Profiles

You can tell Tom Ramsay’s a cowboy at heart as soon as you enter the website promoting his new book, Welcome to Shanedale – The Australia Not Shown on Postcards. Accompanying the sample photographs is Frankie Laine’s rousing rendition of Ghost Riders in the Sky. “An old cowpoke went ridin’ out one dark and windy day…” Yee-haw.

Sometimes things don’t work out quite the way you plan. Originally I’d intended to interview Geoffrey Simpson about his work as a cinematographer, with the idea of exploring the intersection between his craft and the art of photographic composition. Although he is an extremely busy fellow, we managed to conduct the interview. Unfortunately, it turned out to be difficult to organise the high resolution images from his films we’d need for publication in the magazine. Ownership and copyright issues that arise from such a highly collaborative art form, it seems, are extremely complex.

Ross Eason bases his Sunshine Coast commercial photography business on exceeding clients’ expectations, and he has the skill, creative confidence and work ethic to do so. It’s the other factors – the ones beyond his control – which can make the task an unforseen challenge.

Whether he’s photographing a shipwreck at dawn, moss-covered river rocks or a wedding, it’s easy to see that Paul Pichugin puts his heart and soul into his work. He has the technical and aesthetic skills of an accomplished professional, but has also retained the enthusiasm and candour of his years as a keen amateur.

When David Moore died in 2003, he left behind an extraordinary collection of some 200,000 negatives.

When it comes to visual signatures, there are few more distinctive than that of photographic team Montalbetti and Campbell.

Visitors to Peter Strain’s gallery in Broome, Western Australia, typically react to his macro photographs of mangrove tree snails with laughter and amazement. These Creatures of the Giant Tides, as he has called the series, are startlingly colourful, varied and Ëœalien’.

Political satirist Bryan Dawe can trace the origin of his photographic style to a single moment 15 years ago.

‘Do you want to know how to make an egg stand up?’ R Ian Lloyd paused for effect, ‘You lick the bottom of the egg and then you put it into some salt or sugar. Because the little crystals are square, when you put it down and blow them away, it will prop up.’

Photographer Martin Mischkulnig knows that great portraits are rarely accidental. And that’s why he leaves very little to chance.