise it’s young take on much darker connotations as he addresses issues in his personal life and the world around him.

Inspired by his work and with the prints of Goya and Dix fresh in my head, I dragged out my beloved Minolta Spectra Pro which still has one of my last remaining (and long expired) packs of Polaroid film sitting in it's belly. The figures are some models that I have from the Hong Kong based company King & Country, not quite relics of my childhood and... well, this is my feeble attempt anyway.

2011: A new beginning?

Old Glory

So we've survived the first decade of the 21st Century. A tumultuous time for sure and the world will be changed forever. Who knows what the next decade will bring? But,  over the new year, I didn't contemplate this too much... I fled to Hawaii to drink beer and chill out. Here's one of my vacation 'happy snaps' taken whilst diving on the wreck of the Sea Tiger  near O'ahu in Hawaii. Pic was taken using my Canon G10 with underwater housing at a depth of about 100 feet. Apart from the delay between pushing the button and capture, which resulted in some missed opportunities, it's not a bad little beast at all.

"Great art is horseshit, buy tacos."

The Secret Room (VI) - Cyanotype Print

"Great art is horseshit, buy tacos."  - Charles Bukowski

The Secret Room (I)

The Secret Room (I) - Cyanotype Print

Found some unexposed cyanotype paper that I had coated before my trip to Thailand in July. I expected that after almost two months that it would have 'fogged' to the point of being unusable but thought I'd give a sheet a quick test before throwing it out. Sixteen minute exposure in direct sunlight at around 2pm. Seems to be working OK. Time to crank out a few more prints from this series.