The last couple of weeks

As I was lying in bed last night, I composed a truly charming blog entry, but unfortunately I didnt get up to write it, instead I thought I would remember.... Well we all know how that goes..., so today I am falling over every word and sentences seem to be too long to make sense - but I will try anyway.
Last week I had the pleasure to fly to New Zealand for a workshop with Todd Hido and Bruce Gilden, who unfortunately couldn't make it. Instead Paul Graham was kind enough to interrupt his holiday and drop in for a morning session. I enjoy listening artists talk about their work, learn about their process - how they make sense of their pictures and ultimately learn something about them. I have always enjoyed Paul's bleached out "American Night" but I never really understood the relationship in that series. Hearing him speak about his work I have gained a valuable insight into his image making, editing and exhibiting process. Harvey Benge who organised this workshop along with Neil Cameron shared with us his passion on publishing and presented some of his published books.
But I would like to return to Todd Hido - I discovered his website maybe two years ago and was instantly in love with his images along with the text by A. M. Homes. It is funny how we are drawn to images we are ultimately aiming to achieve. I have been looking at his new book "A road divided" for about forever, but havnt had the funds to purchase it yet. It is on top of the list which seems to be getting constantly longer and longer.
Todd is a very generous and gracious teacher and seeing his contact sheets, plus hearing him talk about his work, you get a sense of his passion, which translate into stunning images - which over the next few years (in my humble opinion) will sky rocket. He is currently showing "Fragmented Narratives" at Silverstein I believe an absolute must go to exhibition if you are in NY (January 06 - February 12). Wish I was, but I am as far as one can get from NY.

At the workshop we had the opportunity to look through lots of books and my two absolute favorite were Alec Soth "Broken Manual" and Todd Hido's "A road divided". They are both stunning in their execution, luxuriate, designed with lots of care and elegance. You simple never want to let them out of your hands. They both use high quality paper, the images are enchanting and captivating and the concept an adventure. "Broken Manual" comes with a price tag of $950 - which unfortunately is out of my reach, to ever own such a book, so it was bliss to hold it in my hands.

Another bonus was to got to know some amazing NZ artists and I hope to share their work here over the coming weeks.

Finally I would like to thank Regional Arts Victoria and the lovely people who work there - for supporting me with a grant and make this workshop in NZ possible. Without this grant, I would not have been able to go to workshop, learn about the art of photography, editing and hopefully finding a way to get my images in front of more people.