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A photo tribute to Surry Hills

To coincide with the Surry Hills themed issue of Time Out Sydney, the magazine held a one night only photo exhibition at Urban Uprising featuring 20 of my pictures, plus some more by Will Storr.

The pictures are all of Surry Hills people and places, some taken on assignment for Time Out, some just my personal work.


Surry Hills is a suburb dear to my heart, it’s where i was born, it’s where i’ve lived, and it’s where i spend so much of my time.

So it was a pleasure pulling some pictures from the archives for the show and sharing them with many of my Surry Hills pals.

Minnie Cooper's alter ego

Thanks are due to Urban Uprising, Dan, Andy, Phil, Roxy, ACP, Hardware Gallery, Pie Face, Peroni, Chandon and Café Lounge.

The show ran for one night only at Urban Uprising, but i’ve moved many of the shots to Café Lounge, where they’re on display till next Wednesday.

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Leeanna Walsman

I took a few snaps of actress Leeanna Walsman after an interview for Time Out the other week.

It was in the corridor of the Sydney Theatre Company, where Leanna is appearing in Stockholm.

Hugo Weaving

Serious thespian Hugo Weaving

Here’s some snaps of the superb actor Hugo Weaving. It was a last minute affair, i only found out i was getting a photo opp with him 20 minutes before the shoot.

They were taken in a minute i had in a hotel room while he was on a junket for Wolfman. No time for any fancy set up, but he’s got such a great face, a straight portrait works okay.

Less serious thespian

Here’s the Time Out interview he did after i shot him.

Time Out’s Surry Hills cover

The Hills are alive! Time Out Sydney's March cover

Sometimes a magazine cover photo is inspired by a coverline, in this case “The Hills are alive!” which described Time Out Sydney’s feature on Surry Hills.

The Sound of Music

The Sound of Music

It ends up being a little tenuous, but the idea was to allude to the classic image of Julie Andrews in the Sound of Music, but with a modern twist.

We found a friend (thanks Amelia!) who looked a bit like Julie Andrews and shot some pictures one morning at my home studio.

Easy-peasy.

Hair and make-up was by Emily Sarks.

The cover photo straight from the camera

We tried one look with a blue dress that didn't make the cut

Monotonix wreak havoc at The Annandale

Monotonix frontman Ami Shalev plays drums while elevated by the crowd

Israeli punk band Monotonix played one of the most unpredictable and mayhem fueled gigs i’ve ever seen at The Annandale last night.

The room was about half full, so to begin the 3 piece band set up their gear in the middle of the room for the audience to circle around.

From the get go it was bedlam. Frontman Ami was grabbing people’s drinks and spitting them back in their faces, running along the bar, lifting a girl in the crowd and placing her on the drummers shoulders, placing a garbage bin over the drummers head, then grabbing a drum and playing while elevated by the crowd.


At one point the whole band relocated to be playing on top of the thin bar – the next moment the singer had coaxed the crowd to lift him above their heads on a couch.


Perhaps the most brazen moment of the night was when the band marched right out the frontdoors of The Annandale onto Parramatta Rd leading the crowd as they went. The band played as the audience huddled around and the singer scaled a traffic light. He then leapt onto the crowd’s outstretched arms.



The Annandale staff had been nervously eyeing the chaos all night, but it was only once the action moved outside and people spilled onto the road that they intervened, forcing the band to head back inside.

I’ve seen some stage antics in my time, but this was the most wild and unpredictable.

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AC/DC – The Boys are Back in Town

Angus Young - dead set legend

Rock’n'roll icons AC/DC returned to the city that spawned them at a bombastic concert in front of 70,000 odd fans at Sydney’s ANZ stadium last night.

I was shooting for Time Out Sydney, whose cover this month is adorned by Angus Young with a feature on the A to Z of AC/DC. Read the review.

As a photographer it was a dream come true to photograph them. They’re worldwide music legends, and to shoot them in full flight in their and my hometown was pretty special.

I had to use a faster shutter speed than usual, not because it was dark (the light was excellent), but because my hands were literally shaking with nervous excitement.


Angus Young from every angle is so iconic; the strut, the mouth open face of concentration, the cap, the shorts, the Gibson SG.

Photographers only got to see three songs, but that included Back in Black, so i was happy.


It was also a pleasant change in the way photographers were treated by the tour staff at the show. Often at gigs photographers are treated as if we’re a burden, like naughty children who need to be rudely disciplined to be kept in line. The attitude sometimes seems to be that we’re paparazzi leeching off the performers – and that we’ll break the rules at any opportunity.

But as we were being handed our accreditation, AC/DC’s American tour manager gave a little speech saying something along the lines of,

“We get to travel the world putting on these great shows and that’s in part due to the support of you guys (the media), so thanks for coming and thanks for your support.”

I felt like applauding – finally someone acknowledging the work of photographers and media is supporting the artists, not swindling them.

That attitude of mutual respect was also reflected in the fact that there was no photo contract. Happy days.

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Rock Photography panel discussion

Nick Cave does not endorse this event - but he does signify 'Rock Photography'

This Friday evening Tony Mott (music photography legend), Joe Ferrara (Art Director of Rolling Stone Australia) and little old me are talking at the Australian Centre for Photography about “Rock Photography“.

Tony will give a 30 minute presentation which will leave you in awe of his career and give you plenty of chuckles – then it’s over to a panel discussion with all three of us which is chaired by Tali Udovich from Blender gallery.

Some of the things up for discussion will include:

  • How to get started as a photographer?
  • How do unknown photographers get their work published?
  • When does the artist pay? When does the record company pay? When does the magazine pay? When don’t you get paid?
  • How much can you expect to be paid for an image?
  • On a technical level, what are the basics that you must ensure are in place with each image?
  • What makes a great image?

We’ll be taking questions from the audience, so it’s your chance to find out from those working in the industry whatever you want to know.

I know i’ll certainly be keen to hear from Rolling Stone how you get an assignment from them these days. And how a freelance photographer can compete with the Getty behemoth.

If there’s anything in particular you’d like to ask, leave a comment here and i’ll make sure it gets addressed.

In summary:

  • What: Panel discussion on Rock Photography
  • When: Friday 19th February 2010, 6-8pm
  • Where: Australian Centre for Photography, 257 Oxford St Paddington
  • Why: Everything you ever wanted to know about rock photography and tales from the frontline
  • How much: $10 for ACP Members, $20 for non-members

Covers – continues to February 20th

The opening night crowd at Covers - photos by Patrick Stevenson

I was quite overwhelmed and touched by the support for Cybele and my photo show Covers opening night on Thursday.

Our thirsty guests smashed through 15 cases of beer and 12 bottles of wine in just the first hour. We sold a bunch of pictures and made some money for Oasis.

Now the first night is over the show continues. The covers will be at Mart Gallery until 20th February. The gallery is open Tuesday to Saturday 12-5pm.

The show and opening night wouldn’t have gone so well without the help of the following people. So HUGE THANKS  to:

  • Mel at Mart Gallery
  • Everyone who’s come along to the show, and especially those who bought prints
  • Becks for providing the booze
  • Liv and Mimi for serving all that booze
  • Patrick Stevenson for taking the opening night photos
  • Cybele for being amazing and the star of the show
  • Justin for all his expertise prepping and hanging the work
  • All the media for helping spread the word about the show

We enjoyed great support from:

Thank you.

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Sydney Festival 2010

Summer Sounds in the Domain

I love Sydney in January. There’s that post-holiday glow that still remains, the exceptional beach weather (between torrential downpours), and then there’s the festivals and gigs.

The Manganiyar Seduction

One of the great pleasures of my job is getting to photograph those festivals, the biggest and most diverse of which is Sydney Festival. I love it because i see things i wouldn’t normally. Like a German language performance of Hamlet, a dance work with puppets or 40 odd Rajasthani musicians performing in stacked up red boxes.

Here’s some of the photos i took for Time Out Sydney.

The Manganiyar Seduction

The Manganiyar Seduction

Al Green performs at Festival First Night

Hamlet

Todd McKenney at Smoke and Mirrors

Todd McKenney at Smoke and Mirrors

Hamlet

Vieux Farka Touré

The Rogues Gallery chorus

Dark Matters

Wet punters beneath the Opera House sails for Rogues Gallery

Wet punters beneath the Opera House sails for Rogues Gallery

Sydney Festival director Lindy Hume

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Covers – a photo show

Cybele Malinowksi and I are having a  photo show at Mart Gallery in Surry Hills (156 Commonwealth St) starting this Friday 12-5pm and continues for 2 weeks.

The show comprises 24 music magazine covers that feature our photos, including Drum Media, The Brag, Time Out Sydney, jmag and Mess and Noise.

Artists who feature in the photos include bluejuice, Ladyhawke, Philadelphia Grand Jury, The Presets, INXS, Pnau, Paul Dempsey and more.

Before the show, Cybele and i were racking our brains thinking of what to show. It was on open brief – it just had have something to do with music and art.

We toyed with the idea of creating new work, but found it hard to agree on anything, nor did we have time to put any grand schemes into action.

We decided to exhibit our catalogue of music magazine covers. Most of the music stuff we shoot these days is commissioned work – portraits of bands for publicity and editorial use. So it made sense for us to show the photos in the mode they were intended, which is usually for the covers of magazines. Plus Covers was a cool title with music connotations.

I’ve always been a consumer and aficionado of the music press, so the show is a celebration of them too. We all love the internet – but for me, music is forever entwined with magazines and photography. It’s where my love of music photography was borne – as a teenager pouring over music magazines, ripping off their covers to stick on my bedroom wall and cut out photos of my favourite bands for my school books.

It’s quite a thrill to be able to show some magazine covers that we photographed ourselves.


Cybele and i have been doing a bit of spruiking in the lead up to the show, with stories in the street press (shame old-media doesn’t put that stuff online), a feature in Pedestrian, a recommendation from Time Out and an interview in Side Street Sydney.

The pictures will be for sale, with all profit going to Oasis Youth Support Network.

There’s a Facebook event with all the info too.

Hope you can make it.


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