Present Age: 50 and quite a few additional months:
Born in a small conservative county town during the post war boom time, dad a returned soldier, mum did it tough on a farm but quickly adapted to town life. Spent most of the early years in a cattle truck with my dad ... got to love the country and trees and paddocks and farmer-type people.
A flower-child of the 60s (and I remember it all) ... went to the big city at age 18 ... career ... returned to the country late 20s ... earth-mother parent ... live in town now ... business owner/traveller/image-maker ...
Photography History:
Began 'creative' shots with the Box Brownie at a very early age. Had no understanding of the cost of printing so many of the early black & white 'experiments' were not appreciated by a family who used the camera to take pictures of family events and little more. Very frustrated photographer for many years.
Bought my first camera at age 16 and but didn't learn about darkroom techniques until my late teens when I began working in television (then GTV 9, Melbourne). Studied at Swinbourne Tech, played in darkrooms whenever I had the chance. Traveled the world. Worked in television, music and theatre and picked the brains of every photographer and artist I met along the way.
At ATV O (now Ten) Melbourne in the 70s got to play heaps and learn 'creative' tricks in the darkroom ... that's when I really went off-track with traditional photography and would spend days locked away with one piece of photographic paper, up to 30 negatives, gallons of poisonous chemicals, scissors, cardboard, note-paper, rulers, and head-ache pills in an attempt to create something I could see in its entirety in my minds eye but had to 'build' under the red light, micro exposure by micro exposure. Sometimes it actually worked! These rare and precious creations were shown here and there, and I gained the respect of my peers and all was well in my creative world for a while.
Then life took over - the creativity went into other areas - until that magical day towards the end of the 20th century a friend let me play on a computer which had an early image-manipulation program, and that was it ... hooked again, only this time I can make what I 'see' in the comfort of my home office, with the only great concerns being radiation from the computer screen and that there are not enough hours in the day/night to complete the image I know is hidden within. And it all begins with a photograph ...
Today and tomorrow ...
Have put in my notice with the office side of the family business and intend spending the rest of my life 'making things' ... creating images such as those on this website is my number two passion (family and my friends number one)...
The intention is to still travel with the business, fly all over Australia, away from home up to 5 months of the year, camera in one hand, my best mate and partner holding the other ... And between trips, no more working in the office, but time with my computer, my enormous collection of digital images, my imagination, and Studio Jay ... and time to smell the roses and listen to the birds while making images, and sculpting, and writing, and sewing, and singing, and playing with grandkids, and loving life, and living life ... and on and on and on it will go...
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