WAR OF THE ROSES

Brunswick vs Venice Beach.

But who will win?

NYC pt1

I've just returned from twelve fun filled days in New York City. Man, I love that place so much. The impetus to head there this time, not that I need much encouragement, was Last Ride played at MoMA as part of  Adelaide Produces, a programme curated of films that have been produced with the assistance of the Adelaide Film Festival. I've been lucky enough to accompany the film to many great places around the world over the last year and half but this screening was very special indeed. Last Ride is unapologetically an 'art house' film, and MoMA is arguably one of THE greatest of art houses! Here, the audiences were really appreciative, their questions and comments afterwards were encouraging and insightful. It was a great experience all round. I think NY is the one city in the world other than Melbourne, where I feel at 'home'. When I'm there I feel as though every moment, on every street, holds the potential for something amazing to happen. A good friend described New York as 'Disneyland for Adults'. It's such an apt description. I love the way how you can have no real plan but just set off in a direction and you will soon stumble upon something great. Whether it be some incredible architectural, retail or gastronomic experience, strange and wonderful people or being drawn to the details and the incidental moments of beauty that spontaneously jump out while strolling block after glorious block.

LA pt 3 ' The Lookout'

Griffith Observatory. Cool place to watch the big light fade down and all the little lights fade up.

LA pt 2 'The Cars that ate venice'

I'm not really into cars, but somewhere along the line I got hooked on taking photos of all the cool old cars in and around Venice. I had to stop myself from doing it though because you could spend your whole life taking photos of cool cars in L.A.

LA LA pt 1

Currently in L.A. on route to New York where Last Ride is screening at The Museum of Modern Art! More on that later... Also I've recently signed to SKUNK here in L.A for commercial representation in the U.S, so it has been a good opportunity to meet the team face to face and not via skype. SKUNK has a great roster of directors, including fellow aussie John Hillcoat (The Road, The Proposition) and one of my favorite Belgian directors Koen Mortier who made a great film Ex Drummer a couple of years back (Such a freaky film, so wrong but so right. Watch the first 5 minutes here.).

I've only been to L.A a few times, but each time it creeps a little more under my skin. I can see why some people love it and some people hate it. Even though I find it a pretty tricky place at times, I'm really starting to like the place and all the possibility it holds.

Nat (below) is travelling with me and this is the first time we have been 'child free' for a long while. It's a good time. Of course we are missing the kids, but it's so good to spending  some quality time together!

Love In Hi-Def

Shot with the new Arri Alexa for the first time last week... I think I'm in love.

The Red is dead.

Adalita

I want to send a shout out to my friend Adalita who is currently touring for her debut solo release simply titled 'Adalita'. Both Adalita and her former band Magic Dirt have been a huge inspiration to me over the years, and I'm very excited about her taking the very brave step forward and releasing music as a solo artist. Adalita has created a very special album. Intimate, raw, powerful and deeply personal as the record explores some of the emotional territory she has traversed since the sad death of her former band mate and best friend Dean Turner.

I was really blown away when I first heard the music. Adalita came over for dinner and afterwards we sat in the lounge and listened to an un-mastered copy of the album. I respect Ad for being so open and direct in the way she has made this record. It's such an honest and sincere document both sonically and in it's content.

I took the photographed above of Adalita (click for larger version) late last year. As it's her voice that features so predominately on the album, I really wanted to take a photo of her 'throat', as well as try and show some of the turbulence of her life over the past 12 months. The whole album is pretty much just Ad's voice mixed above her trademark dirty distorted guitar (like it was originally a full tilt rock album, but the rest of the band has been turned down and you are just left with Adalita's tracks), I'm moved by the simplicity of the arrangements, which are almost minimalist at times, and yet they constantly reveal ideas far more complex.

Check out Adalita here on iTunes.

Here endith the raving.

The weekend

Spent the weekend camping in Gembrook, Victoria. So lush amongst the trees and sleeping under the 'supermoon'...

LAST WEEK

(R)ADELAIDE pt2

While in Adelaide I saw the premiere of four upcoming Australian features, all of them worthwhile in their own unique way. Mrs Clareys Concert, Here I Am by Bec Cole (couldn't find a web link), Snowtown by Justin Kurzel (more on this later perhaps) and Hail a film by my friend Amiel Courtin-Wilson. I was lucky to be on set a few times taking photographs and I really loved seeing the way Amiel worked with a very small crew in an intimate and inspiring way. Despite the fact the film was shown as a 'work in progress', with some work still to do, it was still an amazingly pure piece of cinema. On this night it was such a pleasure to watch Amiel and crew celebrate what has been a difficult and all consuming process for them all. As we all clambered into the wee small hours it reminded me of the extreme sense of accomplishment that comes from just completing a film. Well before and regardless of the real world markers of box office, reviews, festivals and awards. Just getting it 'finished', with credits tacked on the front and back and flickering on a big screen in the dark is enough and worth celebrating in itself.

Congrats Amiel!

Valentine

I have quite a few childhood memories of sitting bored in the back seat of Dads car, pulled over on the side of the road, with the emergency lights 'ticking'. And Dad off in the trees trying to get a photo of something he had just seen. "You cant go past a 'white wooden bridge' if you want a good photo!" I think that may have been my fathers only aesthetic advice passed onto me over the years. Dad would also often stop along side countless rose gardens and squint into his heavy chrome Minolta and 'click' for what felt like hours. I'm worried some of it has rubbed off though. As I scan through my aperture folders and see how many random shots I have taken of roses and flowers, some of which you'll see on these pages. All the old school roses are in full bloom in and around Brunswick where I live, I'm so tempted to pull over and photograph them all, but resist through the fear of becoming too much like my Dad.

I did take a few snaps of these ones though...

Happy Valentines Natalie!

AT MIKES

UP NORTH

Tamworth and Nambucca (and a single cloud below from Morewell)

Thanks Chuck

"The advice I like to give young artists, or really anybody who’ll listen to me, is not to wait around for inspiration. Inspiration is for amateurs; the rest of us just show up and get to work. If you wait around for the clouds to part and a bolt of lightning to strike you in the brain, you are not going to make an awful lot of work. All the best ideas come out of the process; they come out of the work itself. Things occur to you. If you’re sitting around trying to dream up a great art idea, you can sit there a long time before anything happens. But if you just get to work, something will occur to you and something else will occur to you and somthing else that you reject will push you in another direction. Inspiration is absolutely unnecessary and somehow deceptive. You feel like you need this great idea before you can get down to work, and I find that’s almost never the case." Chuck Close

(via JMc's FB status update)

There's a story on every corner

This clip has been doing the rounds a bit, but I think it's a great reminder that stories (and characters for those stories) are found in the most unexpected places at the most unexpected times. I wonder if this guys '15 minutes' will help him get off the street and into a recording booth somewhere. I hope so.