Been a long time.. But you can find me at Wordpress..

http://phynyghtstudio.wordpress.com

I have been using this site as it is a little easier to navigate and to honest a little cleaner as well. 

Hope to find you over at my newer Wordpress!!

Nathan Larkin

Rod McNicol at MGA..

I went to a lovely talk on Saturday at MGA.

Rod McNicol is currently exhibiting "Momento Mori"  at MGA. It's running till the 31st August so please pop in and take a look.

Rod McNicol's portraiture is quite amazing. His very unique style makes for photographs that draw you very deeply into the gaze, yet the amount of information is kept to a very bare minimum. His sitters are generally sitting square to the camera in a head and shoulders frame, and stare blankly and very directly into the camera. There is a sensation in almost every image that you the viewer are peering into the eyes trying to find a connection, the sitter in the image is doing the same to you. You walk the exhibition space and start to feel a little paranoid about these people staring directly at you, not speaking and just observing. The images seem to have a 'cruel tenderness' about them. By that I mean there is a 'cruel' hardness and formalness in the image. The sitter not smiling and square to the camera having their image taken like they were to appear as a mug shot on television; then you look deeper into the image and the 'tenderness' of the sitter starts to come through and steals your breath just slightly as you connect to them.

Please visit the gallery and take a closer look for yourself. These images will stop you in your tracks.

Martin Parr announced as President of Magnum Photos.

In something that could only be described as brilliant, the wonderful  Martin Parr has been unanimously voted in as President of Magnum Photos International.

“This is an exciting time for Magnum. We have consolidated and increased our photographer base with a very talented group of people coming from diverse photographic and cultural backgrounds. We have launched several initiatives to engage further with the worlds of digital and social media, while at the same time strengthening our relationship with our estates. Finally, we have managed a leadership transition. Giorgio Psacharopulo arrived at Magnum in a difficult time and, through his efforts and dedication, put us on the right path. I am confident that David Kogan’s experience as a successful media executive and entrepreneur, and his sensitivity as an important collector of photographs, brings the right mix of competence and vision to open this new chapter of Magnum’s history.” (M.Parr, Magnum, http://www.magnumphotos.com)

You can read the full blog post here.

Sometimes you just have to choose......

When we take digital photographs we always end up with a dilemma, Black and White or Colour?

Is there anything wrong with either? Well no, but sometimes a photograph can 'feel' like a black and white image yet not really make it. 

This is the same image (yes i know the crop is slightly different) with the same RAW processing. Even though it's the same image, do we get a different emotional response from the colour to the black and white? Do they feel exactly the same, but one is aesthetically more pleasing to look at thank the other?

These seem pretty important questions to most photographers. Sometimes the work just doesn't have the 'punch' to go black and white, and as a colour image has a touch of the 'ABD' (Already Been Done). I know I only took this image yesterday, but I have been slowly picking it apart critically  for most of the night and this morning and have come to the same conclusion as I did when I took it which is it's a pretty good image, but lacks punch. Something is missing from this image in both versions, and I can't think what it might be. They are both just kind, well boring to be honest. I love my work most of the time and really enjoy the act of taking photos, but in this case I think the image in my head has missed the image shown in the camera.

Just ever so slightly.

Back to the streets.....

Finally been back on the street hitting the shutter button again. Can't explain how much fun it is, but you could probably guess.

I will endeavour over the next few weeks to catch up a little in not only my posting, but share a bit more of my work.

Photobook Making day at Asia-Pacific Photobook Archive

I was lucky enough to get my first real photo book made and it was also critiqued and shown at Asia-Pacific Photobook Archive. The lovely Linsey Gosper from Strange Neighbour and Jason McQuoid from Edmund Pearce Gallery took some time to look through all the photobooks on the day and offer some wonderful feedback.

I was a book I have based on my Semester one folio idea of the recurring fear we have that can still haunt and upset us in our adult life. We know these things can never hurt us, they are only toys, but we have a unusual irrational fear of them.

Do I plan on doing a proper book of them later on.. Yeah I might. I do keep my eye out for crazy old toys every time I walk past a second hand store, so I do think this will be a very long and open ended project for me.

Still Life..

Sometimes a Still Life image needs to be something a little more off putting..

Passion.. Creativity.. Originality..

There would have to be a few ways to describe what this is about and how to look at it.

I would suggest if you asked Doctor Daks it's about not being a copy cat DICK and you will never fake it till you make it.

Doing anything takes hard work and persistence. You gotta try and try and try till you either love it or leave it. It's about passion, late nights, and busting your ass over every job or advantage that might come your way.

Art is hard, don't ever think it's easy, and to be even more direct photography is fucking hard. Everything you do as a photographer is held up to a light that started in the 1800's and the only thing to really change has been the technology. The amount of pressure put on your shoulders to 'Be Original' is so hard to hear, that the words bounce around in your mind till they mean nothing.

To be original, you have to work HARD!! To work HARD you have to have PASSION!! Then with HARD WORK and PASSION, you will find ORIGINALITY!!

When things need to change..

When we make decisions about the work, sometimes we need to let go of the idea. Then again sometimes the idea will change without us even knowing. Watching this Alec Soth video reminds me I need to be very open minded and remember that the work is allowed to change, even though I don't want it.

Herald Sun Tour 2014

Herald Sun Tour 2014, a set on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
I am going to try and get to a couple more of the stages this year. See how I go. The Herald Sun Tour is a great race, and well loved by Melburians.

The 'Art' of tagging..

The art of tagging. It sounds like an oxymoron, but in reality it isn't. There is a real form and function behind the tag, and the style of the tag itself.

The book 'Flip The Script' would have to be one of the largest, commercially available "dictionaries" of hand styles and typography associated to tagging every created. The author Christian P. Acker states that 'Graffiti is one of the last strongholds of highly refined penmanship', and I would have to completely agree. The way and time these men and woman, boys and girls, dedicate to just writing a simple name is incredible. you can skim through thousands of videos on YouTube, watching these people practice and practice and evolving their tag.

I remember one artist stating he thought he wrote his tag over 100,000 times before he even tried to take it into the street. Even my own practice would total maybe 10,000 and I'm still not quite happy with the way it looks.

Here in Melbourne, our tagging and bombing scene is very low key and covert. It's very hard to get close to these artists, let alone photograph them or speak to them.  My dream would be to spend time getting to know some of the artists in Melbourne or Internationally, and discuss there respective styles and how it came about.

For me it would be a wonderful photographic project of not only subculture, but an insight into how typography has evolved.

lost

lost, a photo by Phynyght Studio on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
Walking along Swanston Street today, I found these runners that seemed to have lost their owner.

Follow Focus or Push Pull Focus on your DSLR...

I have seen many many hack on this idea. From simple things such as a cable tie, to a can opener made from silicon. Some people can make anything work.

But sometimes we want the professional look, and still keep it pretty lo fi. I cam across this contraption today. 

FocusMaker has a slightly more "Pro" look to it, even though it works pretty much the same as the silicon can opener. But sometimes if you can fake it just a little, it might help keep you in more work. 

GUP Photography Talent 2014

This magazine would have to be one of the best photography 'books' going around at the moment. It's a resource of some of the most fantastic images to be currently seen through the Dutch Photography scene.

It's a shame there are not books like these where more of the worlds emerging photographers can get a break into the print market, and have their work shown on a larger scale.

Maybe that's something I need to to..

HHHHRRRMMMMM Note To Self........

Like Me. The Selfie as Modern Day Portraiture.

This is a set of portraits I took for my Final Folio for First Year at PSC.

It's a social commentary on how the world and we ourselves look at self portraiture now. The 'selfie' has all but taken over as one of the most popular ways of how we represent ourselves, but is it really the person we see? We see ourselves very differently an arms length away and in private.

You can read my research paper here at Wordpress.

Been far to long..

I must again apologise for the amount of time it has taken me to post something here. I have to admit I have been quite lax, and I have no one to blame apart form myself.

It has been a very busy year with study, work, and more study. Finishing my degree has made it a little tougher for me to get some of the work I would have liked to get done done, but I just have to keep plugging away at everything just a little at a time.

I have a few great ideas for next year for work to do, mainly for University not personal stuff. I have a personal project I plan on getting going, but more on that was it comes alive.

So my endeavour now is to keep this platform better updated. I say this every year and it all goes to shit very quick, but I need to be a lot more diligent, and I have some amazing ideas and things coming up..

Richard Misrach on "Destroy This Memory"

This is a wonderfully short and poignant way of looking at how people can sometimes find a comedic voice in devastation.

Ian Strage at the NGV Melbourne

 

I have to admit something kinda silly here, I haven't heard of Ian Strange aka Kid Zoom before. I was at the NGV looking at this amazing graffiti covering the sides of houses, and a video of a house on fire, and I was awestruck.

I couldn't believe an artist could see the things he see's, and how he sees them. To quoted David Hurlston "SUBURBAN is a powerfully evocative and compelling body of work. Through his photographs and and videos Strange challenges the notion of the family home being a place of warmth and safety." and I have to admit, I agree intirely.

The work is powerful and haunting. standing there watching the burning house, you almost feel compelled to help. You are drawn in and thrown away, either in fear of the darkness of the images or wishing you could help those souls you think trapped and lost.

I implore anyone and everyone to visit the NGV and wander the exhibition while it is on..

Ian Strange 'SUBURBAN' will run from 27th July 2013-15th September 2013

20130716_nathanl_city_ngv_0031_1

20130716_nathanl_city_ngv_0031_1, a photo by Phynyght Studio on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
Federation Square Melbourne.

20130710_nathanl_city_walk_0028

20130710_nathanl_city_walk_0028, a photo by Phynyght Studio on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
A 'BASICS' paste up in Melbourne.