This is my studio-home in Christchurch, the picture in the window is from my friend John's home in Melbourne where I have often stayed when Ive been there. I am eternally grateful to friends like John who have put me up in their homes over the years, the generosity of my friends has made so much of my work possible.



This picture was made from my friend Mike's place when he lived in Sydney, I stayed there a lot, this picture is of a print showing a train crossing the harbor bridge.



This the picture in my widow above. It's part of a series I made in Melbourne in response to the photography of Bill Henson.

vacated shop Manchester street

I read a really good quote today by Robert Rauschenberg that I believe relates well to photography, it was something to the effect of

'If you walked out your door and around the block and could not find enough material to make great art, then you just weren't looking hard enough'

I guess I related quiet well to this quote because I have been doing a lot of walking and photographing in the near vicinity of my studio-home lately, as a result I think I will make this work and ideology the subject of my next exhibition.

I have been making some self portraits lately. A real photographic self portrait, as in done alone, is difficult to do but ultimately rewarding. This one was made with an old graphlex 4x5 camera, www.clickondavid.com/graflex.html, this is the same camera as used by the American photographer Weegee. The 4x5 film size renders so much detail it can be scary, especially with closeups. This makes me wonder, is a portrait actually a portrait if it doesn't reveal the truth? Understandably, I guess, most people would prefer to see an idealist photograph of themselves than confront who they really are, but the photographic portraits that are remembered are those those that reveal more than a persons ideal and at times vain vision of themselves.

One of my favourite self portraits is this one by Chuck Close


However, for a series of self portraits, American artist John Coplans 'body parts' is hard to go past, it is the ultimate self revealing.