Here it is, Flaming Youth, a book of my photographs from Puberty Blues.
Available in two flavours.
1. Hardcover, 100 pages (AUD$75.00+p) HERE
2. eBook, 100 pages (AUD$4.99) HERE
I started documenting the making of the show from the start. Like visual notes the photographs became part of the process of discovery of how the series would look and feel. From casting and location scouting to scene ideas, documenting a colour or how the light looked at a certain time of day. What worked, what didn’t. Portraits of actors I admire deeply. The people, places and things that make up the texture and tone of Puberty Blues.
Most of the time the photos were taken in the moments just before ‘Action!’ was called. Or in-between 'takes' to maintain focus and momentum throughout the stop / start rhythm of shooting. Brenna Harding (Sue) called it ‘the gap’. That small amount of precious time just before the cameras roll. I would sometimes take a quick shot just as that moment of transformation would take place, from 'actor' to 'character'.
Sometimes the photo would become the key on how to shoot a scene. A way of trying to find the essence, or a reduction to a single image. An attempt to find stillness in and amongst the chaos of a film shoot.
From the foreword, written by Alice Bell... This book is not a behind the scenes look at Puberty Blues (2012). It’s much quieter than that. It’s as if we’ve been invited to visit a world within the world of Puberty Blues. A place where these characters live and breathe. In Glendyn’s gentle and collaborative way he has captured moments that otherwise might have slipped away, a fleeting glimpse of untamed innocence found somewhere between the sunlight and the shadows.