Media news including interviews, awards, print publications and articles
Scheduled to be held on November 12th and 13th in Melbourne’s Docklands, the Melbourne Portrait conference will provide two days of education by nine leading photographers. I will personally be presenting and speaking on Wildlife portrait photography Tuesday 12th November at 9.30am. The confernce is open to both amateur and professional photographers. More information can be found HERE.
I am excited to announce today that my new exhibition ‘Frozen in Time‘ of my Polar Photography will now officially be coming to Sydney New South Wales in September of next year (after it concludes in Melbourne). The exhibition will open in Melbourne and run for one month only from June 4th until July 4th 2020. The show will include approximately three dozen of my fine art prints from both the Arctic and Antarctic captured over a period of ten years. The exhibition will be held in South Melbourne before it travels to New South Wales opening September 3rd until September 18th at Sun Studios in Alexandria. Proudly supported by Canon Australia, BenQ and Moab and Legion Paper. Previously unreleased limited edition prints will be available for sale at the exhibition.
For those of you interested in seeing the actual prints from my 2019 APPA entry into the Nature category they will be part of my Frozen in Time exhibition opening next year at the Sun Room at Sun Studios in Melbourne. The exhibition will be coming to Sydney after it finishes in Melbourne (Sydney Dates TBA) before it heads over to the USA. The exhibition will run for one month in Melbourne only from June 4th until July 4th 2020 and will include approximately three dozen of my photographs from both the Arctic and Antarctic captured over a period of ten years. Previously unreleased limited edition prints will be available.
Moab and Legion paper have just released a new Power of the Print Video as part of the Moab Masters series. I have been working with Moab as one of their Master Printers for more than eight years now and I am still just as passionate about printing today as I was back in the film days – actually even more so. Moab still produce my favourite paper for printing – Moab Somerset Museum Rag. An absolutely gorgeous rag paper with a wonderful surface stipple that reproduces the texture and tone of snow and ice with a majesty and tactility that I find unmatched by any other paper I have tried. If you are not printing your photographs you really are missing out on what is probably the most satisfying and enjoyable aspect of the entire photographic process. My sincere thanks to Tony Knight and This is My Life for the video production.
The 2019 APPA (Australian Professional Photography Awards) wrapped up a couple of days ago with the awards ceremony and Gala dinner in Sydney, Australia. Due to my workshop commitment in the Faroe Islands I was unable to attend this year so caught up on most of the judging and results through the live-stream (isn’t technology wonderful!). This year I again chose to enter my four prints into the Nature category and was pleased to have all four prints score extremely well – including a much coveted Gold and Gold with Distinction. I was also a finalist (for the second year in a row) in the Nature category. This year I achieved my stretch goal of 6 points and accrued more than enough overall points to achieve my 2nd Gold Bar and make the finals in the category. My individual prints scored 95 Gold with Distinction (2 Points), 90 Gold Award (2 Points), 88 Silver with Distinction (1 Point) and 85 Silver with Distinction (1 Point). Yes, that 88 was agonisingly close to a third Gold! I am now just five points away from my 3rd Gold Bar and a triple Master of Photography – M.Photog III. That honour will have to wait until APPA 2020 though (assuming I can amass the five points!).
All of the prints I entered were printed on Moab Somerset Museum Rag. As I wrote for the 2019 VPPY awards; this wonderfully sublime paper has continued to remain my stock of choice for all my fine art photography prints. If you love printing and are not familiar with this paper I urge you to check it out and get a sample pack.
To help provide some insight into the judging at APPA I captured and uploaded the live-stream video of the judging of my four prints in the Nature category. Keep in mind, you are listening to individual opinions – hence a panel of five judges. What is really interesting is to compare the scores and the comments from the state awards earlier this year.
Arctic Fox Blizzard – 95 Gold with Distinction. This print went for review at the end of the judging and was successfully elevated to a final score of 95 – a Gold with Distinction Award.
Penguin Love – 90 Gold Award. This print went for review at the end of the judging and was successfully elevated to a final score of 90 – a Gold Award.
Lost in a Blizzard – 85 Silver with Distinction
Reindeer Face Off – 88 Silver with Distinction
Those of you who kindly emailed me (thank you) asking for my thoughts on the category winning images and the level of “hyper-post production” applied to them: All I can say is I personally felt it far exceeded what should be acceptable in the Nature category. I do want to thank those of you who took the time to write to me about it – thank you.
