Innholdsfortegnelse for June - August 2023 i Photo Review

As neologisms go, I think “synthography” is as good a term as any to describe the photo-esque images produced by the rapidly proliferating machine-learning systems (AIs) such as DALL• E 2 and Midjourney. The emergence of synthography has ignited discussions about the evolving nature of photography, the meaning of authenticity in image-making, and the boundaries between different forms of visual expression. Authenticity in photography can be as complex as the truthful expression of an artist’s perspective or as barebones as a mere factual record of an event or scene. Differentiating between these near-polarities is daunting, to say the least. Synthography can look identical to photography. It is shaped by such features of the medium as depth-of-field, lens focal length, light angles, aperture, sensor or film characteristics, and so on because…

Why visit? The Stick Shed in Murtoa, Victoria (previously known as the Murtoa No. 1 Grain Store) is the only remaining emergency grain store built during World War II. One of a number erected to store a wheat glut during the late 1930s when access to the main overseas markets to Britain and Western Europe was restricted by the war, it is the only remaining shed of this type in Australia. Although it may look unimpressive on the outside, when you step into The Stick Shed its cathedral-like structure is breathtaking. At 265 metres long, 60 metres wide, almost 20 metres high at its apex, it covers an area of 16,000 square metres. The building has an interesting history to complement its complex structure. When a potentially large 1941-2 Victorian…

Sharp photos start when the picture is taken. The subject must be in focus and the camera must be still enough to prevent camera shake. Each shot requires the photographer to decide where the plane of sharp focus should lie and whether it should be wide or narrow. This is basic shooting technique. Holding your camera properly (including cradling the lens with your left hand) and gently squeezing down the shutter button and holding your breath during exposures increases your chances of getting sharp pictures. Stabilised cameras and lenses will tilt the odds in your favour. It’s also important to choose where to focus and what aperture to use for the desired depth of field, as outlined in our feature on pages 40 to 44. Even when all requirements have…

It’s clear from your photography and drone work that you have a deep understanding of the wilds of northern Australia, particularly the Kimberley region. What’s the background to that? I grew up in the 1980s in Wyndham, the northernmost town in Western Australia. Both my parents worked at the meatworks there when it was one of the largest in the Southern Hemisphere. Until it closed in 1985, Wyndham had markets, parades, dancing balls, horse races, a speedway… It was a bustling town. We continued living there until 1990 in what had been a meatworks house while my dad worked for a fuel distribution company. My friends and I had great fun playing in, on, and around the derelict meatworks after school, in the freezer rooms, the kitchen, using ladders to…

A photo of this house, taken by Australian landscape photographer Ken Duncan, is featured on the cover of Midnight Oil’s 1987 album Diesel and Dust. That image launched the 1920s farmhouse onto many ‘must visit’ lists. The house is on the Barrier Highway, about 3 km north of Burra in South Australia. It is a location that can make for wonderful photography where the colours change with the seasons, from dry and golden grass to green and any colour in between. My first photo of this visit was taken at 4:26 pm and the last at 6:49 pm. In that time I captured 111 photos. It was the most intense and exhilarating two-and-a-half hours I have ever spent with a camera. The time passed so quickly. Shooting note All photos…

‘She was leaning on one of her old post-and-rail fences,’ Martina Gemmola said, ‘looking over her farm, wearing her little hat made from a tea cosy. My grandparents were very resourceful and creative in their own way. My Pop made braces out of old seat belts and insulated his coat with newspaper to keep warm on the farm. He was a poet, ceramicist, and collector of oddities, as well as a sheep farmer. In the photograph that I took of my Nana, she’s resting on the timber, just surveying her land, and she’s just got this really beautiful, gentle look on her face.’ At the time, Martina was in year 11 at a small, rural high school not far from the Grampians in western Victoria. She’d grown up in the…

Untitled By Cliff Samson Olympus EM1 II; 12-40mm f2.8 lens; 1/3200s; f/6.3; ISO 200, 40mm Motuariki Island, Lake Tekapo South Island, New Zealand. The weather this day was atrocious. I persevered however and was rewarded with this sight. The sheer drama of the overall image, enhanced by the cloud hanging ominously over the small island, made battling the weather conditions well worth it. Don’s response Nothing like a bit of proper weather to get things going photographically. This is an exceptional conjunction of elements. First, there is that extraordinary cloud, seemingly hovering over the inky black forest of the island, then there is the windblown surface of the lake, looking like a sheet of hammered silver, and finally there are the jagged, cloud-wreathed peaks which are putting on their own…