commissions

Gill Hicks: I have found a peace within myself

Over the past decade, Tony has undertaken many collaborations with friends (and occasionally with some amateur models) who would agree to sit for him, where both would gain from the process. The collaborators would get a set of fine art portrait files for use on social media and Tony, through exploring the process, would refine and hone his skills.

He would often experiment with vintage photographic equipment/materials/processes and then build any successes back into his growing film portrait photography practice. He enjoyed collaborating with people, optimising the quirks and idiosyncrasies of natural light, while at the same time learning how to optimise the possibilities from his equipment’s unique selective focus. Some of the results have been shown in exhibitions and they can be found in his portrait gallery.

Making the most of what he has learnt, he has progressed to the next step and is offering commissioned portrait sessions. The film portrait sessions involve him either visiting you with his photographic equipment or, alternatively, it could be that you visit him in the Port (Adelaide), either at his apartment or at an interesting location he’s negotiated access to in the Port where he can make the most of subdued natural light.

A woolstore basement in the Port where he photographed Gill Hicks

the process

Analogue photography is a passion for Tony, sometimes it involves loading sheets of 4x5 B&W film into special carriers called dark-slides and then loading these dark-slides into the back of large format field cameras mounted with an older lens. The cameras are generally paired up with a 1940s aerial photography lens, but occasionally he might use much older lenses to take advantage of their quirks and ideosyncracies, like a portrait lens he has that was hand made in Paris in 1865 by the optical instrument maker Gasc & Charconnet.

To compliment the large format cameras, he will also bring along a 1960s medium format camera, loaded with 120 film, his square portraits are a result of this set up.

The process of shooting with film cameras is more deliberate and considered than when shooting digitally and often will be a new experience for the sitter. Everything is noticeably slower, the cameras are fully mechanical, there’s no electronics, no batteries nothing automated. They have no light-meters, the lenses have to be manually focussed and the apertures and shutter speeds set by hand. The shutters are manually cocked and the film loaded and/or wound on. To get an idea of what the photographer is taking he has to preview an upside down or back-to-front image on the ground glass focussing screen. And once Tony has taken the portraits, the B&W films will then be hand developed in his laundry and hung in his shower to dry.

As he doesn’t use artificial lighting, he often has to move the sitter around to suit the available light. If the shoot is to be indoors it might be best if it is done at certain times of day to make the most of the available light.

Outdoors might require finding a spot that isn’t in direct sun.

So you can see that it is a process, it can be arduous, but the results speak for themselves. If you are happy to partake and indulge in a process that has produced award winning portraits, then he’s happy to make it work for you.

" Tony is not only a superb photographer he is also one of the main driving forces in photography in this state. So much good has come from his passionate love of the medium."

Mark Kimber, photo-based artist and Studio Head of Photography, SA School of Art, UniSA, September 2016.

what you get

At the end of this process, you could be walking away with a number of framed or unframed museum quality fine art prints from the session (available framed in a variety of options/colours or as rolled and packaged prints) accompanied by a small pack of edited low res images suitable for web and social media use. Depending on your budget it could just be the small pack of low res scanned images. Or anything in between, Tony is happy to discuss.

Feel free to contact Tony to talk about other options.

Tony will continue to collaborate with selected artists to build on his portrait series artist[s], but now he is looking forward to working with new subjects to produce portrait packages that work specifically for you.