Pet Shop Boy
The pet shop is a place I often visit
with my camera, or even without
my camera for that matter.
In this case I have used the camera
in my iPhone.
I visit it not, however, just for the animals,
that are found there,
fish, bird, canine, or reptilian
but also for the supplementary
material, the objects that
are placed in aquaria for example.
Or the toys that they have for cats and dogs.
I often buy some of these items
not that I have cat, dog, or fish.
Tony’s Toys
I took this photo about 3 years ago,
and have had it on my bathroom wall
for the last two. I never went beyond making
one print. I wanted to think about the image
before I made the expensive decision to print
an edition, although I did exhibit this particular print a couple
of times.
I keep looking at this photo in terms of the
flat planes of colour that compose the image.
For some time I’ve been looking for a photo that
I’d taken that would work in needlepoint.
Perhaps this image could be treated that way.
Those flat planes make it much easier to
render in thread.
Even as a boy I was interested in needlepoint but never really
took it up other than in a sporadic way.
My mother did encourage me though and she
had as a young woman been a seamstress
in Karangahape Road.
I’ve heard my stitching described as ‘tortured’
so I wouldn’t stitch it myself.
Meanwhile, lately, I ‘ve been
thinking that I will after all print an edition
of the photographic version.
Bat Flower
This plant is native to South East Asia
although I saw this particular specimen
growing in Auckland.
A flower like this is very tempting
to a photographer like me but
I can see that although the image
is superficially interesting, I have
not been able to add anything extra.
In other words, it is important
not just to show, but to say.
Someone once said that a photographer
must place themselves between the camera and the subject,
that at a good photograph is one
taken through a personality.
It is my personality that is lacking
in this image. Still, it is important
to keep trying for new images.
Photos that don’t work are vital
in that we must understand why they
don’t succeed otherwise one is doomed
to repeat them.











