The Monster Children photo issue came our last year, so I’m a bit behind with putting this up. The book is a wonderfully curated selection of images by photographers from all around the world and I was excited they included two of my photos.
One is the Thugs Against Drugs car from LA I put up here a while back and the other is of a strange and beautiful diving platform I saw while in Vladivostok, Russia.
On the weekend I watched this wonderful hour long docco about the Magnum photographers agency. I love these guys (who doesn’t?), apart from producing incredible work I think most the photographers possess special magical powers. Watch in the opening sequence how Martin Parr approaches some elderly women on the street, where one would imagine a group like this would be upset with a stranger coming up and taking close-up photos of them, Martin seems to have them under a spell from the second he takes the first frame. Amazing.
Similarly Larry Towell (at around 4mins 30 secs), take photos of Mennonite farmers, the amazing thing here is seeing the footage that the documentary crew shoots, which is great, but the ‘photo’ Tony shoots of essentially the same scene is so incredibly beautiful, it’s like it was taken at a totally different time and place. Magic!
I love watching this process (some more of it here), it’s like watching a type of alchemy take place before your eyes.
Spoiler Alert: Special appearance by Henri Cartier-Bresson in the final sequence. Giving the film a poetic and playful climax as only H C-B could.
As I’m deep in the heart of watching Series 4 right now, I loved stumbling across this fan cut montage of a lot of the POV shots from Breaking Bad. I never realised this type of camera positioning was such a recurring beat throughout the show. But it’s reminded me it’s definitely one of the defining elements of the shows visual style.
While driving back down south towards Melbourne, we passed near Gosford, so I thought I’d best drop in and have a cup of tea with my Dad.
I lived in this house for a couple of years when I was 11 and I’ve only visited a couple of times since. There are a lot of memories here, both good and bad. It was good to see my Dad though.
Back from 3500kms of family road trip fun. Xmas good. New Years good. Country air, ocean air, afternoon naps and eating and drinking way to much with family and friends.
Watched a screener of Dragonslayer the other night. A vérité documentary about ‘free spirited’ skateboarder Josh ‘Screech’ Sandoval. The film creates a cinematic portrait so rough and ready, yet so pure and intimate. To be honest, it’s the sort of film that makes me want to give up film making altogether because it’s the kind I have always wanted to make, and here it is, made. Well not quite… but it’s a film that both inspires me and frustrates me in the best possible ways.
The other thing that Dragonslayer does well is give you incredible access into a very ‘specific world’. I’ve seen many ‘skate films’ and films with skateboarders as characters, but none have given this kind of access into the lifestyles of this subcultures most hard-core players.
It’s such a beautifully poetic and fucked up punk of a film.
