So, week 2...Stuart set a task...head outside with our cameras to take 12 specific photographs. So how did I feel? Challenged by the task, I really liked thinking about each idea and searching for a response, looking around for things that caught my eye and trying to match the 12 ideas.
At the same time I had to make friends with my camera in the manual mode. I had not used this much and had not really adjusted from my SLR to the digital SLR. It felt heavy and clumsy. But by the end of this task, even though it was such a short time, I was already feeling much more confident. These are 11 photos from this activity (seem to have lost the 12th).

beautiful.............extreme close up............

mixed lighting..........................drab...........................................blury........................................

portrait of a stranger.........self portrait....................surface........................

tasty........... .................ugly.............................wide angle....................

This confidence meant that I have been excited to begin photographing for my folio.
In the first week I started playing with the idea of streetscapes walls and small messages and started taking photos to see how the idea worked. This was OK but I think it might be a bit restricting and so I began to wonder how I could develop the idea in my photographs this week.
At the same time as I was wondering I began to think about a photographer that I might choose to present later in the semester. The first person I thought of was Harold Cazneaux. I have long admired his photos. I was struck by the idea that Cazneaux was photographing Sydney at the same time that Atget was photographing Paris...and this gave me an idea about how to extend the photographs I had begun to take in Week 1. I could study the work of these two photographers and try to understand how they had achieved such spectacular success in photographing. Then I could explore these in my photographs of Melbourne.But of course I would have to have some kind of focus, something that was do-able in 12 weeks. I was driving down Johnston Street which is full if interest for me but this seemed too big a project. And so I decided to construct a portfolio which would be called ‘Mary Street’. Mary Street is hardly a street, not more than a lane in some places. It runs east from Lygon Street through to Nicholson Street...just 6 blocks. I live just around the corner and I know it well. I feel very happy with this idea.

Oops! Here is my second try.

Streetscape 3................Wall three......................Message 3..................

As I tried out my idea I settled on three windows:

• Streetscape
• Wall
• Message

Here are my first two tries!

Streetscape 2 Wall 2 Message 2

Thursday 4th March



OK. Got my blog up and running.

I was both excited and challenged by our first session on Monday. It's interesting being a student and not a teacher. I feel comfortable but overwhelmed by the unit expectations and what I would like to achieve in 12 weeks. So I'll have to be careful...many say less is more but how to choose.

Thanks Stuart for getting me thinking. I am already benefiting form being part of the group. It gives shape to my photographic life and I know it will be significant in helping me to conceptualise the things I see and photograph.

For instance windows...

I had not heard of the mirror/window idea before but as you introduced the idea I had an idea about how to develop a long-standing interest. For many years, like many others, I have taken photos of graffiti. Now there are many photographic books on the topic. Elongated format books with art on trains, books focusing on the work of particular artists such as Bansky and more recently books about the history of street art.

I have taken photos in my neighbouhood of the things that have captured my imagination...whimsical ideas, political statements, beautiful stencil art and also small messages. And this is where my puzzle began. I don't think it is enough to just photograph graffiti. I say So what? Even if you have captured something that others may not have seen I think a concept is needed. So I've been thinking about this for quite some time with some ideas sticking in my mind.

One idea is about 'writing on the wall'. Stuart, the idea that you raised on Monday about classifying or contrasting was interesting in this regard. People write different kinds of things on the wall...tags, political statements, emotional expressions, information etc. some are big and some are small. The small messages are interesting and when you raised the idea of a window I drew in my book a set of squares.

At the centre was the message but seen through a series of 'windows', the streetscape, the building a feature and then the message.

So on Tuesday I set out to try the idea.