St Helena by Night
08-December-2010
Two personally signifigant things happened in early 1987, firstly I was accepted into Queensland College of Art to study for a BA in photography and I also met up with an old friend Graham who had bought the ferry that ran from Manly to St Helena Is., home of Queenslands first penal colony and a National Park.
One of the best things at college was Marian Drew a young focused artist/lecturer who had just comeback from studying in Germany, the Bauhaus I believe. We were (are) around the same age, but even by then, only in her mid twenties she knew what she was about. Her openminded talent was influential on me, she had these large scale prints of figures amongst looming cardboard buildings and explained she’d used a light painting technique. That is leaving the shutter open in low light and building up exposure using a torch or flash etc.
About that time Graham had asked if I wanted to take some photographs of dawn on St Helena so we decided to camp overnight. I took over a roll of 1600 asa fujichrome and we went for a walk around the island under moonlight. Another mate Dean came along and he became an impromptu model.
The photographs ended up overwhelming my life for the next three years. Inspired by the images Graham suggested we become parntners in producing a son et lumière (sound and light show). A script writer was commissioned, we hired actors, bought generators, made props and acquired five Clydesdale horses and two wagons etc etc etc etc. ... ' spent and never got back a small fortune. Running costs took the lot.
Oh well at least I’ve still got this piccie.
it seemed like a good idea at the time, light painting 1987
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