An image taken this morning. Why is it that people in public spaces sometimes feel they have a right to prevent photographers from taking their portrait? Is it a reasonable belief or should we encourage photography in public spaces as a way of reminding ourselves individuals can contribute to democracy by coming together in public...
Author: johnsingleton
Hypocrisy at St Ignatius College, Riverview
St Ignatius College’s website states “Our Ignatian tradition calls us to enter into solidarity with the poor, the marginalised, and the voiceless, in order to enable their participation in the processes that shape the society in which we all live and work.” It seems Riverview has embraced this tradition by building a demountable classroom of...
What demountable classrooms say about Australian values
According to a NSW Department of Education release as at 30 June 2013 The Department has just over 44,788 teaching spaces in schools. About 10% per cent of these are demountable This equates to approximately 4,479 demountables. The same document states “In 2012/13 funding was provided for 39 new classrooms” which suggests that if this level...
Master portrait photographers – Jan Banning
Jan Banning is an extraordinary portrait photographer. The quotes below about the difficulties of portrait photography are from a presentation he made about his work at Eramus Huis Jakarta on August 14th, 2010. The full text may be read here. For portraiture, the digital camera I think is one of the most difficult things and...
Photography and communication
To begin with a quote from John Francis during a Ted Talk: “And so, on my 27th birthday I decided, because I argued so much and I talk so much, that I was going to stop speaking for just one day — one day — to give it a rest. And so I did. I...
Photography and objectifying women
One photographic theme I am interested in exploring is the objectification of wives by their husbands. This theme isn’t so much about exploring the sexual objectification of women as it is about how women feel when they realise they are are treated as objects by men they once loved. This theme has come about from...
Photography and visual illiteracy
I am often asked about which camera people should buy. Conversley I have never been asked which photographer is worth studying. This may be because I am regarded as a technician and not as a photographer. Alternately, it may be that the language of photography is relatively unknown. I suspect that the latter interpretation is...
My work ‘Mourning an elder’ is a finalist in the 2013 Moran Photo Prize
I was invited to photograph the funeral of distinguished Aboriginal elder Richard Phillips, by his son. During the funeral service at the Block, Redfern, I photographed this mourner. For me, funeral photography is subversive as it challenges society’s fixation with wealth, status and materialism by showing people are at their finest when they are compassionate and...
An interview with David Goldblatt
David Goldblatt is a genius – his quote from the interview below is what all photographers should absorb: How do we come to the values that we hold and how do we express those values? These to me are the vital questions. And whether or not photography is particularly suited to doing this, I don’t...