The Guardian … Vintage Nikon F2 … and Film ! …
… in good company in The Guardian today as they feature the 400TX Project presenting black & white film work produced on a 50 year old Nikon F2 passed around to some of (quote) … “Australia’s most prominent photographers” … including this geezer from Cairns.
The project was the brain child of Brisbane photographer Renato Repetto who transported the vintage 1970’s black Nikon F2 with a 55mm lens loaded, with just one 36 frame roll of Kodak Tri-X BW film, on numerous journeys criss crossing Australia and into the hands of current working photographers who gave it their best shot.
The Guardian story (a snippet below) can be found in full at https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2023/mar/19/one-roll-of-film-what-a-test-the-400tx-project-in-pictures … and on abridged version on Insta at https://www.instagram.com/guardianaustralia/ … under the title ‘Back to Basics’.
The list of photographers featured is as impressive as the work … Dean Sewell, Tim Page (so sadly no longer with us), Paul Blackmore, Robert McFarlane, David Maurice Smith, Peter Solness, Michael Coyne, James Brickwood, Shehab Uddin, Jakub Fabijanski, Oli Sansom, Meg Hewitt, David Kelly … and yours truly .
My frame in the feature is “Too Busy To Die” … made in sparse light with the last frame of the thirty six on the film roll … of accomplished musician Geoff Tozer. He had just told he was dying. He was diagnosed with bowel, bladder, bone and advanced spinal cancer. But, he told me, “I’m too busy to die.”
I cut my teeth on ‘manual everything’ film cameras like the Nikon F2 decades ago and used ‘zone focusing’, guessed exposures and well-timed single shutter releases in my early work. This project has brought into stark reality how spoilt we photographers are now with digital imaging and digital photo technology … and, to be honest, the process of shooting black and white film again scared me stiff !
(The two posts on the 400TX Project published when I originally made the “Too Busy To Die” work can be found here … https://www.briancasseyphotographer.com/blog/publications/2017/08/final-frame-nikon-f2-afp400tx/ … and here … https://www.briancasseyphotographer.com/blog/2017/07/nikon-f2-roll-tri-x-36-pics/ … whilst a further post regarding 400TX and my work in an Australian Photography article can be found here … https://www.briancasseyphotographer.com/blog/travel/2018/03/spread-australian-photography-afp400tx/
Image “Too Busy To Die” (top) © Brian Cassey … Image “Sin & Stef in Bondi” (bottom) © Paul Blackmore, page “Back to Basics” © The Guardian
“The Legend That Is George” …
Recently travelled to Green Island on the Great Barrier Reef with photographer colleague Emese Gyalog to meet and document, soon to be 93 year old croc legend George Craig.
To say George has lived a life is a massive understatement. Schooled in England but born in South America, George dived with epic Tarzan star Johnny Weissmuller in an aquatic show before stowing away on a ship at London’s docks to Jamaica where he picked bananas. Then he found himself in Darwin Australia defusing WWII bombs.
However, the travel that most impacted the direction of George’s life was to the Fly River in Papua New Guinea, where he set about croc hunting … later turning to croc ‘collecting’. George not only ‘collected’ crocs but also a massive trove of PNG artefacts unmatched almost anywhere.
In the 1970’s when he needed somewhere to put all these crocs and art he took over tourist venture Marineland Melanesiaon Green Island on the Great Barrier Reef, where he lives and works to this day. George also brought a mate of his to Green Island from the NT … a now 5 5 metre “saltie” named “Cassius” … the largest croc in captivity on the planet. (See here Guinness Book of Records.)
You may read much more about George, his early croc hunting, collecting and PNG artefacts here … https://oceanicart.com/PROVENANCE/George-Craig/1
It was an absolute pleasure to photograph George on Green Island … on his favourite chair where he sometimes paints, amongst his amazing collections of probably priceless art … and with his massive mate “Cassius”.
The Courier Mail were delighted to see the work and ran it today Saturday on page three (with a pic pointer from page 1), with a story brilliantly constructed by journo, wordsmith and mate Michael Madigan.
I do like “Cassius” but I’m much fonder of the portraits I made of George in his happy place with his art works, one of which leads this little set below.
Thanks George , Cassius and Emese … had a great rewarding day !
Images © Brian Cassey, publication © The Courier Mail