November 10th, 2014
Never before have I seen collected photographers tackle anything with so much gusto and motivation.
The ‘5 Day Black and White Challenge’ based on Facebook seems to have galvanised Australia’s media photographers past and present. The quality of black and white images that have been gracing Facebook over the last few weeks have been sensational. The challenge has meant that many fine images taken over the decades are getting another well deserved airing instead of wallowing in the archives. Some real gems have appeared.
The list of Australian and Australian based photographers that have become involved is enormous. It’s a veritable ‘who’s who’ of Australian media photographers through the decades. Click on each of the photographers links below and it will take you to the great work in their particular B&W challenge.
So … in no particular order (and apologising for those I havn’t found) … David Dare Parker, Tim Page, Polani Mohan, Nick Moir, Dean Lewis, Brett Faulkner, Phil Hillyard, Tim Clayton, Mike Larder, Richard ‘Tommy’ Campion, Juno Gemes, Craig Greenhill, Rick Stevens, Graham Crouch, Megan Lewis, Glenn Campbell, Craig Golding, Tamara Dean, George Fetting, David May, Steve Holland, John French, Andy Zakeli, Mark ‘Crusty’ Baker, Steve Christo, Leigh Henningham, Martine Perret, Adam Hollingworth, Grant Turner, John Feder, Heather Faulkner, Verity Chambers, Jay Town, Gregg Porteous, Brett Costello, Nadia Janis, Jeff Darmanin, Chris Hyde, Jake Nowakowski, Richard Wainwright, Michael Amendolia, Hamish Blair, Jack Atley, David Maurice Smith, Russell Shakespeare, James Brickwood, Craig Sillitoe, David Geraghty, Peter Bull, Dave Tacon, Matthew Goddard Jones, Sean Davey, Roger Garwood, Delly Carr, Cameron Spencer, Wolter Peeters, Natalie Grono, Sam Harris, Vince Caligiuri, Ryan Pierse, Luke Marsden, Mark Dadswell, Asanka Brendon Ratnayake, Alan Pryke, Kelly Barnes, David John Teas E, Conor Ashleigh, Adam Knott, Meredith O’Shea, AJ Moran, Nathan Edwards, Lindsay Moller, Morne Saffieboy de Klerk, James Elsby, David Mariuz, Quentin Jones, Alex Coppel, Craig Borrow, Peter Solness, Gary Ramage, Andrew Quilty … the list appears endless …
It doesn’t stop there either … around the World there are many thousands of photographers taking the opportunity to file some BW’s and ‘dob in’ another five colleagues. Photographers of the highest profile such as USA’s Ben Lowy have joined in.
My challenge was made by my Darwin mate Glenn Campbell. Over the five days I’ve nominated Dean Lewins, Craig Greenhill, Richard Wainwright, Sam Mooy and Tracey Nearmy.
The five B&W’s I selected for my challenge are below and if you click on the images it will take you to the relevant Facebook pages where you will see all the details, comments and ‘likes’. From top we have ‘Dire Straits’, ‘Polite Lawn Bowls’, ‘Race Fall’, ‘Fiji Coup’ and ‘Huli Woman’ and the images were made between the 80’s and 2000, all but number 4 on film (more than likely on Nikon FM2 or F4 bodies) whilst ‘Fuji Coup” was made on a Nikon D1 digital.
You can see many other photographers 5 Day B&W challenges by visiting #fivedayblackandwhitechallenge
Images © Brian Cassey
Passion for India … @sandwichlightindia …
Excellent to be invited to be part of another very worthwhile Instagram feed … even if this one does have the initially puzzling name of @sandwichlightindia.
Sandwichlightindia … created by Queensland photographer and ‘Indophile’ Russell Shakespeare … is a collective platform for “photographers who are passionate about India” … and the invited membership, including (but not only) very talented photographer colleagues Marco Del Grande, Warren Clarke, Brendan Esposito, Peter Wallis and S Anand Singh, certainly show a love for imagery on the subcontinent.
The catalyst for the name ‘sandwichlightindia’ was explained to me by Russell. Seems he and Varanasi photographer Anand Singh were together on an assignment during the Hindu ‘Festival of Lights’ … Diwali. The pic idea was to portray a certain candle lit location at twilight. When they got to the location at dusk the candles weren’t lit and the light was fading.
Russell heard Anand and other local photographers saying “Sandwich light no good, sandwich light no good” … one even repeating it to a pic editor on the other end of the phone. Seems that the term compared the light to a sandwich … one slice of bread is too dark, the other slice too light … and all the good stuff (balanced and just right light) is in the middle of the sandwich!
… and that’s how @sandwichlightindia was born.
The feed is still in it’s infancy … Russell admits that the name means it’s hard to just come across … but the work and depiction of Indian life makes it well worth a visit and a follow. If you have any interest in quality photojournalism and India I urge you to do so …
I’m also a member of two other high profile Instagram photographer collectives … @everydayclimatechange (addressing climate change issues around the World through imagery … currently 114,000 followers) and @everydayaustralia (depictions of daily life in Australia … 54,000 followers).
Below are a selection of images from @sandwichlightindia by my colleagues … from top © Russell Skakespeare, A Anand Singh, Marco Del Grande, Warren Clarke and Peter Wallis.