Page 21 - Photo Review

INSPIRATION

One image is of Great-great Uncle Fred, who ‘That’s a dumb idea’ all the time. It’s like
died a couple of years ago. Everyone said he letting your childlike imagination come out.
was gay, but due to the generation he was in, They develop as I’m doing them, with a lot of
he couldn’t ‘come out’. So I made him a coming trial and error. I have more preconceived ideas
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also a great traveller – with rainbow lorikeets as keep my mind open. Sometimes I’ll pick up and
D JHVWXUH WR WKH UDLQERZ ÁDJ put something down for months if something
I’ve recently done a montage with currawongs doesn’t sit right or the mood isn’t right. It all has
in the bush and my Auntie Brenda when she to come together.
was a child [she’s now 80]. The birds gave it
an ominous tone, but I changed that by calling How did your series of 12 exquisite bird
it ‘The Choir’. Once you know that, it has sort shots from the Blue Mountains Botanic
of an imagined soundtrack. Gardens at Mt Tomah come about?
They’re also montages, of course. You’d have
When you’re montaging, you must
to spend a LOT of time getting a set of images
have a lot of decisions to make.
that perfect. Well, you just couldn’t do it.
How do you approach it? I’ve always loved photographing birds, and
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doing them quite seriously was not to be my LQFOXGLQJ VWLOOV ÀOP PDNLQJ SRHWU\ DQG P\
own critic. That critic in your mind who says, husband playing improvised music on guitar.