unSensored11 opening night (or ‘trying to rock the digital camera’)

so ages ago (in late november early december) the melbourne silver mine had it’s annual unsensored show. it was great … i loved what i’d produced for it (which didn’t sell but that’s cool – you still have a chance). i dehung and had dehanging drinks with all the msm peeps on 8 december – literally jumping on the tram five hours before i was due to fly to malaysia (i hadn’t packed either!!) but the opening night! the opening night was fabulous and i took bucketloads of pictures both of the night and the hanging the night before. i’ve put these images on flickr but haven’t blogged them before now. why? because i shot them on my digital with my new lens. now i wasn’t really feeling the love with the digital. it just doesn’t feel right to me anymore after many months of almost purely shooting film (and iphone). now i’m not getting into the film vs dig debate but suffice it to say i felt the images were too clean, too easy, too … meh. so i bumped the iso up hugely on the opening night and felt a little better about them. and now a couple of months later i’ve looked through them again and decided that i do like them after all. sometimes distance and time are very good things with your own artwork.

next up: travel photos – so many you’re going to be sick of them … but too bad :p look at them on flickr and put them on slideshow. it’ll be like an old fashioned family slide night … hehe

unSensored11

hey folks … it’s on again! unSensored11 is coming soon to collingwood gallery. this is the exhibition that led me to the fabulousness that is the melbourne silver mine.

one day last year i was randomly walking along smith street and saw this cool photography exhibition in collingwood gallery … hmmm i thought … photography … and even better film photography. this was something i’d been pouring my heart and soul into for a while and i was uber excited to see a whole exhibition dedicated to it.

the talent of these folks blew me away. and the rest is history … i joined melbourne silver mine … started meeting a few of these fab people and started exhibiting with them.

just over a year later i’m exhibiting in the same exhibition that drew me in to the fold. i’ll be exhibiting a polyptych of images shot with my polaroid sx70 on impossible project’s px100 film (they won’t have the black border … just makes it easier to see against the white background on the blog but it will be framed).

come and check it out! if you can’t get to the opening on friday 25 november please come at some point during the exhibition. full details to be found at the website linked above. most of the works are for sale (including mine!) and you too could have some fabulousness for your own wall/s courtesy of the melbourne silver mine’s talented cohorts.

props to all involved and the hardworking committee members and the other peeps that make this happen!

the truly awesome invite includes image by kat in the invite with graphic design by dee

inhabited

just a quick little post for the weekend! i’ve showed you some of the colour film images that i took in south america, including several from buenos aires that i displayed in my feria exhibition at sonido! cafe. i loved the beautiful soft light and colours that my canon tx captured during my time there. but i also shot with black & white film while i was there. it’s interesting to reflect on the difference in feel between images produced with colour film and those made with black & white, on the same camera in the same area of buenos aires at around the same time in similar light. 

to me the colour shots seem whimsical and dreamlike with a vintage feel. in contrast the b&w shots are sharp and defined with a simplicity that that lends itself to particular types of urban scenes that i so love to shoot. the images that i shoot in b&w are often simpler in their composition than my colour shots; they usual emphasise the built environment and, although the people that inhabit that environment are present, they are almost incidental to the scene. of course the contrast between these people and the solid structures surrounding them only serve to highlight their humanity and perhaps their fragility.

sometimes this is deliberate but, more often, i think it’s actually an unconscious process when i’m shooting b&w. my composition changes to this more simple style, with architectural forms and lines often the driving force, starkly contrasting with the people in the images.

i hope you enjoy these images – all shot in buenos aires in 2009. for those of you in melbourne you can see these four particular images in real life at brunswick street gallery in the photography 11a group show, on until 3 february.

sweet things: polas on show

hello all! i’m back. i’ve been having a wee break from the web 2.0 world since early december – no tweeting, no flickr, no blog reading! this was all for a variety of reasons mainly business:

a. i went to new zealand for 10 days. it was part work, part play. i friends in auckland & tauranga (bay of plenty), as well as going to the contained memory conference in wellington. the former was restful and good for the soul, the latter was mind-blowingly inspiring!

b. christmas in brisbane with family after a week back from nz. lovely and restful, great to see my family. lots of dvds watched on my parents gigantic new flatscreen and harry potter at gold class. it rained the whole time, which made it hard to go out but it forced me to relax. unfortunately, as we now know, that rain turned into devastating flooding that affected so many in queensland.

c. new years. four lovely friends came down from sydney and spent the week with us. it was so much fun! i worked the whole time, including new years day but we had plans for a nice quiet dinner with cocktails and drinks at my house. everything went to plan … except for the quiet bit (i was in bed by 1am, the rest of them partied all night!)

d. exhibitions! yes … plural. i’ve been doing back to back exhibitions for the last few months and feeling a little exhausted by them all. i of course already blogged about the m.a.i.d. show in october at the owl & the pussycat, richmond, as well as my solo show, feria, in november at chiquitica. for the last month i’ve had six polaroids up in the annual small works show at brunswick street gallery. i was so pleased with the way they worked out i have to say! they included some that you’ve seen before and a few new ones, including the two above. you can see all the images on my small works exhibition set on flickr. they’re a nice little mix of foody treats and images of two of my fave spots in fitzroy for being foody - sonido & alimentari. there were so many gorgeous works in the exhibition in all types of media … i was so tempted to buy … but could not make a decision what to buy! i literally just pulled these off the wall today, so apologies that i made no effort whatsoever to promote it or tell anybody about it at all. but … i promise i’ll keep you up to date on the next lot coming up very very soon … in two days in fact … eep!

chiquitica

remember my first post and that girl in the yellow dress and how she was part of something really exciting?

well it’s all happening now! i’ve just hung a solo exhibition at a new gallery space called chiquitica at SONIDO! cafe on gertrude street in fitzroy (in melbourne, australia).

i’m exhibiting five of my images from the san telmo market in buenos aires that were shot on film last year. i’ll do a longer post after the exhibition with all the images but you can read about the show on the chiquitica gallery page.

the pola shot above shows the front of the cafe & is the last of my ’roid week shots that i promised to show you in my last post. the cafe opened on gertrude street several months ago & is owned by columbian couple carolina & santiago. SONIDO! is an oasis on gertrude street with fixtures, great tunes on vinyl & amazing coffee all sourced from south america. they also have great arepas & empanadas, inca kola & other south america goodies for those missing the continent’s fabulous food or wanting to discover it. 

they’ve had some great reviews & mentions since they opened, including from the age, fitzroyalty, agenda, opulent, fat belly club & pieces of victoria wining & dining hotspots. SONIDO! has fast become a gertrude street fave & they are a saviour on sundays when no other cafes along that west end strip of the street are open. (try the arepa with huevo if you’ve had a big saturday night!)

for a while they’d been wanting to open a micro gallery space along one of the cafe walls, featuring artists that focus on south america in their art. after a conversation about my photography one morning they asked me if i’d like to exhibit first. yes please! soon after they also asked me to manage the gallery space, which i’m very excited about. i’ve lined up artists for december 2010 & january/february 2011 & am now considering artists proposals for the rest of 2011.  it’s all very exciting & i’m sure i’ll write more about it in the future!

you can keep up with both the cafe (& gallery) news on facebook & twitter.

owl & pussycat opening

so the opening the exhibition at the owl & the pussycat last friday night went wonderfully well … there were heaps of people there, the m.a.i.d room looked fab and we had just a great time. it was also great to meet up with some of the other artists involved & see the show downstairs that had a Richmond focus, with some fabulous artworks also. michelle trgovac is the awesome lady behind m.a.i.d & all cheers to her for getting us together, curating the show and putting in lots of hard work! it’s a really great gallery in a terrace with intriguing spaces, a great (tiny) bar, it’s own theatre & a pea green boat.

polaroid love – part one

across the road, preston, 2010, © nicole davis

i have three exciting photography projects in the pipeline right now, two of which involve polaroid photography.

i have been seriously taking photographs for several years. i only vaguely remember where my polaroid fascination came from. one day, somehow, probably via flickr, i stumbled across amanda’s wonderful blog. it struck a chord with me as we were both from the same suburb in sydney (glebe) & had recently moved away. i also bought one of her polaroids of glebe as a reminder of home. the photo is, coincidentally, a shot of the window of a vintage shop owned by my friend & i spent many lovely hours in there chatting & having tea. 

i was newly arrived in melbourne & was finding it hard to find my place. gradually i discovered & was inspired by some amazing polaroid photographers like kat, andrea, emilie, francesc, jenifer, dave, anne & many many more. i dreamed of getting my own vintage sx70 & scoured ebay & etsy to find one that i could afford. meanwhile i avidly browsed flickr groups & blogs dedicated to polaroid, read all about cameras & film online, followed the progress of the impossible project, even buying packs of atz film (now sadly gone!) before i even got a camera.

meanwhile i began an apple a day, a 365 project using my iphone & polarize (a fake polaroid app). it was important for me to do this project as i hadn’t been taking photographs for many months after moving to melbourne. so this began as a way of getting back into photography & exploring the possibilites of polaroids through a digital medium.

one day i finally found my beautiful baby on etsy & waited eagerly for it to be shipped to australia from the states. i unwrapped it with glee & couldn’t wait to snap my first photo – with some trepidation as the camera was bought untested. i finally figured out how to get the film cartridge in & snapped. the camera clicked & whirred then spat out a photo. my heart lept! i agonised as it developed & turned it over so i couldn’ see. a couple of minutes later i peeked. damn! it was so dark! but it was nightime so i thought, hmmmm, i’ll try again tomorrow.

the next day was a beautiful sunny melbourne day & as we wandered to the tram, with my new precious in hand i wandered across the road from my house & snapped a beautiful rose … & when i saw the result my pola heart lept!

since then i’ve had a mix of great successes & great failures (usually when trying to photograph in anything resembling low light). but now it’s all coming to fruition … more about that tomorrow!