through the looking glass

floating girls

2012-01-17T11:55:00.000-08:00

sneak preview of the latest work for Italian Vogue Sposa magazine....
january issue

a bit of fun ... and a couple of behind the scenes shots at Madrone studio in San Francisco

behind the scenes shot by Geoff Walthrip, director of Madrone studios

it's nearly that time again ....

2011-12-13T08:50:00.000-08:00

Paris...

2011-11-21T12:14:00.000-08:00

if only ...

november

2011-11-16T12:21:00.000-08:00

the wishing tree...

snow

2011-11-14T10:31:00.000-08:00

snowman time .... nearly

because it snowed last night ....

2011-11-04T10:21:00.000-07:00

erghhhh already over winter ...

butterfly heart

2011-11-01T11:02:00.000-07:00

Milan Italy…I think Blumarine dress

cant remember

still love this shot

knusper knusper knauschen....wer knabert an mein hauschen ...?

2011-10-31T11:01:00.000-07:00

said the wicked witch ...

just because .....Alice

2011-10-25T10:38:00.000-07:00

still an all-time fave of mine.....

just because.....

2011-10-11T09:27:00.000-07:00

I still love these shots I made in Italy...

Nevada days

2011-09-24T12:34:00.000-07:00

now it has cooled down to bearable temperatures I can get working on my darkroom again ... during the summer it was a cauldron in there ... now it is almost emptied of old files and endless junk from many generations of family memorablilia with no where else to go ....

in the meantime I was asked to show 2 images at the Vista gallery in Rome Italy ... 2 "old professors" are winging their way over now , for a group show of black and white images...

to read the show review

burning man .... 3

2011-09-19T17:34:00.000-07:00

the final moments of the giant Trojan horse ...

he was wheeled out, dragged by the masses into the Playa in the dark night ...

and set alight after midnight, in a primal end to an insanely

brilliant piece of art by Douglas Bevans.

fire horse

burning man .... 2

2011-09-16T08:02:00.000-07:00

burning man

kind of like living inside one of Leonardos notebooks...

there is no food or water there you have to take everything with you and remove everything when you leave ....
there is nothing to buy ...people just gift you things and you gift other people things ...

from a cooling mist spray of water over you, to a necklace handmade, to a piece of one of the sculptures that were cut out during the making, to a massage .... its the most peaceful fun anarchic gathering

of artists and like minded

burning man

2011-09-12T10:39:00.000-07:00

black rock desert - nevada

somewhere between a Terry Gilliam set , Bladerunner, Monty Python, Priscilla Queen of the Desert and Mad Max..... on a massive alkaline dust plain ....

outstanding ...

4 days virtually no sleep ...brilliant new friends....too much to see and do

loved it !

50 000 people on bikes , no road rules ...flowing like arterial blood and no one crashed into each other ... not a single garbage can and not a single piece of rubbish to be seen anywhere ...

a good headspace ...

i got to get me one of these ...

camera has to go to hospital now

first sunflower...

2011-08-31T11:32:00.000-07:00

31 August 2011

.....and why are there no numbers on American coins?

there is a good little astronaut on one coin...but ...no numbers

I stand there for eternities at cashiers trying to work out what on earth each coin is worth................

I wont say ,...my own private Idaho...

2011-08-23T12:28:00.000-07:00

only an 11 hour drive ....

each way

groan...

but I found an amazing architect, photographed one of the best houses I have ever seen..., saw salmon spawning , swam in glacial lakes , mermaids on the beach , photographed the sawtooths, and weird stick trees, got back into sketching, slept in a log cabin made by the hands of the two owners ...(who are not builders ), ate the best pico di gallo, found a brilliant artist, whose work I adore, birthday parties on ice skates, stayed in surreal landscapes ... hung out with super brilliant locals eating real food ...

Susan Desko's amazing architecture

...

sawtooth mountains

and then there was the home made peach ice-cream...

liking San Francisco ....alot !

2011-08-10T12:57:00.000-07:00

treasure island...

fleamarkets

wedder

Russian food markets

Hmmmm Alex's meat ...

sausages made of children???

walking walking ....

steamed clams on the cliff...

a studio here ?

dont mind if I do ...

a whirlwind....

2011-07-26T12:16:00.000-07:00

July

lake Tahoe

4th of July

Reno Rodeo

ripping out a gross old bathroom

planting trees

mosquito bites

Phoenix Arizona desert

New York

Brooklyn artist studios

David Letterman backstage

Alexander McQueen retrospective private viewing

Eataly....

great meetings in flash storms

Dallas Texas

the Aces

nasty wasp sting

Coeur d'Alene Art Auction

Graeagle log cabin

osprey spotting

building my new website with UK designer

Riverside Artists lofts

San Francisco

touch down .....

2011-07-21T13:22:00.000-07:00

USA here I am ...

now what...?

enchantment and disbelief.....

2011-05-26T02:19:00.000-07:00

so ...

1 year later 

I return to the secret chosen places ...

in the deep dark forest...by the glacial lake where I grew up

the "gruffalo forest" for those in the know ...

(my young apprentices ... eh? eh?)

ulivetto .....progress report... 21 may 2011

2011-05-21T02:54:00.000-07:00

there seem to be 5 different themes / series inside the Ancient Olive project ....

13 old professors

3 bodies in trees

12 weird animals

12 fairytale creatures trapped

and 13 Enty old tree beards ....

I can't seem to narrow it down any further....

so there is alot of work still to be done

each image is traditionally photographed and printed in the silver gelatin process

5x4 inch negatives

contact printed on 8x10 inch fibre based paper

(the following are the scans of the printworks so far )

Over the last months I have started in on the "old professors" ... but realise there is still so many more to be printed and each one takes days to get right ... the fibre base paper changes not only contrast but density (light and dark) is entirely different by the time it has dried over a 48 hour period ...so there have been many recalibrations and alot of re-printing ...

nothing is quite what it seems...

days later what was perfect is now dark and flat and not as intended ... so I have started all over over from scratch ... with the long forgotten knowledge of how this paper and silver gelatin process changes over time ....

It is amazing how instant digital technology and impatience has changed our perspective ....

just ......resting my eyes

2011-05-11T03:43:00.000-07:00

for a minute ....

New Zealand

cooper ...

2011-04-26T17:30:00.000-07:00

Trelise Cooper's second line is called "Cooper"

we worked on the premise of a different style of girl ...more street than tailored victorian romantic which is infused through the Trelise Cooper signature range...

here are the results......

back in the dark......

2011-04-22T10:47:00.000-07:00

quakes have died down ...

a bit

demolishing and renovating is at a balance and I am not "quite" so worried about being trapped in a chemistry full room in the dungeon labyrinth of the old house ....printing my Ancient Olive project .... so I have rebuilt and got my little darkroom up and running ...

hose through the window for print washing in big post earthquake rainwater tub ....

tiny enlarger on top of fridge in storeroom ...

read

"pro photographers darkroom facility in Christchurch New Zealand April in the year 2011"

over 100 more beautiful 5x4 inch negatives to proof before working out the best for limited edition printworks ...

(I did a lot of work in the last month of my artists residence in Italy ) which was not possible to actually develop and see before the shows .... so now half of the project is still coming to light ...

it's amazing ...

allorra

today is a top secret code day ...

the person concerned will know what I mean...

and if he doesnt he needs a good dong on the head with a saucepan....

fmjd

22 april 2011

fly on the wall...

2011-04-20T16:22:00.000-07:00

crew cam ... the making of "skyflying"

sooooooo......modelling may not be not quite as wildly glamorous as suspected?

skyflying...

2011-04-16T16:44:00.000-07:00

the latest works are a progression of an idea I shot some years ago ...

loving the spirit of "House of the Flying Daggers" and "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon" .... I have made a giant fight-flight chase across the rooftops of Paris.

These images are for an editorial style conceptual catalogue for Fashionmasters in China ... its so fun working for this client, they really set you free on picture making...

it was an extremely tough and often painful shoot physically for the models , who were harnessed and suspended from the roof ...for long periods of time. They did really well and didnt complain at all ... Kimberley was exceptional ... one of New Zealand's former national gymnasts, and the other two; Michaela and Sophie were such great girls !!! All models were from Portfolio model agency which lost their premises and all in the earthquake .... 22 Feb 2011
Fortunately we did the shoot in the days before ...

the next post will be the making of ... :)
crew cam...

the wishing fairy ...

2011-03-17T01:18:00.000-07:00

just because ....

sad flag

2011-03-12T02:11:00.000-08:00

from our sad lowered flag for our tragic deaths and loss of homes and businesses in Christchurch New Zealand in the February 22 2011 earthquake

to even further and worse destruction on the same ring of fire in Japan 11 March 2011

... I send good wishes to all our close neighbours and friends across the sea...

oddness...

2011-03-02T02:37:00.000-08:00

odd

beautiful timing (or not)

alot of weirdness right now...

however ...
I have just finished the most beautiful campaign for the wonderous Trelise Cooper of New Zealand and I am so happy with the final works ...

and then ....
my professional photography monumental website and archive of all my work and exhibitions history and its Italian designers have disappeared into the ether ...
and at the same time I am temporarily here in the disaster zone
Christchurch New Zealand and earthquake after earthquake ...... since the Feb 22 2011 disastrous and all my camera gear is munted (as they say here ) and unusable ...
it is quite bizarre and must mean it is time for some dramatic changes ...

I am very particular ...but if you are up for a web design challenge for a fashion photographer/creative director with 25 years professional experience ...visit my agents sites and see my work there
www.internationalrescue.com/#/photographers/francesmelhop/_overview
www.paolasciarretta.com/

then let me know your ideas ....
and a quote ...

meanwhile ...latest works ... for Trelise Cooper NZ

a most FAB designer

january... 2011 .......

2011-01-21T01:37:00.000-08:00

waiting and waiting .........

for photographic darkroom equipment....

only one set of multigrade lighting filters still to arrive ...

sigh ...

****************************

I have however, tested my favourite recipe ...

and now is the time to send out the secret discovered in the depths of the south of the heel of the boot....

it is ... very very good.

but only my project backers will ever know....

tomorrow 22 january 2011 at 11.20pm NZ pacific mean time ... I will let the secret concoction from the Italian Nonnas out ......

........ :) aaaaaaaaaarrrghhh lovely ...

a very very happy Christmas ...

2010-12-20T14:59:00.000-08:00

I just want to wish all my friends, family and supporters of my Ancient Olive tree project a very beautiful and Happy Christmas ...

and mention the progress to date...

Today I pick up my new darkroom equipment found on Trademe NZ , our own version of Ebay...
in the next week the replacement silver gelatin Fibre based photographic paper arrives from the UK, and another piece of equipment from the USA , so hopefully once I rebuild the darkroom I found here, I will be happily printing away the limited edition works on the first day of January !!!!

so looking forward

meanwhile best wishes for Christmas and the New Year to everyone !!!!!

and lots and lots of presents under the tree for everyone!!!!!

ancient olive project continuing stoooory...

2010-12-10T11:40:00.000-08:00

so now the hunting, finding, shooting of the Ancient Olive trees has come to an end and I have returned to New Zealand with the material and am working very hard on the final printwork for all my amazing project supporters...

I am having some problems finding a black and white darkroom to use for the limited edition print run...but I will find a way ...

the colour printwork is what I am working on this week...and the choosing of the best recipe ....

I did end up having grannies fighting to give me recipes in the supermarket just before I left :) ... and rushing to their houses to get the food so I could try it ... got to love that !

I particularly liked the sagne incannulate ...but there was one risotto that I could eat every day of my life ... hmmmm

at this point I would like to thank another series of backers and supporters...

thank you so very much to

Amy J McCray

Gofenshefer she makes lovely accessories inspired by the natural world

Solvita Danevica who makes sweet jewellery and miniature pinback buttons

Erica Kremenak

thank you to Inge you can find her here at cri-cricurieux

thank you also to Elsa Dorfman who is a wonderful photographer from the USA who shoots with one of the only 7 giant polaroid rail cameras .... the camera is so huge it needs a few people to move it and she makes giant polaroids 20x24 inches...

thanks to Vincent Corona-Evans

Marleen De Troyer

Bonnie Jones , another photographer (I particularly like her teapot house picture!!!)

my new lovely sis Lynn Evans and her husband Zeke

and my dear friend Peter Towers ... a genius architecture photographer that I used to assist when I was just a baby photo-kid

Leone

2010-12-04T02:24:00.000-08:00

still reeling

with the events of the last days

here is yesterday ...

milan-brindisi-bari-lecce-martignano-lecce-martignano-trepuzzi-lecce-martignano-lecce-martignano-lizzanello-martignano...

darkroom death life creation travel food drink friends work art

yesterday was my last day to get into the darkroom and print more of the limited edition series ... it has been an endless struggle as the giant professional enlargers they have there no longer have lamps, and the lamps are no longer produced ... so after a month of searching the Director of photography at the Academy found a lamp that had a fitting that could be used. It turns out to be neon and the quantity of light produced each time is different as well as the colour temperature , which in turn changes the image that is produced on the paper ie: lightness darkness contrast etc....

I had just made what I thought were the perfect prints and two men rushed into the darkroom turned all the lights on and told me I had to leave

the Director of the Academy has died

all my printwork was destroyed by light and I had 10 minutes to get myself out of there

he was one of the most beautiful men I have ever met..

a gentleman ,the perfect Grandad

gave us everything
he is who gave me full reign over the darkroom as he was sad it was not being used anymore

he gave us our show
he organised it all
he removed all the bureaucratic stumble-blocks
he allowed us to do as we wished
his door was always open for all students and visitors
inside his office old antique Narnia furniture with faces of fauns and devils looking out of heavy carved doors and desks
he wanted only to move art forward in a generous way without any recompense

it was he who organised for his friends son to be my shadow to see how the old school photographers worked ...

it was he who saw creative desire and allowed it to go
even if we had nothing to do with the Academy

a true forward thinker
an Architect, he studied at the university of Florence
he brought the Accademia delle Belle Arte Lecce to the height it is now, on a par with the Milan-Brera and Bologna schools of fine art and recognised as one of the very best in all of Italy

I went to do the "visita del morte"
I have now seen my first dead body in a coffin
his name is Giacinto Leone

this means

Hyacinth Lion

and he was exactly that

all his students are crying

the final seven ...

2010-11-22T02:01:00.000-08:00

here they are ...the final seven choices for the first exhibition,

opening today at the Accademia delle Belle Arte Lecce

let the show begin....

one single perfect print...

2010-11-20T08:33:00.000-08:00

2 months shooting
4 days in the darkroom
427 mosquitoe bites

150 sheets of film

4x5"

and I can now show one single perfect print

on utterly beautiful fibre-based archival photographic paper,

brought in from the UK as there is none in the whole of the EU that I can find.

I had forgotten how precious this stuff is ...

how much more beautiful the images look than on the regular resin coated plasticised photo paper we are used to.

I had also forgotten how super long it takes to develop , stop bath , rinse, fix and then washing under running water for 45 minutes ...

2 days to dry
*test proofs take a minimum of 30 minutes before you can turn the lights on and see what it's even looking like..........

then the worry about how to flatten it out after it curls during the drying, not to mention how it darkens up over the course of the 2 days drying ...

tricky

well ...anyway the giant works are hung for the first show

and

I have one single beautiful perfect tiny print
laid out to dry, in the darkroom, on a towel in the Accademia delle Belle Arte

Ents .... a meeting

2010-11-17T10:53:00.000-08:00

nothing to say ,..... alot of Enty old "tree beards" ....

having a meeting

creaking and groaning like old boats

a storm coming in from the Mediterranean heading for the Adriatic ...

1 day to finish as much as possible for the first exhibition... we hang it on friday 19th Nov...

second show on the 27th will be projections of the works on the castle wall here...

I will continue shooting until the last moment before I leave here so I have material enough for a beautiful book
but the light is changing and the shadows are blocking up so I have been here at exactly the right moment ...in reality

but I need about another 6 months for this project ............... aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrghhhhhhhhh !

no pressure no pressure ...

"la raccolta" ... harvesting olives in Salento

2010-11-14T04:09:00.000-08:00

all through the countryside husbands and wives are out in the olive groves collecting and sifting olives and leaves in the first part of the harvest ...

the clean up around the base of each tree before the nets go down

hard back breaking work...

flashes of colour in a giant flower field caught my attention so I went to see what was going on

Marissa said she is very very tired at the end of each day

Tomaso gave me 3 oranges from their tree that is groaning with fruit

later I found a magic fairy trullo...

and this running screaming skeleton olive tree.... :)

un piccolo mondo nascosto ...

2010-11-11T02:27:00.000-08:00

you would never know it was there

apart from the little box of tiny, grey clay gnomes sitting outside the door in a cobblestone alleyway to dry....

Alfredo's world is about 4 shoulder spans wide

packed with all the local characters of fable and folklore.

Tiny mediaeval folk made of terracotta clay , they are absolutely beautiful even before they are painted ... Alfredo puts on his selotaped glasses and puts a board over his knees and gets to work on a new set of gnomes, while I prowl around in circles with my tripod. Apart from an elevator in Milan this is one of the most confined spaces I have ever shot in ...

inspired by Breugel and Bosch, Alfredo's tiny characters come to life under his hands ...I wish I had made a little movie ...

this afternoon back to the mosquito swamps ... a new strange Olive grove full of distorted old professors and philosophers has been found ... quite by accident

mary poppins town ....

2010-11-07T02:56:00.000-08:00

festival of the vino novello at Leveranto

(dodgey photos from my phone ... which takes the worst photos I ever saw, ....blurry and messed up even in full daylight... so mad at myself ...this happens everytime I think Im not going to take my heavy camera gear around, for once..... errrghhhhhh)

but it was a magical night ..

I loved that it was all teenagers playing traditional "Taranta" music and singing and dancing ... playing tambourines, accordian , spoons

a different group on each corner or in each alcove of the town

pizzica

the "Taranta" ... a kind of whirling jumping dance that is symbolic of what happens during the olive harvest if you get bitten by the tarantula... e vola vola vola ...

and this stilt walker sitting in a window bashfully crossing and uncrossing his legs , playing a little pipe...with a long beaky mask on .. I dont know how they were walking on the uneven jumbly cobblestones .....so sweet

silence ...

2010-11-05T11:41:00.000-07:00

silence is mostly all you will hear from me for the next 2 weeks ... now the fundraising for the project is over it is time for me to really really concentrate on photographing the trees in the best possible way.

today was amazing ...perfect white overcast conditions with breaks of sun to stretch your back out and straighten out all the creakyness from crouching in the mosquito swamps looking at an upside down image on a ground glass screen, and trying to work out if you like the composition from the upside down and back to front image which is all you can see

I went back to Trepuzzi today ... the craziest olive grove yet

Trepuzzi in my translation means "3 stinks"

but apparently in dialect it means 3 wells... I like my version better, makes me laugh

Now I seem to be completely at odds with Italian timing ... while they are all closed behind doors for lunch and siesta I am out in the fields on my knees with mosquitoes the size of helicopters attacking my face... I can count 17 bites around my jaw and neck and temples and even in my hair ...erghhhhhh

I want to thank everyone who was involved in the kickstarter , you are all absolutely brilliant, and generous and now I can get down to work.

Just dont be surprised that I will be very quiet in the next weeks

day 2 .... on film ......

2010-11-02T11:10:00.000-07:00

I had forgotten ... film itself has a very particular smell...

and now with my arms in the portable darkroom film change bag I smell the past

today and yesterday were sad days and the trees knew ...

wait for me...

I guess there is 28 hours left, if you want to be involved in this project ... and help me make the best show and book that I can ...

it's here at kickstarter

you may end up with some pretty unusual Christmas presents ... :)

and now it begins ....

2010-11-01T08:36:00.000-07:00

the film has arrived from Germany

Kickstarter is up to target

I have a little car to zip around in with all my gear , 4 different types of camera and tripods and film chassis and darkroom change tents etc...

and the weather is packing up ... which is a good thing !!!

I want overcast !

photo essay (of the commencement of filmwork) by the brilliant and infamous Captain Jack

i trulli ....

2010-10-26T08:51:00.000-07:00

rain rain rain ..... so a post about " trulli"
here are some I shot earlier ... (Julia Childs voice)

"i trulli" are ancient beehive shaped houses built a very long time ago ...

They believe the trulli were first built in Puglia in the neolithic age and continued being built from then on .... however the first written and documented evidence of them is from the 15th century

now they are used as places to store farm equipment and pesticides (not so romantic ) but alot of them have been converted into sweet little holiday houses dotted around the countryside ...
The trulli are built in the "dry stone" technique ...no mortar ... like the old walls around the countryside here ...they seem like mini castles with crenellations on the tops and little spiral steps to the roof which often has a grass cap...
inside there are niches for altars and small fireplace alcoves...

my found trulli

sunset in the ancient olive groves .....

2010-10-23T11:11:00.000-07:00

so ......now I know how to work my dynamo light on my bike I am not so worried about riding on the provincial highway at night ....

well ...

its not ideal considering Italian

" just be ingenious and make a new 3rd lane into oncoming traffic on a 2 lane highway ..., driving "

but.....

eeeeeeeeeeeehhhhh cosi! ......

so I caught the most incredible peachy sunset through ancient olives with grass fields around their roots

so amazing !

colour today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

and the tricksy smartypants face .....

isnt he so beautiful ?!!!!!

ancient faces ... day 15 olive tree project

2010-10-22T03:52:00.000-07:00

mosquito bites

creaky bike butt

constant photographer dirt knee

basket full of fresh herbs and flowers collected in the fields

the bike and me looking a bit rough having fallen off a couple of times with the weight of all my equipment and old stone rubble cobble roads
not to mention climbing over drystone walls that collapse under your weight and throw you into a patch of thistles ..... I hope no one saw that fall... :(

but so happy with the research so far...

collecting hearts ....

2010-10-20T02:25:00.000-07:00

once upon a time
many many years ago

in an enchanted forest
in the Schwartzwald in Germany....

fast forward

through centuries untold and family history lost in the European winds of time

franz ...franzisca...franz...fran... frances...franchee...francesca and finally it is frances

......................who takes a quick jump to the East coast of Puglia...

in between squally rain showers....and finding my first Nonna ( la Nonna Ana) picking wild ciccory on the sea coast and telling me the first recipe.....

"la grotta della poesia" ...... a huge and beautiful natural swimming pool with caves from out to sea and internal caves with words carved everywhere...

old houses cut into the limestone seafront at San Foca

"amore"... Italia....

love is all around

at this moment i would like to thank my next 3 backers who have got me up to 54% of the project target !!! thank you so much !!!!

thank you to

Jana Trupovniece a very talented jewellery designer from Kotka Finland who works under the title Helmitarha ... thank you Jana!!!!

Pamela Angus whose work I adore ... Pamela breaks glass in the French Alps and creates beautiful hand blown stained glass garlands for your windows ... they are to die for !!!!

Mark Bannerman a total creative genius-slash-guru who is a master of 3D imagery and brilliant sillyness, not to mention a really good painter , and he quite frankly has the funniest sense of humour in the land ...!

thank you !!!!

day 11 .... the most incredible discovery

2010-10-19T00:55:00.000-07:00

the days are flying by ....

today I am "customising" my bike so I can carry my mono rail camera and tripod around ... :D

at the end of the day just as it started raining (again) , Uccio the Geometra from the village and his wife Antonella, came over to take me to a secret olive grove...

we went on a merry-go-round tour to find the owner ...who would then direct us to the actual property ...

wowowowoow brilliant!!!!

an Olive so enormous 4 people can fit inside it ....

another that has a kind of natural armchair inside !!!

these are the absolutely best trees I have ever seen and as soon as my film arrives...I will be a permanent fixture at this secret grove !!!
(I bought the last 2 boxes of 5x4" TMAX film in the USA and it is in transit now ...still searching for more, maybe in Germany I can find some...)

I seem to be continually dodging torrential downpours of rain ....

and they say it never rains in the south ...

hmmmmm...

a taste of Napoli ....

2010-10-16T05:42:00.000-07:00

13th October rushed off to Napoli to friends, to get my tooth fixed after a filling fell out while eating a piece of ... mmmmmm my favourite bread ...pane pugliese

the only way to see Napoli is with a true blue Napolitano on a motorbike ...or you will sit in stinky traffic shouting at each other for hours

Driving Napoli is not for the faint hearted ... get ready its like a kind of dance,

always expect the unexpected !!!...

you cannot drive in the sort of autodaydream most of us go around in....

Vesuvius... trying to look innocent
here is a whirlwind fast tour of what I have seen ....

Pompeii under alot of rain ....

photographing this crazy eye statue was accompanied by huge thunder claps and lightning ... it was very theatrical...

um..... "Romans go home" ....?

poverini " i fuggati" ... those caught in the Vesuvius eruption

while I was photographing here all the church bells in Pompeii all rang and rang...

sad so sad

half way there !!!!!!

2010-10-15T04:59:00.000-07:00

and I want to say thank you to my first 14 backers who have so generously brought my project target to half way !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

a huge huge thank you to

Megan E ... a very dear friend

Ingermaaike ... who is a total legend in my book and makes a wonderous felted world

Jetty Kolobaric ... who makes beautiful haunting photography

Rita Juse-Cirkse ... who finds beautiful treasures in Latvia for jewellery crafting

Sherry ... a new friend crafting amazing knitwear

Ira Grant ...who makes seriously beautiful eco friendly bags in Switzerland with beautiful Japanese fabric linings ...I adore them (I have 2 of her pieces !!!)

Paula E... a very lovely friend

Lisa F... who needs a smack :D

Petitplat who makes the most utterly incredible miniature food jewellery..I just want to eat it all !

Alessandro B ...a most excellent friend and brilliant music critic

Keith Archer ... who makes magic hair for shoots ....at his salon Strobe in Sydney

Peggy Hartzell ..who is a new friend and I thank her very much

Joanne Zammit ..who makes wonderful jewellery under the name Gr8jewellery

and the mystery backer called DLDL a complete unknown ...but who has super generously given me a huge jump ahead in the kickstarter project race for the target ....

I thank all of you so very much !!!!!

this is the latest tree found .... little faces looking out ...

day 3 ... olive tree project .....wobbly biking alone exploring day

2010-10-10T14:49:00.000-07:00

mmmm

10 years since I was on a bicycle...

I notice the locals being very hesitant to pass me on the roads.... :D

today I found an elephant and a chain of children hanging on to each other as the top one flies away and some lady lamps....and alot of bare bottoms inside the trees ...

eyebrow raised ....

not one glass of wine had passsed my lips !

ti duro!

today is 10.10.10 I made two ink sketches of wierd ancient Olive trees and signed them with 10.10.10 ...auspiciousness ..... mmmm

o and a filling fell out while I sat on the rooftop and ate a piece of toast this morning ....

anyone know a good dentist in Puglia?

*remember these are the digital research and location scouting photos....while I wait for my equipment and film to arrive.

day 2 the first really spooky tree ....

2010-10-09T09:55:00.000-07:00

.... what can I say .....

it spooked me and Paola... luckily little Joel was sleeping in the panda...

day 1 .... olive tree project

2010-10-09T01:47:00.000-07:00

just brilliant !!!!

5.30am wake up .... (not on purpose) one mosquito decided to target my face

7.00am straight to Danilos bar for 2 cappucini one after the other and an insane brioche that had not only liquid melted hot chocolate inside but also custard .... hmmm

The town square has an old olive right in the piazza... I notice a little face looking out

7.30am find supermarket for emergency supplies and start talking to the nice ladies inside

The ladies, Gabriella and Clara decide theyre going to show me their olive groves and Alberi Secolari when they are not working ... and mention the location of local trees

must find topographical maps to mark out where they are

9.00am off to Lecce ...an utterly beautiful town full of artworks everywhere ..the town seems dedicated to art and full full full of huge crowds of teenagers everywhere getting ready to start university

10.30am meet the Director of the Academia delle Belle Arte Lecce and the head of the photography department ... they have decided to help me and give me darkroom access and all assistance to complete the project ...on the one condition that I find a 500W incandescent lamp for the professional enlarger they have there ...

Academia delle Belle Arte Lecce

11.30am visit the exhibition space at the Academia ...we are having the show in November there

its fantastic ...an old convent converted into a University of Art

our show space is a long galleria of vaulted ceilings and magical arched windows

wandering around in Lecce looking at random pencil sketches on street walls and feeling the ancient town which is full of energy and life ... to be a teenager here must be absolutely brilliant! I have never seen so many bands of kids hanging out and roaming , outside of an open air concert in my life ....

meeting more and more people and trying to source materials and ..."the magic lamp"

lunch in the piazza ...which has an ancient arena in the centre ... cant believe ...no one takes any notice of it ... tourist season is well over ...and now it is just locals

3pm off to visit a property (terreno) of Paolas cousin... as we drive by the dry stone walls i spot an amazing Olive tree leaning out over the top and want to jump immediately out of the car to photograph it ...Leo says "this is my Olive grove ... you can come here whenever you want and photograph anything as you want "

I spend the next 2 hours roaming and photographing trees and working out "how" my photographs are going to be made when my old school equipment arrives

5.30pm meet with the head of the Commune who is going to supply me with all the topographical maps I can ever need.... his wife gives me 3 bottles of diverse local wines for us all to try out at the residency !!! How good is my day ?

6.30pm meet a photographer in another town and check out darkroom potential there

7.00pm go and talk to ladies in another supermarket

7.30pm fruit and vegetables shop "non solo frutta" ... the owner a little old man gives me a cooking lesson for what to do to Betole .... and tells me the Nonna I talked to on the day I arrived is one of the best cooks in town !!!

8pm all the artists in residence make a big combined banquet meal and we drink a vino rose together ...

these guys are all really really good cooks .... Ive got to find some things to cook and not let the side down ....

10.30pm fall into bed with sheer happy exhaustion

PROJECT STARTS NOW...

2010-10-07T10:26:00.000-07:00

55.5 hours of travel

alot of airline food and far far too much sitting down :(

was picked up from the airport by Rosario and 2.5 hours later arrived in Martignano , where maybe 1000 folk live .. it's a tiny secret village in the Lecce province

and I love it !

a fast dizzy jetlagged ambientation of the "paese" by the wonderful Paola... whose dinner I savaged while we tore around in her Panda

Pugliese food cannot be beaten

I have to ask Maria (Rosarios wife who made it) for that recipe...some sort of prosciutto and mashed potatoe and cheese and crumbed schiacciato fried thing... just delicious!

Straight up to the rooftops to see the sunset

and muse over the Olive trees that are so distorted and crazily brilliant that I have seen already from the window on the drive here...

its all starting to come together...

cant hold my eyes open any longer ....

stop

yes !!!!!!!! off to the ancient spooky Olive groves ...

2010-10-05T23:13:00.000-07:00

come hell or high water I am getting myself over to Italy to my artists residency...
only a week late !

finally I finished up my video for the kickstarter site and got it up and running just moments before I jumped on the first plane...

I love this site ...it is set up for artists to find backing for their projects ... with loads of lovely rewards for those who help...

this is my project on kickstarter

in the air ......again and I am half-way there...sitting in Hong Kong airport for a transit ..... there are lots of lovely massage chairs, and cups of tea.... so I am in heaven ...
(although the mushed glue rice pork soup with whole peanuts was a bit odd....)

just wait til I start shooting with the back breaking monorail architecture 5x4 "sheet film cameras I have brought with me !
This one is just my little baby digital camera...

at this point I would like to thank Steve Marshall at House of Travel Barrington Christchurch for the brilliant work and support he and HOT gave me to get me on my way !!!
Its all going swimmingly Steve couldnt be better !!!!!!!!!

thank you so much !

artists residence ... Italy Puglia ... October

2010-09-18T03:13:00.000-07:00

no time

!!!!!!!!!!

I have only 7 days

I have just been awarded an artists residency with the MIRA foundation in Puglia Italy ...

my first artists residency .... ever....

The residency starts in October and ends at the end of November

It is a bit of a scramble as I am finding sponsors and arts grants need alot of time to answer

(like 6 months at least)...I suddenly need film flights processing publishing printing framing bookbinding PR publicity rental car excess baggage for equipment ..... DRAMA!

The images I will make will be very elegant and strong ... my project is to photograph the ancient and protected Olive trees that are 1000s of years old in the Puglia area ... they are so old they seem to have human bodies threaded and woven into the trunks.

This is to be a series of portraits of ancient olive trees , employing one of the earliest and simplest modes of making a photograph, the pinhole camera, the kodak box brownie and the monorail camera (head under the dark cloth ) film and analogue processsing...

After years making commissioned work which has become increasingly technical and effect-laden, I am now attracted to the opposite.

I then want to mount an exhibition of these images at almost life size, (this will be held first at the Pallazzo Palmieri and will then travel internationally).

From these images we will publish a book .........the exhibition itself will feel like walking through a giant old ancient olive grove .... a disappearing culture revering age and oldness as beauty.

As always the dark resonance of fairytales runs through my work. To me, fairytales are themselves like the photographic medium. They create an imaginary world which oversteps the literal, where the impossible becomes possible.

***********************************

its a bit crazy but ....

in an effort to rapidly raise funds for my project I am offering a 2 for the price of one on any images of equivalent value from the Matchstickgirl gallery including the original 8x10" one off polaroids ...and limited edition works.

buy one and choose another that is the same or equivalent value

at no extra cost.

This will be for 7 days from the date and time of this blog posting ...saturday september 18 2010 22:00 hours until sunday 26 september 2010 22:00 hours.

absence.......

2010-09-17T02:09:00.000-07:00

not... really... in the mood ...

call me old fashioned but 683 earthquakes in 10 days is a bit ....um....over the top ... ?

isnt it?

feel free to take a look....

Christchurch New Zealand quake map

we...are... over ...it.....
and we are coming to get you !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
weeeeeeeehhhhhhhh weeehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh weeeehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!

a-mazing !!!!!!! songs in the key # 4

2010-08-31T04:01:00.000-07:00

a perfectly brilliant day !

*rain stops
*cue the sun

*sun comes out

*bellbird sings off key
*postman arrives with the most incredible papier mache door and props for the puppet, from Kallia in Greece of Kalliaswonderland

(photos tomorrow! I need to keep playing with it and opening and shutting it today!)

*the owner of the abandoned house In Milano gives me the go ahead to use the images for the short film backgrounds

*Maurizio Fiumefreddo ,my all time favourite hairstylist, that I work with in Milano agrees to make a teeny tiny wig for ..."her"
( we will have a naming ceremony when her face is done )

*Carin Campbell (amazing tailor and purveyor of all good things tweed) sent photos of the crinoline in progress... love love it

*Inger shows me the first image of the little slinky body femme fatale that she has made ......
holy malarky that is one feisty Victorian dame .... :D ........... look out!

and I buy an electric glue gun ...and get to work on the bathroom set that I have been painting all weekend .......................

gluing the curtains on upside down ....

by accident ...you understand...

having to scrape all the paint and curtains off and repaint the stripes on the walls...

songs in the key ... part 3

2010-08-15T02:30:00.000-07:00

the set..

test prints ready to pick up tomorrow from Poia at the the ever obliging lab ...

intention :

...utilise my photographs of a friend's Milanese abandoned house,.........................prior to its renovation by Dutch interiors space design guru Geert Koster,

"before" images for my shabbychic "nobilita cadente" location for my stop motion animation music clip...

wallpaper of woven silk and damask

imprinted with images of the paintings that once hung there ...

the acids from the golden gilt Borghese frames have absorbed into the fabric walls over the century

leaving 3 dimensional feeling markings....

hmmmm my door seems a bit klunky and oversized....

(feel free to step right in here Koster !)

the puppet armature is in Norway having a wetfelted body sculpted...

the door and frame is being made by an amazing artist called Kallia ... in Greece !!!

(more on Inger and Kallia to come ...)

character development

female

victorian

insecty

elegant

gung-ho

eccentric

full of personality and wit

quiet and pensive

looking at what could have been or what has been ... we never know...

inspiration:

some of the fabulous works by blackeyedsuzie and Ryiochi and Yinka Shonibare

and one of my own shoots in a Milanese apartment ... ... this is an apartment ..can you believe ?

not an apartment by "our new world " standards...
I havent really seen any "normal peoples" apartments with real candelabra fittings on the walls that are all made of gold .... and lightable candles...and museum piece portraits that must not be photographed for insurance reasons...
hmmm

well not so often anyway ...

aggghhh I love my Italy ....
just cant help it

I seem to have accidentally become an honorary spider fellow.....

2010-08-10T01:04:00.000-07:00

black and white spider awards
is it a good thing ?....

eyebrows moving ....

*looks with magnifying glass at judges....

the "ghostgirl" does it again ....

shot on 5x4 inch, black and white, infrared film on a mono rail camera in an abandoned house in Sydney Australia circa 1998

styled by Claire Potter .. (who has alot of letters after her name but I cant remember what they are ...something something something PhD philosophy, feminist studies... poet...psychoanalisi... something something .... another book launch about to happen... something something ...style guru )

some days everything just goes wrong ..............

2010-08-08T02:51:00.000-07:00

( i should have taken heed when my cake was burnt on the outside and raw on the inside )

seriously..... erghhhhhhhhhhhhhhh........

starts off ok.... until........ oooo no poverino ....

ear falls off ....plink...

antlers

..weirdly more difficult today than the little hands were ....?

shell casing head of clay...

can she get any more ugly ?

it appears so ....

yes

errrrrrrrrrrrrrgggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhh
back to the drawing board ......................

!!!!!!*/////§°çç°§:§ç§°§°§°ç : MN;HGFGHSsgraaaaaaaaaach!!!!!!!!!!!

songs in the key ... part 2

2010-08-04T03:32:00.000-07:00

so,
...where were we ........?

ah yes ........music clip,
"songs in the key." ..........puppet construction with eyeballs that are moveable within a very tiny constricted set with a big hairstyle over the open head surgery part....

first test: - solid clay head

character :

female

insecty

victorian

big bug eyes

mid 20s-ish

sweet

creepy

threadbare

and so if anyone has any fantastic ideas about workable eyelids at this stage ...feel free to ...let me know ..!!!!!!!!

the little hands were weird...as I was making them they were wrapping creepily around my finger .... odd little life-signs coming out of cold wet clay.............................................................

now ...armature for the body ... proportions ... to head size .... I want the head quite big like a child's head is, ... too big for the body ... a kind of innocence of character...

the wire is an aluminium armature stop motion wire from the UK, specifically designed for animation ... twisted to add strength with brass jointings that are tensioned for ample but restricted movement in tiny increments over a long period of time ...

the feet have joints and points for nut and bolt "tie offs" on the set so the puppet doesnt fall over from shot to shot .....

......

armature running off to Ingermaaike in Norway for a victorian felted body encasement ....

ahhhhhhhhhhh.............. if only it were that simple ............

Lorna Thornber caught my life story gently in a butterfly net ....

2010-07-28T16:26:00.000-07:00

HER business magazine New Zealand August 2010 issue

songs in the key...

2010-07-21T02:07:00.000-07:00

having agreed to make a short film /music clip

and having decided to shoot it in stop-motion animation

and having realised today that I am already 2 months into the project and not one frame has been shot .....

...I thought it high time to mention what is going on...

to a stills photographer 2 months pre-production time sounds insanely long ...

for film it appears years are needed ... I have 4 months more
before finished product must be visible
tick tick tick ...tick.....tick...tick tick tickticktick...

(pick yourself up off the floor Mr Failsafe!)

*first step listen to the song a million times and read the lyrics

*second step interpret story - make alot of notes and scribbles for producer to make weird comments about ..try and understand that my weird scribbles don't translate to someone outside my brain

*third step design character - make a lot of sketches

*fourth step realise that you have to work out how to construct an entire workable puppet head from scratch, with moving eyes and eyelids that you can get to in the back of her head in a small set and move in tiny increments during a very long period of time...that wont fall apart during 4 months of filming

hmmmmmmmmmmm

well at least I have her eyeballs so far

och a wee shooooooooow for insomniacs .....................August 2010

2010-07-18T01:28:00.000-07:00

a new show

by candlelight

in the Scottish settler city of Dunedin

sheltered between the high cliffs and the harsh antarctic sea

curated by Larry Matthews

at the Lagniappe gallery

this is a group show featuring works only by pinhole camera ...

which I have been secretly working away on for 5 years ...

of my diorama pinhole polaroid collection I will show 6 images

camera oscura ..... the origins of photography

how to make a pinhole camera

always proposed to do an exhibition by torch or candlelight ,........
wonderful telepath that Larry ...!!!!

{lanyop} lagniappe small art gallery is a not-for-profit art space along george street in dunedin, new zealand behind mou very bar and above alchemy cafe. run by artist/designer/poet/magic

ian larry matthews it is open only when the sky is dark.

a very short film

2010-07-09T00:02:00.000-07:00