“I turned to experimental photography when the reality of mining became too depressing and retreated into a world of inner vision and personal dreamscapes which I sometimes return to. This body of work uses altered images and celluloid collages made from discarded 35mm slides and movie film which were projected onto people and objects and rephotographed or often directly enlarged and fixed onto photographic paper. These hand made slides were printed on reversal photographic paper such as Ifachrome or Cibachrome when I could get it but the chemicals used aren’t very friendly to people or the environment so perhaps it’s a good thing everything’s going digital but I do miss darkroom photography. I had a solo show of these experimental Cibachromes and my landscapes at Germany’s then largest photography gallery Galerie Kommunale Friedrichshain in Berlin Mitte in 1993 which was a highlight of my art career. I was offered a free apartment and studio in a building that was slated for redevelopment but regretfully I had commitments which made me return to Australia. Berlin Mitte back then was like a big art party happening almost every night on just about every street with pop up galleries everywhere. The only other experience that comes close to that natural high was
Newcastle’s Star Hotel in the seventies (another chapter I wrote in Radical Newcastle). Those were heady days but it couldn’t last when neo-Liberalism arrived “binding with briars our joys and desires” as William Blake would say.”
Issue 14 - March 2016
10