A little bright red plastic Kodak camera, a book of photomontages by David Hockney, the naked ladies in my Mum’s joy of photography magazines, fire painting with my grandfather on my back porch in the middle of the night, a girl up the road named Claire, another girl at school named Kate who incidentally I never actually photographed, the Italian Vogues piled up high on my Nanna’s staircase in Ascot Vale, my art teacher Tyra Hutchens, being told I should be a doctor instead, the smell of photographic fixative, and lots of other things.

The concept is my main focus. All of the other elements are really there to contribute to that. Most of my attention is taken up by what’s going on through the lens, sometimes I’m directing the reworking of a garment, sometimes I’m asking a model to act out a scenario or respond physically to a piece of music. My approach is informed by my emotional response to a shoot and effectively occurs in real time, it is all about the way an image alters my emotional state – how a gesture of a hand or a variation on the lighting can complete an image and in it’s completion, create a finite statement of visual poetics.

Success is a broad term and it relates to the purpose of a shoot. If I am personally commissioning the shoot, success is creating an image or sequence of images, which are strong, poignant crystallizations of the intended concept.
    This often stems from what fascinates me at any given time in my life. Be it a sculpture by Bernini, a historic event, a conversation with friends, a visual vernacular I want to contribute to, so much of my life experiences end up in my work. However, if the shoot is commissioned by a client or more of a collaborative project, then of course their intentions are important also, it changes the dynamic and becomes more of a democracy.

Lajla Mostic, my family and my friends and Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Robert Capa, Ridley Scott , Anais Nin, Sigur Ros, Simonett a Vespucci, Richard Avedon, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, David Lean and Carravagio, even though he was a psychotic bastard.

I have been 97.95% satisfied but never 100%. I hope that I will never be 100% satisfied, that would be a terrible day .

No, I’ve always wanted to be a photographer.

I feel digital cameras surpassed roll f ilm years ago. Sheet film is wonderful but a little too “boutique” for today’s deadlines. Postproduction is nothing new – artists have been editorializing reality since art began.

Il baretto for duck ragu with Lajla, Bojana and Paul.

Toni Maticevski

Highlight s so far have been the roof of Southern Cros s st at ion and a Di sa ster Response training centre in northern Victoria.

Albums on high rotation are by Sigur ros, Four tet, Radiohead and Cocorosie.

I have a portfolio meeting with The Artist Group, my new agents.

Shooting a portrait at the Windsor hotel in Melbourne.

 

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