Other Locations

Twenty four works, all of them made somewhere other than Sydney. I shoot at home because I know it inside out, but a coastline you know that well can quietly start to look like a place you've already photographed, and the only cure I've found, so far, is to go and stand somewhere I've no idea about.

Away from home I lose everything I rely on. I don't know where the sun's going to come up relative to the headland, I don't know how the tide runs, or what a big swell does to that particular bay, and I've got three mornings and no second chances at any of it. So I came home from a whole week away once with two frames worth keeping (two), which sounds like a disaster until you notice that both of them were better than anything I made at home that month.

What I take with me, though, is the same way of looking. Water against rock, low light, and the geometry sitting underneath whatever the scenery happens to be doing. Different coast, same question. And it means these hang next to the Sydney work without arguing with it, which is worth knowing if you're building a wall, rather than buying one piece.

It's a small collection, and it grows slowly, mostly because I'd far rather go back to one place four times than tick off four places once each. If there's somewhere you'd love, and it isn't here, do tell me. Several of the best trips I've taken started with somebody asking me a question I couldn't answer.