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100x150cm each. 1993 was another year I was certain the finance for "Shine" would finally happen. It didn’t – leaving me more time than usual time to photograph oddities like these automatic collages of posters around Kent Town. 100x150cm each. September 1994. To New York for the Emmys, nominated for directing the "Submarines" documentary series. The morning after, basking in the glow of victory, an early Sunday stroll near my hotel allows me to catch some images spotted the day before, a series of "found collages" created by the chaos of signs and reflections of Times Square. 100x150cm. March 1992. Living in Sydney during post-production on ‘Submarines’ series – a city office window looking like a collage of polaroids. Reflections in windows have a mysterious power to reinterpret their surroundings, almost like a parallel world, or an Escher-like world-within-a-world. 50x75cm. Passed this window many times on Oxford St, during 1980’s visits to Sydney, beating a regular path to the door of development funds for "Shine". True to the plaintive graffiti ("Why don't you ever open this shop?") never once see the doors opened – the dolls like eternal prisoners in their gilded cage. 100x150cm. March 1995. In London for pre-production on "Shine" (at last!). Location surveys are always a better photo-op for me than the pressures of shooting will allow. This wall in the West End tells its own story. 100x150cm. A late afternoon summer shadow on the wall of my studio at Crafers, with a detail from a poster on the door of an iconic image by Kertesz of Mondrian’s pipe and glasses. Kertesz is and always has been an inspiration – often images of his inform my dialogue with designers or cinematographers. 100x150cm. August 1996. In Venice for Shine’s Festival screening. Escaping the press, a day trip with the family around the islands of Burano, Murano, Torcello. A synthesis of textures catches my eye, in unexpected jostling of form and colour, echoing some of the glass artworks of the islands. 100x150cm. August 1996. My life seems mapped by visits to Venice, from the first time at age five, to this one with "Shine". It’s a city which constantly invites the eye upward - not for the dwarfing architecture of, say, New York - rather to feast on a riot of intricately wrought surfaces. 50x75cm each. January 1996. Three days after Shine’s explosive debut at Sundance, an escape to the place of my childhood for the first visit in more than thirty years. A stolen moment on lunch break while shooting the "Ultimate Athlete" special for Discovery gives me the chance to capture a typical group of shops in a village on the edge of the Rift Valley. 100x75cm each. November 1997. Location survey in Washington State for "Snow Falling On Cedars" – this farm becomes the Heine farm in the movie, the textures exactly in tune with descriptions in Guterson’s book. I stick these images in my script to remind me of the details when I’m shooting, sharing a joke with the production designer about the "fur-bearing" roofs of the region! 50x75cm each. January 1994. A lightning trip to Prague, in pursuit of Bob Hoskins to play the role of the father in "Shine". Astonished by my showing up, he agrees over breakfast to consider the role, later confirming his interest. This leaves me a day to wander the winter streets, Charles Bridge and historic Jewish cemetery before returning home. (Hoskins bows out several months later, leaving me to search for a replacement : the electrifying Armin Mueller-Stahl). 50x75cm each. June 1994. A day off while shooting the "Space Shuttle" special for Discovery. A drive to escape Houston finds me in this "Last Picture Show" feeling town – a perfect location for an unwritten movie. That night I go to the theatre and see Lynn Redgrave in "Shakespeare For My Father", and I think I’ve found my "Gillian Helfgott" for "Shine". 100x150cm each. December 1991. San Diego, shooting part of the ‘Submarines’ series while the city prepares to host the America’s Cup. These curious "diptychs" catch my eye, so return to shoot them at sunset when the intensity of last sunlight burnishes the skyline. | Exhibition Information | View Photographs | View Collages | Photograph Descriptions | Collage Descriptions | Contact Us | Return Home | |
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