Mount Kosciusko

I had my first hike up Mount Kosciusko this past weekend and got some great photos along the way.

April Contest

I joined the Australian Photography Forum recently. It's a great online community to talk with other photographers and share ideas. They do a monthly photography contest which I got really excited about, until I realized that you have to have posted 20 times before you can post photographs and links, since I won't have a chance to do that before the end of this month I'll share my April contest photo with you. The theme is 'Backyard' and here is my photo:

Liam Bailey

Well, with my parents in the country I find that I get a lot less done, it probably doesn't help that I haven't seen them in 1.5 years so time with them seems so much more important then anything else. While they're spending a few fabulous days in Melbourne I'll get on with some posting, or at least try to.

The good thing about trying to clean up my inbox this past week was that I got to rediscover all sorts of books, websites and artist that I had forgotten about. Liam Bailey, this weeks Artist of the Week, is one of those.

Below Liam does one of the things I love about photographer, he shows people the beauty in discarded objects. The first ___ photographs are balls that were found around London, you wouldn't normally look twice at these but Liam forces you to, and they're great once you look. They all have character to them that you never would have noticed if it wasn't for Liam. So enjoy, and check out some of his other work here.

All Photographs are property of Liam Bailey.

I couldn't resist adding these last two either, they are a collection of postage stamps that Liam found at flea markets and the like. His work has a distinct archival quality to it.

Merry Beach

I spent this past weekend at Merry Beach in Kioloa, NSW. We were lucky to get beautiful weather while we were there and I got some amazing shots when I woke up early in the morning. These are the reason that I love living in Australia.

Dan Wilton

Dan Wilton is one of those artist of my age that I referred to a few posts ago that acts the way I think artist my age should act, it makes me a bit jealous of how I perceive his lifestyle to be (for all I know he spends his Saturday nights feeding his cats and reading on the couch sipping tea but somehow I don't think so). His work is part of this genre of raw, street/party photography and culture that has been present in artists since the 1960s. He hangs out with musicians, goes to festivals and explores weird and bizarre looks for his photographs, I can't help but love it.

Below are some of my, so far, favourite works that Wilton has done. All photographs are property of Dan Wilton, more wild adventures can be seen on his blog.

The photo above and the two below are some of Dan's photographs from Bestival

This one and the two below are from a project Dan did when the financial crisis hit the UK a few years ago

Rineke Dijkstra

I apologize for the delayed Artist of the Week but my mom arrived to visit me in Australia for the first time and I've been a bit distracted trying to get ready for her.

Rineke Dijkstra is a Dutch photographer who takes mainly portraits against clean, simple backgrounds. What strikes me most about her work is the way she captures people on the edge of change. She photographs youth at the beach, awkward and shy, unsure of their bodies and themselves, or the women she photographs just after they have given birth, these women do not shy away with their bodies, they stand up taller and proud, holding on to their change and presenting it for all to see.

All photographs property of Rineke Dijkstra: