SHOOT A MINER

The event that asks our members to get together and shoot each other!

Portraits of and by our members will be gathered together and presented in a gala evening of portraiture on Thursday 6th May 2010 at Horse Bazaar.

A blurb book, and a permanent web based presentation of work will also be prepared.

All Melbourne Silver Mine Members are invited to participate.

For more information head on over to the Shoot a Miner website.

The easiest way to start submitting images is to do so via the Shoot a Miner flickr group

Various prizes are to be awarded. For example we are pleased to have the people of Light Leaks Press sponsoring the SAM 2010 Low-Fi prize for portraits taken with a low end “toy” camera. (more info in the flickr group)

Other prizes will be awarded based on skill, enthusiasm, or random acts of analogue love.

So take this opportunity to get together with your fellow miners and work towards capturing some memorable portraits.

If you are yet to become a member of the MSM, don’t worry, you can join today and take part in this event.

The early onset of autumn (reprise), by Dave Carswell.

Untitled, by Karen Riley.

After the Funeral, by Christian Were.

If you’ve grown fond of three photos from the MSM pool; take five out of your busy day to send the links through to us and we’ll post them here!

Whyalla 1998, by Stuart Murdoch.

you have been involved with photography for a long time, both on a professional level and for your own enjoyment. how did you start out and how has your outlook changed over the years? There is, in my memory, no definitive starting point where I decided I was going to actively pursue photography. I remember brief encounters with it in my later years of schooling.  The turning point though really was a duty free camera that I’d bought before going away overseas as a young man in my early 20’s. I took plenty of photos but they left me wanting, and within six months I’d begun exploring my options in regards to further study and photography, and now here I am nearly 30 years later and I’m still enamoured by the power of what a photograph can say or tell, or not tell for that matter.

Untitled, by Stuart Murdoch.

do you have a preferred technique or camera? how does this help you realize your artistic goals? My technique is usually driven by how I plan on ultimately sharing the image, or the ideas behind the series of images I’m making.

If its sole purpose is to be viewed on a screen, any capture device will do, but if I plan on exhibiting in real life on paper in a gallery for example, then I prefer my Hasselbald or my Linhof Technika II. The optics on the ‘blad are superb, and all I need worry about while making an image with it is my composition as the lens renders all in its path with an almost too honest attitude. The Linhof slows you down to a point where every image has to count. Ultimately though, I work with what I have at hand.

Having said that I recently bought bought a Canon G11, for its size and power and flexibility, and I hope to produce some solid work with it over the coming years.

what artists and movements have been important to you? are there any that have had a lasting impact on you? The most influential artists for me have been those who made images of the urban landscape during the 70’s when photography had its first major shift in artistic credentials. People like Joe Deal, Lewis Baltz, Frank Gohlke, Bernd and Hiller Becher and Robert Adams all were part of a group of photographers that were in a show  entitled ‘New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-altered Landscape’, held in 1975 at George Eastman House, curated by William Jenkins.  In particular Robert Adams who writes eloquently as a photographer about photography.

37.794338/144.833584, by Stuart Murdoch.

which one do you value more, change or consistency? In Photography? Hard to say, as I see value in both – change is good particularly if something good comes from it, but consistency too can be worthwhile, showing a purpose to one’s vision and craft.

show us one of your favourite shots and tell us a bit about it. how did you take it, and is there a story behind it? Again that’s a hard question, the images I probably get the most satisfaction from are the ones I revisit a period of time after making them that show or reveal to me more than I initially saw when first composing then pressing the shutter. The process can take years, or it can take as long as a roll of film takes to return from the lab. If they nudge my works and ideas in a new direction the all the more important, but really we are all like fishermen aren’t we? Always chasing the one that got away.

show us a favourite shot from the MSM pool. what do you enjoy in other people’s photos? So much talent in the pool makes it difficult to single any one person out, I like Cameron Stephen’s playful approach to his imagery and Andrew Cosgriff’s often pithy and somewhat wry take on the sights of almost darker recesses of Melbourne, but one image maker who really sticks in my mind is Morganna Magee’s work – in particular her brutally honest series of images about her father and Tyler. It is photography without pretense, yet brimming full of compassion.

Dad, by Morganna Magee.

Image 1, by Morganna Magee.

give us a question to ask the next person for this series: Is your work a mirror or a window?

Thanks for your time and thoughts Stuart! Stuart can be found all over the net but you can start by checking out these pages http://www.flickr.com/photos/s2art/, http://blog.stunik.com/ or http://altfotonet.org/.

Kodachrome: A Eulogy.

Written by Matthew Joseph & Rhys Allen

Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to mourn the passing of a dear, dear old friend, a neighbour, a son, a brother, a father, a grandfather and a creepy uncle you only see at Christmas and who can’t look you in the eye any more. We mourn Kodachrome with few surviving relatives: nephew Portra, brother T-Max and “special” second cousin Elite Chrome. We mourn Kodachrome, “made by God and Man”.

Kodachrome was born in 1935 in Rochester, New York, the unlikely offspring of a violinist and chemist (Leopold Godowsky Jnr,) and a musician (Leopold Mannes). At the tender age of four, a young Kodachrome was thrust into the fire and brimstone of World War II, documenting the horror of war through the lens of 8mm movie cameras in Europe and the Pacific. Kodachrome, the new kid in town, struggled for acceptance during the war, proving to be less popular with photographers than his father, black and white. His low popularity was most likely due to his cost but sadly we have little information regarding Kodachrome’s doings from this period.

After WWII however, Kodachrome’s popularity soared as he found his niche capturing precious family memories on 35mm slides and three minute home movies with his gaudy colour palette. (Some sixty years later, hundreds if not thousands of these images would be scanned by the writer of this eulogy.) In 1949 Kodachrome was elated to learn that the National Geographic Society had named roughly nine square kilometres of land in Utah after him, the Kodachrome Basin State Park.

All was well with Kodachrome until 1954 when the fear of imprisonment caused him to part ways with his long-term partner, “pre-paid processing”. Happily this was only made law in the United States and Kodachrome partnered with Pre Paid Mailers were able to continue their steamy relationship abroad. Years passed by and Kodachrome became a household name, a byword for colourful vibrant family snapshots, until in 1973 a chap by the name of Paul Simon wrote a song about him. That song was “Kodachrome”, I would now like to read a passage or two from this song:

“Kodachrome,

They give us those nice bright colors,
They give us the greens of summers.
Makes you think all the world’s a sunny day,

Oh yeah.

I got a Nikon camera,
I love to take a photograph.
So mama don’t take my Kodachrome away.

Mama don’t take my Kodachrome away
Mama don’t take my Kodachrome away
Mama don’t take my Kodachrome away

Mama don’t take my Kodachrome
Mama don’t take my Kodachrome
Mama don’t take my Kodachrome away.”

And so on and so forth.

In the 1980s things started look a little bleak for our friend Kodachrome. Kodachrome’s process is extremely complex, requiring expert technicians with extensive chemistry training and large, difficult-to-operate machines. These technicians were an endangered species in the 1980s and by the late 1990s would be all but extinct. Ironically it was in the decade of his demise that Kodachrome produced his most memorable imagery. In 1984, a close friend of Kodachrome’s, Steve McCurry, took him on a trip to Afghanistan and exposed him to a young girl named Sharbat Gula whose sad face and haunting green eyes would become the most famous image to be taken on Kodachrome.

“Afghan Girl (Sharbat Gula)” by Steve McCurry.

In 1990, just when Kodachrome thought things couldn’t get any worse, a Japanese chap by the name of Velvia appeared on the market and delivered the mortal blow from which Kodachrome would never recover. An embittered Kodachrome lost contact with the real world and became something of a recluse, huddling in small quantities in the frozen recesses of ancient refrigerators. In 2002 his death was falsely reported, causing a small resurgence of his popularity. Another false death report was filed in 2005 and once more in 2007. Aged, weary, and suffering a mild dementia, Kodachrome’s time was near. In June 2009, Kodachrome’s death was once again reported, however this time there would be no resurrection. Today a single laboratory remains committed to the K-14 process, as the very last of the geriatric Kodachrome shuffles into our cameras to capture the world one last time, just as he has always captured our hearts.

“*” by Aditya Mawardi

Rest in peace old friend.

I was at a flickr meet yesterday, at a pub called the “Marquis of Lorne”. What a pub named after Lorne was doing in Fitzroy was a little confusing, but we had a great day over a few pints and cameras.

Another person commented on the preponderance of portraits of younger people at bars on my photo stream. “Bar Portraits” are my most popular images. The person said that they were now more confident about asking strangers for permission to photograph them since they started to apply the golden rules….so here they are for the masses.

Pre-work : make sure you have two or three beers to warm yourself up. Alcohol is your friend, as it reduces your natural inhibitions in approaching strangers. It will help you the same way it will encourage your subjects to agree.

1. People are more open to new ideas and are approachable after 3 – 4 beers. After that, they can get grumpy, so go get ‘em before they finish their second jug. A great reason take your camera to the pub more often!
2. People with visible tattoos like to be noticed. Why else would you get a tattoo in the first place, except to say: “look at me, I am special”?
3. Young people – Generation Y – think that life and the world is a movie that they are starring in. They are going to battle against the odds and, one day, succeed. Their idea of success is being noticed in a karaoke bar by a record producer and being offered a deal – not through practicing and working your ass off to succeed – they want reality TV success that comes quickly and without work.
4. Gen Y are both very suspicious of media and voracious consumers of it. Mostly, their need to be noticed and feel special will overcome any suspicion of your intentions to take their portrait. You are feeding into their own belief that they are “special” by noticing them in a bar.
5. Credibility is assured if you have a number of other photographers in the bar with cameras out – you look more like a genuine artiste than a GWC (guy with camera – a term used for suss characters).
6. Oh, I nearly forgot – smokers tend to make good subjects, for some reason I cannot quite define. I think it has something to do with the fact that they have something cool to do with their hands.

Don’t stalk the people you want to photograph. You are not trying to pick them up (most of the time), so you don’t need to make eye contact once or twice before going over. Staring at people is not going to win their trust. Just walk on over to them and ask simply “May I take your portrait?” Make sure you have your camera out and obvious. I find that lifting the camera slightly towards them, almost as an offering, tends to work for some reason.

One of two things will happen. They will usually say either “yes” or “no” straight away. If they say “no”, just say “OK, thanks anyway” and move on. It is simply not worth the hassle to debate the point at all. If they say “yes”, get on with it straight away. You do not need to know their name, their interests, or their favourite footy team. Tell them what to do, if anything, and take your shots.

Get the shots you want quickly. You have about 30 seconds before you start to wear out your welcome. Get the shot and thank them and move on. Most people become uncomfortable after a while being the focus of a stranger with a camera. Move on quickly, before they think too much.

Other people will be watching you in the bar, and will be judging. The more people that say “yes” the more likely the next person will also say “yes”. If you are intrusive and talky, other people will simply say “no” to save themselves.

Occasionally someone will ask “what are they for?” – just motion towards the table full of camera geeks you are with and say “just an amateur photographer”. Don’t elaborate too much.

So why am I so against engaging with subjects?

1. They could be a pain in the ass. If you talk to them, they might be under the mistaken impression they are your new best friend and stalk you around for the rest of the day.
2. The more information you give, the more questions it raises. The more you talk to the subject, the more time it gives them to think up reasons not to let you take their portrait.
3. You want to take more than one portrait of one person. Hanging around wastes your time.
4. The most interesting subjects are usually a bit “edgy”. Don’t give them a chance to “turn” and get grumpy with you.
5. Spending as little time with them as possible removes the “fishbowl” feeling people hate. If you don’t get your shot, don’t linger longer unless the subject is really into it. People don’t like to feel like animals in a zoo for your viewing pleasure. The subjects are not there for your entertainment – if you make them feel like they are in the fishbowl, they will react very negatively… trust me.

And to wrap it up…

If you follow the rules, the worst thing that will happen is someone says “no”. Two out of three people will say “yes”.

So, instead of sitting on the train on the way home thinking “I wish I had’ve taken a photo of that girl at the bar”, you will have a great bar portrait that will win accolades and acclaim from your Silver Mine buddies.

Harden up, go and approach people. Say goodbye to that feeling of lost opportunities.

Thanks so much for your time, Damian!

Sea creature by Mike Le Fevre

please introduce yourself. what is “your style” of photography? I like learning and experimenting. Sometimes my style is a bit too square and straight on. Different angles are good. The interesting thing about photography is that it can be a personal artistic journey, and it’s up to you how much you try and improve, set challenges and search out new subjects. You also don’t know where it’s going to end, how skilled you could become, or you could just stay crap.

how long have you been shooting film? Since 2000, when I bought my first camera – a Lubitel 2. Prior to that with my mum’s Box Brownie in the mid 90’s.

Direct engagement by Mike Le Fevre

Do you prefer colour or black & white? Do you have a favourite film or camera? I like black and white because it’s easier to get ‘arty’ results, because it’s immediately one step removed from reality. It also generates associations with another time. People like fairy tales. Colour photography relies more heavily on elements like limited depth of field, or the colours looking like they’re from the 1970s, or cross processed/saturated colours, or more select ‘cool™’ or exotic subjects, to remove it from reality.

No favourite film or camera. So many different 35mm and 120, rangefinders, SLRs, TLRs and folders have gone through my hands I’ve realised what you use doesn’t matter. It’s the same with film. Film is like a subtle spice, the dish should be a good dish without it. My friend Amanda once said this about Lomo pics, if you strip away the vignetting and cross processing, a photo should still stand on its own merits.

What’s important in camera selection is reliability and personal taste. Plus some aesthetics thrown in. If you’re role-playing being a photographic artist, you might as well have a cool looking camera. I do like 120 for the big negatives.

show us one of your favourite shots and tell us a bit about it. how did you take it, and is there a story behind it?

Cliche 1 by Mike Le Fevre

A while ago I came up with an idea that you could wander a city and end up with a mental (or physical) map of where good backgrounds were, both wall and ground surfaces, with interesting patterns or textures or colours. Typical examples would be a brick wall, or pedestrian crossing. Then return and wait for photogenic subjects. Funnily a couple of weeks ago I was reading a book about Henri Cartier-Bresson which said he would find a background with an interesting form, then wait for fortuitous subjects – children, a man, a dog. Other backgrounds besides walls are down the length of a wall, into an archway, or looking out for places involving strong shadows. Obviously results depend on how much people live their lives on the street. Maybe you’ll find that more these days in certain European, or developing cities in the third world.

There are two classic subjects people want to see – beauty or the freak. Recently I’ve been thinking a photo like this has to be more than just people walking in front of a wall. It has to engender a story telling moment, or the people have to be emoting character with their body language like James Dean. Does this photo achieve that? Dunno.

show us a favourite shot from the MSM pool. what do you enjoy in other people’s photos?

gift wrap by mrs scatteredimage

I concentrate more on the local or personal level. I like seeing photos that show people are mixing it up, and trying new things. This shot from mrs scatteredimage reminded me of the Turin shroud, or the clothing of the two central figures looks like medieval figures you’d find in a Monk illustrated book.

what do you feel when you see a picture you like? why do you like it? It might evoke an association or memory, or rouse my interest. The best ones I guess are where you try and figure out what’s going on, rather than just being impressed by an overall beautiful aesthetic.

give us a question to ask the next person for this series Tell us about a current project.

Thanks for your time Mike! You can see his work on Flickr as silvermiketrate.

To celebrate the festive season we have decided to hit the lawn for some bowls.

Event details:

Who: The Silverminers and Partners (and supervisored little ones welcome)
When: Sunday 6th December 2009 from 5pm (Bowling starts around 6pm)
Where: Fitzroy Bowling & Sports Club Inc. 578 Brunswick St North Fitzroy 3068 (info)
Cost: $20 for MSM Members and $25 for Non Members (Includes BBQ Dinner and Barefoot Bowls)

Booze can be purchased at the bar .. for crazy cheap prices. (Please note, there is no BYO option for this venue).

Tickets must be prepurchased.

You can pay by direct deposit into our bank account or via paypal.
Please let the MSM Treasurer Jodie Noonan know when you have paid via an email to treasurer@silvermine.org.au.

Melbourne Silver Mine Inc Bank account details for direct deposits
BSB: 633 000
ACCOUNT NUMBER: 133674028

Paypal payments

MSM 2009 Christmas Party

Member $20.00 Non Member $25.00 MSM Membership and Xmas Party $65.00

Please confirm no later than the 2nd December 2009. Hope to see you there!!!

John Maloof, a photographer from Chicago recently purchased a huge lot of negatives at an auction, 30-40,000 in his words. This turned out to be the legacy of Chicago street photographer Vivian Maier, a French born war refugee who settled and recently died in Chicago.

Her belongings, including furniture, were sold because it appears that she didn’t keep up with payments for the storage facility that held her possessions. Maloof, after viewing her photos and developing some of the negatives, tried to contact her but she died just days before he started his search for her.

Vivian’s photos were taken between the 1950s and 1970s. She used a Twin Lens Reflex camera, possibly a Rolleiflex. She never exhibited during her life time or tried showing her work to any audience. Maloof could not locate any relatives and found out very little about her life. It is known that she worked as a nanny, and the staff at a camera shop in Chicago where she used to buy her film recall her manner as somewhat aloof.

Vivian’s images show street life in Chicago, she had a wonderful talent for getting amongst it all and she caught some striking moments. Some of her photos reveal a sense of humour and she had a sure instinct for dramatic and unusual situations. I really hope that Maloof will continue to add to the blog as he goes through his vast collection.

In the meanwhile, there is an ongoing discussion over at the flickr Hardcore Street Photography group about how to manage Vivian’s legacy. Using flickr Commons to turn it into a public collection is a great suggestion, and I hope that Maloof gets some help with the huge job of developing, scanning and editing the collection.