Feathermark® is the name of my Blue Mountains studio. It’s where I carry out post capture work, print my photographs, and importantly, have one-on-one time with Jasper.
Exhibitions and dilemmas
In the last few years I’ve pursued projects about the social and environmental dilemmas we face, often so interconnected. Two projects have been particularly meaningful for me, they’ve given me the confidence to keep going in this vein with my photography.
First there’s Business Not Usual, a series of small business owners in my community during the pandemic shutdown. I got to know them at a different level, often just listening to their unimaginable situations as I shot the photographs. I’ve come away with new friendships, more attached to this community than I was before. The exhibition is coming in the winter of 2021 (one year later…) at the Blue Mountains Cultural Centre Katoomba, a perfect place for them to hang. It’s turned out this is an exhibition of their stories – intimate yet indicative of so many everywhere.
The other project is Broken Stories: a Road Trip from the Blue Mountains to Broken Hill. This is a series of photographs from 2018, before any rain hit the dry dry soil of communities in Far West NSW. Broken Stories was a collaborative project with good friend and artist, Scott Pollock, so a shared experience. Our works hung during February-March 2020 at Braemar House Springwood, and it resonated even more than I had expected. Time and again visitors lingered, told me what the photographs meant to them, as they had also lived or experienced the NSW desert. They knew all about that kind of drought.
Historical places
In recent years I’ve also worked on projects at historically significant sites: Everglades Historic House & Gardens (Blue Mountains) and Retford Park (Southern Highlands). Both are National Trust of Australia (NSW) properties. In my view, these two exemplify why we need to care about what came before, the importance of conserving places of heritage. I’ve had the privilege of photographing them, from the houses and gardens available to the public, to hidden corners and structures that go unseen.
Years ago I studied and taught the history of art and architecture at the University of Toronto. The love for the past and its stories goes on, still draws me in.
ARY
From 2017, I’ve also collaborated with a creative group based at Retford Park called Artists of the Round Yard Inc., or simply ARY. It’s named for the magnificent Fairfax round building on site where we often exhibit. We’ve got new things coming, when we can get past this time of the virus.
Jasper
Assistant, Office Mate, Aide-de-Camp
Jasper is Feathermark’s loyal Office and Location Assistant.
He is especially valued for his eagerness and [dogged] determination in his pursuit of work-life balance.
Here’s Jasper watching over my gear at a shoot (demonstrating his loyalty), he prefers to do so from an elevation.
An excellent companion.
The way I work… treading very lightly
I think about everything I do in my photography practice and the impact on the environment, whether in the studio, or on location somewhere. I’ve had Feathermark’s carbon footprint measured twice. I take it seriously, and tread very lightly.
I also fund tree planting through the not for profit organisation, Trees For Life. It’s simply a donation to reforest Australia in a managed, sustainable way. I plant a tree for works in exhibition, and one for each photograph that leaves my studio.
Since the bushfires of 2019/20 (as close as 4 km from my studio!), I’ve upped it. We’ve lost an estimated 80% of the Blue Mountains World Heritage area, and then there’s all the other fire affected communities. For the record, I’ve checked, my tree donations are OK. See more on what I do.
