From the 2020 archives and  a trip to NZ  pre the global Covid-19 pandemic. 

I didn't take many photos with the analogue Leica M-4 P rangefinder on this trip as  I was in the process of giving 35mm  film photography away. Digital photography was far better in low light situations  and Kodak colour negative film was becoming rather  expensive.  

The photo below is of trees on the banks of  the Waiau River  at Lake Manapouri in the Southland region of the South Island.

We were staying at Lake Manapouri at the time,  monitoring the pandemic situation and keeping an eye on whether  Australia would close  its borders.  We wondered if we would  be able to finish our trip. The Europeans that  we meet still thought that they could  keep on travelling between countries. The possibility of  Australia and New Zealand closing their borders was considered to be remote. 

Read more

Over time, this minor weblog has evolved  from being  a Leica snapshot blog into one  about visual poetics in photography. Based on using a 1980s  film Leica rangefinder camera  this  approach  stands in contrast to the Leica being associated with, and traditionally used for,  photojournalism and urban street photography in the 20th century.  Recall black-and-white and Henri  Cartier-Bresson, Robert Frank  or Lee Friedlander.  

My  equipment is simple: a hand held  Leica  M4-P camera,  a standard Leica 50mm Summicron lens, a basic handheld lightmeter,  and Kodak Portra 400 ASA film  with  the negatives  processed  in C41 by a commercial lab and then scanned by me using a  little Plustek  Opticfilm 8100 scanner. The post processing, which  is done in Adobe  Lightroom  6, is minimal.  It is basic technology with the construction  of the image is done in camera. 

This image of the Balcanoona shearing shed in  the Vulkathunha-Gammon Ranges National Park in South Australia when  I was there in the winter of 2021,  is an example of my approach.      

Though I struggle  to make poetic images I  often wondered what poetic photography  means,  or refers to.   People usually say that poetics is the opposite of documentary and that it is a  form of  art photography and so  distinct from photojournalism. That doesn't get us very far since  it just identifies a genre of photography that is deemed to be experimental and  outside the constrictions  and the traditional structures of photography. 

Read more

I visited Whakaari/White Island  in the Bay of Plenty,  prior to attending Photobook/NZ  in Wellington in 2018. 

Suzanne and I were on a weeks holiday in the North Island,  which included exploring the GeoThermal Highway.  White Island was where we started the exploration. After the holiday  Suzanne then went on to  walk the Grand Traverse  in the South Island,  whilst I stayed in an Air BnB in  the Te Aro Valley  in  Wellington. I spend the  week walking  and photographing around the city for the Reconnections project.    

I could only go to White Island in a party  organised by the local  tourist operators at Whakatane.  I was lucky to make  it to island,   due to a cyclone that had swept across this part of the island a couple of weeks earlier.  It   flooded  the Whakatane River,  littered the mouth of the river  with  the trunks and branches  of trees upstream,  and made the swells around the island too dangerous  for the boats to  land. 

Read more

This picture was made in March 2018 when  I was walking Wellington, New Zealand,  for a week or so whilst Suzanne was hiking the Grand Traverse in Fiordland over six days. 

The photo was made  just prior to my return trip to Wellington in order to  attend the Photobook/NZ event. At the time I was staying in an Airbnb in the Te Aro Valley whilst I photographed in  Wellington,  and I would walk past the small group of shops in the Te Aro Valley to get to the CBD. 

This poster/flag--I couldn't  tell which from the street -- was in the window of a house  in the main street of Te Aro Valley. I have to admit being rather surprised, puzzled, then taken back to see this support for Trump  in this part of Wellington. 

Read more