Archive for the ‘Speaking on Photography’ Category
2022 WORLDWIDE PINHOLE DAY – Our images
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ON THE LAST SUNDAY IN APRIL pinhole photographers across the world gather together as individuals or groups to celebrate pinhole photography in all its forms.
This year for the first time in many years we find ourselves in a place that we call home. On this warm sunny April morning we connected with fellow Benalla artist, Maggie Hollins, and found joy in pinhole play on Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day.
We met in the Benalla Botanic Gardens renown for its rose garden, cricket field, the lake and the Benalla Art Gallery. The Gardens and surrounds are a popular place for locals to picnic, exercise, canoe or just hang out.
This is the 16th year we have supported the WPPD project!
SEE LINKS to our other submissions at the end of this Post.
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WHAT IS WORLDWIDE PINHOLE PHOTOGRAPHY DAY ALL ABOUT?
From the Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day website introduction:
All the photographs in this extraordinary collection share two common characteristics: (1) they are lensless photographs (2) they were all made on April 24, 2022.
They also share an additional and less formal characteristic: the sincere enthusiasm of their creators who, by participating in this collective event, shared individual visions and techniques. Hence the amazing diversity of subjects, cameras, techniques and photographic materials combined in this exhibit!
The process is that photographs are made on April 24 > they are processed / optimised by the photographer > uploaded and captioned on the WPPD website. The 2022 Gallery of images can be searched to see what photographers from around the world did on that day…
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VICTORIA’s PINHOLE IMAGE: DAY DREAMING
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ABOUT VICKY’S PINHOLE IMAGE: DAY DREAMING
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A beautiful Autumn day beside the Benalla Art Gallery and lake.
OTHER IMAGES BY VICKY:
VICKY’s DIGI-PINHOLE CAMERA

Vicky’s Pinhole Olympus Pen
Camera Olympus Pen: 1/90 @2500 ISO the pinhole is made with a camera body cap and a handmade pinhole in pie tin foil.
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DOUG’s PINHOLE IMAGE: WALKING THE DOGS
ABOUT DOUG’S PINHOLE IMAGE:
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This year I wandered as a free-ranging spirit on a bright sunny day through my local botanic garden. Spontaneously I responded to the subjects that emerged into my line of sight…
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SOME OF DOUG’s OTHER IMAGES
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DOUG’s DIGI-PINHOLE CAMERA
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My pinhole was a readymade found in our pinhole workshop toolbox – capture device a digital Canon 6D operated around ISO 6000 with a S/S of 60th part of a second.
Visit the WWPD Site for details of other submissions: http://pinholeday.org/
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VIEW 16 YEARS OF PAST WPPD iMAGES:
2021 Doug+Vicky https://wordpress.com/post/wotwedid.com/12227
2020 Doug+Vicky https://wotwedid.com/2020/05/13/2020-worldwide-pinhole-day-26-april-our-images/
2019 Doug+Vicky https://wotwedid.com/2019/04/29/2019-worldwide-pinhole-day-28-april-our-images/
2018 Doug+Vicky https://wotwedid.com/2018/04/29/2018-worldwide-pinhole-day-29-april-our-images/
2016 Doug: http://www.pinholeday.org/index.php?id=1235
2016 Vicky: http://www.pinholeday.org/index.php?id=1540
2015 https://wotwedid.com/2015/05/04/april-26-worldwide-pinhole-day-our-contributions-for-2015/
2014 Vicky’s http://pinholeday.org/gallery/2014/index.php?id=1810&City=Toowoomba
2014 Doug’s http://pinholeday.org/gallery/2014/index.php?id=1811&City=Toowoomba
2013 https://wotwedid.com/2013/04/29/world-pinhole-photography-day-our-contribution/
2012 http://www.pinholeday.org/gallery/2012/index.php?id=1937&searchStr=spowart
2011 http://www.pinholeday.org/gallery/2011/index.php?id=924
HERE IS THE LINK to the 2011 pinhole video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yk4vnbzTqOU
2010 http://www.pinholeday.org/gallery/2010/index.php?id=2464&Country=Australia&searchStr=spowart
2006 http://www.pinholeday.org/gallery/2006/index.php?id=1636&Country=Australia&searchStr=cooper
2004 Vicky http://www.pinholeday.org/gallery/2004/index.php?id=1553&Country=Australia&searchStr=cooper
2004 Doug http://www.pinholeday.org/gallery/2004/index.php?id=1552&Country=Australia&searchStr=spowart
2003 http://www.pinholeday.org/gallery/2003/index.php?id=615&Country=Australia&searchStr=spowart
2002 http://www.pinholeday.org/gallery/2002/index.php?id=826&Country=Australia&searchStr=spowart
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2021 WORLDWIDE PINHOLE DAY – Our images

WWPD 2021 LOGO
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Around the [w]hole world on Sunday April 25, 20201pinholers were out having fun – Making their images for the 2021 Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day.
This year – still in Toowoomba we’ve been working on projects and supporting family. Once again, far away from the darkroom, we’ve fitted a piece of aluminium with a light admitting pin-prick to the body cap of our Olympus Pen camera and braved the parkland at the end of our street. Recently we uploaded our images with a detailed caption to the WPPD website to add to the contributions from Australian pinholers and many more from around the world.
This is the 17th year we have supported the WPPD project!
SEE LINKS to our other submissions at the end of this Post.
WHAT IS WORLDWIDE PINHOLE PHOTOGRAPHY DAY ALL ABOUT?
From the Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day website introduction
All the photographs in this extraordinary collection share two common characteristics: (1) they are lensless photographs (2) they were all made on April 25, 2021.
They also share an additional and less formal characteristic: the sincere enthusiasm of their creators who, by participating in this collective event, shared individual visions and techniques. Hence the amazing diversity of subjects, cameras, techniques and photographic materials combined in this exhibit!
The process is that photographs are made on April 25 > they are processed / optimised by the photographer > uploaded and captioned on the WPPD website. The 2021 Gallery of images can be searched to see what photographers from around the world did on that day…
Here’s the website page of the Australian pinhole photographer’s works:

WPPD 2021 Australian submissions @ May 11, 2021
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VICTORIA’s PINHOLE IMAGE: AFTERNOON WALK

Victoria Cooper’s Evening walk pinhole photo
ABOUT VICKY’S PINHOLE IMAGE:
We pass by these trees everyday… I decided to take pinhole photos of our walk as I enjoy the way they transform these everyday places into a kind of poem, not distinct nor descriptive just evocative.
DOUG’s PINHOLE IMAGE: TREE HOUSE

Tree House a pinhole image by Doug Spowart
ABOUT DOUG’S PINHOLE IMAGE:
I chose the late afternoon to go out and make images as the low light angle and the deep shadows add drama and mystery to pinholes made at this time.
Over recent years I have continued to choose a digital camera and aluminium pie dish with a pin prick in it. Wet darkrooms and film, although it suited the zone plates of landscape that I made are beyond my current means – perhaps next year…
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OUR Digi-PINHOLE CAMERA

The Cooper+Spowart digi OLYMPUS PEN with pinhole …
This is a converted digital Olympus Pen, shared with my partner Doug Spowart. The pinhole is a pin pierced hole in aluminium which is inserted into a hole drilled into a body cap. It is a hand held exposure of 1/25th second at ISO 2000.
Visit the WWPD Site for details of other submissions: http://pinholeday.org/
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Our Past WPPD images:
2020 Doug+Vicky https://wotwedid.com/2020/05/13/2020-worldwide-pinhole-day-26-april-our-images/
2019 Doug+Vicky https://wotwedid.com/2019/04/29/2019-worldwide-pinhole-day-28-april-our-images/
2018 Doug+Vicky https://wotwedid.com/2018/04/29/2018-worldwide-pinhole-day-29-april-our-images/
2016 Doug: http://www.pinholeday.org/index.php?id=1235
2016 Vicky: http://www.pinholeday.org/index.php?id=1540
2015 https://wotwedid.com/2015/05/04/april-26-worldwide-pinhole-day-our-contributions-for-2015/
2014 Vicky’s http://pinholeday.org/gallery/2014/index.php?id=1810&City=Toowoomba
2014 Doug’s http://pinholeday.org/gallery/2014/index.php?id=1811&City=Toowoomba
2013 https://wotwedid.com/2013/04/29/world-pinhole-photography-day-our-contribution/
2012 http://www.pinholeday.org/gallery/2012/index.php?id=1937&searchStr=spowart
2011 http://www.pinholeday.org/gallery/2011/index.php?id=924
HERE IS THE LINK to the 2011 pinhole video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yk4vnbzTqOU
2010 http://www.pinholeday.org/gallery/2010/index.php?id=2464&Country=Australia&searchStr=spowart
2006 http://www.pinholeday.org/gallery/2006/index.php?id=1636&Country=Australia&searchStr=cooper
2004 Vicky http://www.pinholeday.org/gallery/2004/index.php?id=1553&Country=Australia&searchStr=cooper
2004 Doug http://www.pinholeday.org/gallery/2004/index.php?id=1552&Country=Australia&searchStr=spowart
2003 http://www.pinholeday.org/gallery/2003/index.php?id=615&Country=Australia&searchStr=spowart
2002 http://www.pinholeday.org/gallery/2002/index.php?id=826&Country=Australia&searchStr=spowart
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ARTISTS FACING STUDIO CLOSURE: QCA vs Griffith University
Over the last month there have been reports coming out of the Queensland College of Art about proposed changes being instigated by the hosting institution Griffith University. The University’s intentions are outlined in the University’s ‘Proposal for Workplace Change Roadmap to Sustainability *’.
*If link is broken Download a copy of the Proposal for Workplace Change Roadmap to Sustainability ‘ GU-QCA-Proposal-for-Workplace-Change-Roadmap-to-Sustainability_students
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Outcry from a cross-section of the Arts community has been forthcoming. This has included Arts academics, current and past students, staff and colleagues, Arts organisations like Occuli, NAVA, Brisbane Visual Arts Advocacy Group, Artisan and The Print Council of Australia, Arts Agencies and other supporting groups.
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.AS ALUMNI WE WANT TO SUPPORT THE QCA
So we composed the following letter to the Griffith University’s Vice Chancellor:
Dear Griffith University Vice Chancellor Professor Carolyn Evans,
By now you will have received a significant number of responses relating to the proposed changes to the Queensland College of Art.
I have read many of the responses to these changes posted online and I concur with the concerns raised by many of the respondents. The Queensland College of Art has history, a solid reputation for the quality of its graduates and the possibility to contribute significantly to the ongoing record of the life of human and non-human habitation on this planet.
Imagine for a moment if you can your world without the framed artwork on the wall – what it’s like to witness the vibe of the well attended gallery, the encounter of a sculpture in a public space, and the wonder of the fleeting image on Instagram. All of these are created by artists – the very people who will be affected by the changes you are intending to implement.
I understand the contemporary funding pressures created by the Pandemic and government indifference to the need to financially support academic study and research into the broader aspects of human existence.
However there is a necessity to be careful that rapid submission to comply, with what may be short-term influences, will have implications. Not just within the fine arts discipline but also, as the artist tells the stories of their times, fewer qualified practitioners will culminate in a gap in the creative record of human existence.
I urge Griffith University to reconsider what has been proposed and find a space to allow art and artists to be nurtured within the Griffith University academic programs.
I also wish you to consider that while many other universities may be considering a similar course of action in cutting Fine arts programs Griffith University has an opportunity to stand firm and continue the Queensland College of Art and realise the benefits identified in the vision and dreams that the supporters of the SAVE our STUDIOS have.
The studio is the crucible that provides the catalyst and engine room for the creative thought…
Sincerely,
Dr Doug Spowart M.Photog, FAIPP, HonFAIPP Dr Victoria Cooper M.Photog, HonFAIPP
Graduate: College of Art Brisbane 1972 Graduate: Queensland College of Art Brisbane 1993
A RESPONSE TO THE EMAIL WAS RECEIVED LATER IN THE DAY …
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STUDENT PROTESTS AND MEDIA REPORTS HAVE BEEN SUCCESSFUL IN GENERATING COMMUNITY AWARENESS
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An ABC TV REPORT HERE
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An ABC RADIO INTERVIEW HERE
(interview begins at around 1:42:45 and runs for 15 mins)
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A PETITION
At the time of posting the SAVE OUR STUDIOS Petition had received 10.6K signatures
– You can add your support by signing the petition here: http://chng.it/Zv22YbfP6y
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FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE QCA SOS PROTEST VISIT:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/teamqcasos
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AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY and the School of Art and Design
It’s interesting to note that at this time the Australian National University is doing the same for their Art programs with their demand being “…the long-standing structural deficit of the School cannot continue and must be addressed. The School must position itself tobe able to deliver its programs and research with continued excellence but in a financially viable and sustainable manner.”
READ MORE HERE: https://www.anu.edu.au/files/guidance/Managing%20Change%20Proposal_CASS_Tranche%202_November%202020_.pdf?
If link is broken Download a copy HERE ANU-Managing Change Proposal_CASS_Tranche 2_November 2020_
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QUEENSTOWN’s UNCONFORMITY 2018 – From the Archive
Driving to Queenstown for the 2018 UNCONFORMITY Art Festival
A diaristic record of the journey to Tasmania’s west coast two years ago – October 2018
NOTE: The 2020 UNCONFORMITY was cancelled due to the pandemic.
A link to their COVOD-19 response can be seen HERE
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The road convulses, twists and turns as if the wilderness has challenged its taming by the road builders and engineers. Just when the wild begins to overcome your imagination a mountain ridge is crested and opening up before you is a place made by man and commerce showing their destruction of the landscape to make a place, a wild place – home.
The town of Queenstown is nestled in a valley floor through which flows a stream, a road and a railway line. The mining ceased after 100 years of operation and the town now seems devoid of what must have been the hustle and bustle of its glory days. Left orphaned by those who have moved on are commercial buildings intended for a permanence that is now redundant. Other buildings are kept cobbled together by make-do maintenance. The occasional sign in the empty shop window proclaiming “FOR RENT”. Houses of corrugated iron and rough stone construction and the occasional 1940s or 50s flat roofed ‘modern style’ straddle the ridges. They sometimes hang precariously from the narrow winding roads that move from the central business area outwards and upwards like a schematic of the human circulatory system.
In this unlikely place there exists a community of artists ranging from those for whom it is a hobby for personal life enrichment to those, many of whom are of national stature in their disciplines. Bi-yearly a special event in Queenstown celebrates its art community as well as those from around that country and the world who consider the locale as a touchstone and inspiration for their art.
Called ‘The Unconformity’ the event takes its name from an unusual rock formation found locally that was the natural catalyst for the mineral riches that were found there. ‘The Unconformity’ takes place over 3 days and attracts a worldwide audience.
Our unique proposition is to be a cultural conduit into western Tasmania—a place hard to get to and harder to engage—by mining a new cultural commodity with the spirit of independence, boldness, risk and adventure that is melded to our region’s DNA.
Mission statement from The Unconformity website
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We sat in a café munching on a magnificent homemade pie and at a table nearby the (then) former senator for Tasmania Jacqui Lambie also having lunch. I discovered a long lost cousin, the artist Beverley Loverock in a shop that is her studio at the top end of town. And just walking down a street between visiting art galleries and events we encountered Marc Pricop, a photodocumentary photographer who we knew from Brisbane when he was a student at the Queensland College of Art.
Just off the main street we caught up with nationally recognised printmaker Raymond Arnold who first came to the region in the 1970s as part of the Franklin Gordon Blockade protest. His connection with the place at that time left an indelible mark on him and for the last 18 years has set up his studio there with his wife Helena Demczuk. Called LARQ his modern studio and gallery featured an expansive artwork created in response to his years in Tasmania. It featured 100 hard ground line etchings, some multi-plates, which were presented in the gallery as 100 individually framed works as well as the assembled plates in a mosaic format that stretched the length of the studio’s main wall.
We were only able to stay for the better part of two days as local accommodation is booked out well in advance and we travelled from Tarraleah to Strahan and back to Tarraleah late Sunday afternoon. There was just not enough time to take in the range of art, performance, videos and presentations on offer many of which were booked out … But then there’s the next event in two years – we’ll be back.
HERE IS A COLLAGE OF THINGS WITNESSED DURING OUR VISIT…
NOTE: Due to copyright restrictions Youtube has muted most of the audio in this video – Imagine AC/DC music LOUD…!
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SOME LINKS…
https://www.theunconformity.com.au/
https://unco-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/static/images/background-looped.4d0f74bf780d.mp4
PROGRAM
https://www.theunconformity.com.au/program/
EVENTS
https://www.theunconformity.com.au/events/
A WIKI
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Unconformity
CYANOTYPE IN AUSTRALIA Celebrates World Cyanotype Day 2020
The world is in a pandemic turmoil but beneath the stress, pain and fear of what some call the ‘new normal’ artists have continued making their art. During this time online connectivity has provided the space to coalesce communities of practice across the world where ideas and creative products can be shared, discussed, recognised and critiqued.
Cyanotypers worldwide celebrated 2020 WORLD CYANOTYPE DAY on the 26th of September by making cyanotypes, presenting work in exhibitions and online through their social media platforms. In the USA there are dedicated groups that have continued to support the medium: Db Dennis Waltrip, Judy & Amy and the World Cyanotype Day web and Facebook group; Malin Fabbri‘s Alternativephotography.com; and Amanda Smith’s Gallery in Texas. These people have created the glue that brings together cyanotypers from around the world.
Two years ago The Cyanotype in Australia Facebook Group was formed to bring together contemporary cyanotype work for presentation in major survey shows to celebrate Australian practioners from across the country on World Cyanotype Day. The first show in 2018, ‘In Anna’s Garden’ was presented at the prestigious Monash Gallery of Art, Melbourne. Last year ‘Under the Southern Sun’ was shown at The Maud Street Photo Gallery – The Queensland Centre for Photography. This exhibition then toured to two venues in the USA: the A. Smith Gallery, Texas, and PhotoNOLA, New Orleans for the international World Cyanotype Day exhibition.
The Cyanotype in Australia Facebook group has actively supported a vibrant community of practice of not only local, but also international cyanotypers. This year, we decided to curate the World Cyanotype Day event online through the Facebook Group page as this space enabled many artists from across Australia and internationally to contribute during these challenging times. We asked our Facebook Group members to select a cyanotype that may have been their first print, an image of a current process investigation or a work that tells a story. Forty-three Australian and a few international Friends responded and posted their work on the page.
This catalogue has now been collated to show the breadth and creative work of these artists. We are again excited to present the amazing work of Australians including our international friends on The Cyanotype in Australia for World Cyanotype Day 2020.
The Cyanotype in Australia Facebook page is a closed group though we welcome ‘Requests to join’ from cyanotype practitioners.
Doug Spowart,
with Gail Neumann, David Symons and Victoria Cooper are The Cyanotype in Australia Team
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A GALLERY OF WORKS CAN BE SEEN HERE
More information about these works can be found in the catalogue
Download the catalogue via this link ____WCD 2020 CATALOGUE-FINALv4
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Over the last two years the CYANOTYPE IN AUSTRALIA Facebook group has coordinated major events to coincide with this celebration.
In 2018 an exhibition entitled “IN ANNA’s GARDEN” was curated Stephanie Richter, Gillian Jones, Victoria Cooper and Doug Spowart for showing at the Monash Gallery of Art.
A blog post for this exhibition can be viewed HERE
A download of the “In Anna’s Garden” catalogue can be accessed HERE
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2019 saw the assembly of a group of Australian cyanotyper’s works to be sent to the A. Smaith Gallery and Photo in New Orleans for the WCD International exhibition. The cyanotypes were firstly shown in the exhibition “UNDER THE SOUTHERN SUN” at The Maud Street Photo Gallery – The Queensland Centre for Photography.
A blog post for this exhibition can be viewed HERE
A download of “Under the Southern Sun” catalogue can be accessed HERE
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A TASMANIAN CYANOTYPE: Untitled Found Objects by Victoria Cooper

Untitled Found Objects is created from a collection made of invasive starfish species colonising parts of Tasmanian waters and a map-shaped beer coaster found discarded in the streets of Hobart. In this work I play with these found objects and speculate on their relationship with Place.
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When I take the time to study a place through photography and Material Thinking* history is unearthed, reconsidered and reordered. As I walk in each place, I identify and collect objects for further study. Some objects are commonplace or endemic while others may be discarded or dislocated dissonant interventions. I then utilise the cyanotype process as a site-specific medium to record these collections using sunlight and other environmental conditions as experienced in-situ. In this work the cyanotype forms a blue matrix in which these objects are imaged as their shadows. The shadowy imprints inhabit the blue as white ghostly forms referential of their solid origins.
The final work of blue and white is a paradox between its fiction and truth, the featureless blueness only revealing form by its absence. To think about the cyanotype in this way ushers in many questions: Is the cyanotype blue a political or aesthetic statement? Do the white shadows speak of absence or are they the essence of a presence? Does the reader need an exegesis to understand a poem?i
Victoria Cooper
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*The concept of an aesthetic methodology proposed by Paul Carter in his book, Material Thinking, defines my art, and underpins the making of my work. Through a psychological dialogue with materials, subjects and objects, my work evolves reflexively and in concert with the response to physical experience of time and place. In this process I am taken in new directions and presented with unexpected outcomes for the work.
Just as human collaborators needed to suspend an irritable desire for control of the project, substituting instead a lover’s readiness to be plastically moulded by the other’s (intellectual) desire, so with materials: they self selected, those of especial value to enquiry displaying gifts of amalgamation and self transformation analogous to the emotional environment characteristic of the human exchange. (Carter 2004:xiii)
Paul Carter, 2004, Material Thinking, Melbourne University Publishing Ltd, Melbourne.
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©2019 Victoria Cooper