OUR PERSONAL CHOICES THIS MONTH
8XMAR16
Issue 002 - Words from the Editor
Wow.
The first month of our self-declared 'year of publishing' has already come to an end; and I don't know what the others expected, but the number of readers we had for our January edition was - to me, at least - off the charts. So thank you, our viewers & commenters, our Twitterati, our Facebookeristas - we couldn't do this without you.
I'm really proud of this collective, and the work we've gathered together this month. When we put out the January issue, I wondered how on earth we could possibly follow that, improve on it - but I think we have, and then some.
The essays in our second issue revolve around a theme that's very familiar to me; 2016 marks twenty years of my living in another country than where I grew up. The sense of being a stranger in a strange land is one I'm now well acquainted with.
After fifteen years in New Zealand, and now just over three in Australia, it's been a long time since I've had that sense of ease that comes with knowing a place instinctively, naturally understanding the systems at play, knowing you're part of the culture.
To be honest, I do kinda enjoy the fish out of water feeling; but I'm always aware of it. There's always a vague sense that maybe I'm wrong about something, perhaps I'm making assumptions based on how things worked elsewhere; so with that in mind recently, I went looking for others like me.
Well, a bit like me, at least - Kiwis, from my adopted country - but also finding their way, and making a life, here in Australia.
And that's what became our theme for February, as it turns out. Home, and away. Belonging, and not belonging. Searching for the essential nature of a place, and of the people in it.
It's been my pleasure to assemble this month's edition for you; whether you're interested in the technique and tools of what we do, or the people and stories we find out here in the world, I hope there's something you connect with, that surprises you.
So - what are you still doing here? Get reading, and enjoy!
Cheers from Sydney,
Robert Catto
Nothingness
Text and photography by Flemming Bo Jensen
"Tired. The sort of tired sleep cannot fix. Broken. Everything I know is wrong. Must keep driving".
My words from half a decade ago. The road promised new experiences at the time. Empty promises perhaps, but it was something at a time when all hope was lost. A promise of a better tomorrow? An illusion? I had to keep moving. When I stopped the shadows caught me.
I stare at the edge. I know this place. I am visiting an old friend. I called it home for decades. Part of me never came back. Part of me is still out there wandering, freefalling into insanity.
In Wet Chaos of Shinjuku
Text and photography by Patrick La Roque
"Piss off!" he says "We're not here for that...we're not here for that!"
Hollering prince hustlers of black phantom clouds & alleys
We're here to drown man
We're here to wallow & thrust in technicolor lightning neon
Watch compressed masses assemble, watch arcade dramas unfold
Watch & watch & watch some more.
Three piece suit throwing up on pavement shoes heretic friend laughing his ass off
Hands on fire in a hallowed rain
Pouring
Wild & unstable as dynamite.
We want long legs around our necks
Trapped in the 50mm eye
Of sunless days & immaculate shut downs.
Drenched maniacs fighting off furies
To rise
& rise & ride
In wet chaos
Of Shinjuku.
Landscapes of Memory II
Text and photography by Charlene Winfred
“You read enough books in which people like you are disposable, or are dirt, or are silent, absent, or worthless, and it makes an impact on you. Because art makes the world, because it matters, because it makes us. Or breaks us.”
This is the space in between the hallowed and the sacrificial.
History, the ligature of memory; that which gives life, and sucks it out of the marrow. A spectre hounding you in the night.
Terror.
Self.
Home.
Gone ... Fishing
TEXT AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY BERT STEPHANI
Lisbon, Portugal
Only half a century ago, over seven hundred carpenters, engineers, electricians, boiler makers, painters and other workers, serviced a fleet of twenty five fishing vessels for the Companhia Portuguesa de Pescas. Worldwide competition and technological evolutions made the company close it’s doors in the eighties. Less than a hundred years after the company was founded, all that is left is beautiful decay and some former employees who guard the spirit of this place with nothing but their weathered silent faces and their fishing rods.
Essentielles
Text and photography by Vincent Baldensperger
Clémence et Julien partagent la même passion, la Nature. Ici et là, de la Montagne Noire aux massifs de la Corse, elle distille ses parfums selon les saisons et offre ses richesses à ces deux amoureux des grands espaces. Cueillette sauvage, distillation traditionnelle, leur savoir-faire est précieux, tout autant que les élixirs rares recueillis tout au long de l'année.
Automne sur le massif de La Clape, souffle parfumé d'aromates sauvages, la récolte artisanale de romarin débute sous un soleil toujours estival.
Clémence and Julien share a passion: Nature. Here and there, from the Black Mountain to the summits of Corsica she distills her fragrances with each passing season, offering her riches to these lovers of the wide-open spaces. Wild picking, traditional distillment, their knowledge is as precious as the rare elixirs harvested throughout the year.
Autumn on La Clape, a wind laden with wild scents, the harvest of rosemary begins under a sun still hinting at summer.
Décembre 2015, solstice, en plein cœur de la Montagne Noire, chacun recueille avec adresse quelques kilos de sapin blanc et profite pendant quelques heures de délicates senteurs agrumes et boisées...
December 2015. Solstice in the heart of the Black Mountain. Each collects a few kilos of white pine, enjoys a few hours of citrus and woodsy fragrances...
Waitangi Day, Sydney
Waitangi Day, 6 February, celebrates the anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi between the Crown and 500 Māori chiefs in 1840, which - depending on the translation - allowed the English to remain in Aotearoa and act as administrators for the new country, or else handed sovereignty of the islands to Queen Victoria. The political history of New Zealand since then has revolved around the difference between those two versions of the one agreement.
So when I heard about the celebrations here in Sydney, I wondered what it would be like to celebrate this national day in another country - Australia - with a different history. And I wondered how the Tangata Whenua - 'the people of the land' - fit in, and celebrated their culture, on someone else's turf...
Humanity
Text and photography by Kevin Mullins
My role as a member of Kage is slightly different to the others. I'm a storyteller, sure, but almost all of my commercial storytelling comes within the framework of a wedding celebration.
Many of my contemporaries in this [wedding] industry place total importance, and perhaps rightly so, on technical skill and their ambition is driven by the perfect picture.
I'm less worried by all of that.
Sure, I understand Light, Composition and Moment make an award winning picture.
Sure, I understand a crop at a knee can add ambiguity to a frame.
Sure, I understand even a minuscule of blown out highlight will guarantee an image will never win an award.
I've had several epiphanies in my short life as a photographer; the epiphany that I don't need large cameras being one of the most prominent.
However, a long time ago I had another epiphany (of sorts). To a certain extent my work has always been about the non-technical. Its about humanity and humanities constituent parts; human interaction, love, laughter, silent contact, emotion......love.....love.....humanity.
Humanity
hjʊˈmanɪti
the quality of being humane; benevolence.
"he praised them for their standards of humanity and care"
synonyms: compassion, brotherly love, fellow feeling, humaneness, kindness, kind-heartedness, consideration, understanding, sympathy, tolerance, goodness, good-heartedness, gentleness, leniency, mercy, mercifulness, pity, tenderness, benevolence, charity, generosity, magnanimity
All of the images below have been assaulted by other photographers and judges, generally based on their technical mis-merits (and they are correct). They have each failed catastrophically in high level photographic competitions.
The truth is they are not technically great, but they were never going to be. If I was to stage these moments well, then, these moments would never have occurred. How sad would that be?
Light, composition, moment?
Moment first, for me, at least.
First Impressions of the Fujifilm X70
Text and photography by Bert Stephani
It was over two years ago, when some people at Fujifilm Japan told me about the idea to make a camera that would essentially be the smaller brother of the X100-series. I must admit that I wasn’t really sold on the idea of such a camera at first. It was only a couple of weeks ago, when I got a little play with a prototype X70 in Japan, that it started to make sense. For the last few days I have been playing with a production version and I will do a complete review after my upcoming trip to Cuba. For now, I just want to give you my first impressions.
The very first thing that came to my mind when I held the X70 in my hand was: “this camera will fit in my jeans pocket” and that’s exactly the reason why I immediately pre-ordered one. Until now the X100T and the X30 were my always-with-me-cameras. The X100T was just a touch too big for the job and the X30 didn’t have the excellent large X-Trans sensor. The X70 is not that much smaller than the X100T but unless you like skinny jeans, it fits in a decent size trousers pocket and it has the big sensor.
The X70 definitely shares its DNA with the X100T. As far as I know it has the same sensor and feature set as it’s big brother but it’s considerably smaller and a lot cheaper. This of course means that some compromises had to be made: the X70 has no viewfinder, the build quality is not as refined as on the premium X100T and the lens is a stop slower at f/2.8 (and a bit wider with it’s 28mm equivalent focal length). To me, none of these are true deal breakers, especially for a compact always-with-me-camera. Just know that it’s not an X100T.
The articulating screen is a great feature of the X70. It’s ideal for shooting inconspicuously from all kinds of creative angles. It’s also the first X-camera with a touch screen. You can focus, shoot or both with a tap on the screen or you can just turn off the touch function altogether. In playback mode you can swipe through images and pinch to zoom. Currently that’s all you can do with the touch screen but I imagine more touch features could be added through firmware updates.
The screen flips up completely for selfies with your ladybug daughter
The X70 has all the manual and advanced functions of a real photographer's camera but there’s also an auto-switch on the top-plate that turns the camera into a foolproof snapshot machine. Not a function that serious photographers will use a lot maybe, but now at least you can hand the camera over to non-photographer friends and family members. Now my eight year old daughter can take artsy pictures of earthworms.
So far, I’ve been having a lot of fun with the X70. I’ll be giving it a proper workout in Cuba in a couple of days and I’ll report back after the trip. In the gallery bellow you’ll find some random shots with the X70.
