February 2011

6th: So finally we have progress. I was thinking back to my years at college and of how I got fed up with the whole thing. Looking back at it now I realise that part of the problem was finding myself in this system where you just had to produce. The feeling was more akin to working in a sausage factory. There was no ebb and flow. Of course it suited those who were able to produce all the time but then some of us don't. No judgement it's just a fact of life. So anyway I have cut a load of paper to use in Shirley. Decided to start taking portraits with her.

In the meantime we found an old barbie, some kites and some string and had some fun.

 14th: After, well it must be near on five years since I last took a photograph with Shirley. Somehow that doesn't seem right. Its also been almost two years since I last used Helga. Yesterday we took Shirley out on a safari through a local nature reserve and then today I tried to take a self portrait with Helga. What a mission. I forgot what a fight it was to get the paper in. In the end the image I took with Helga was a little over exposed but the Shirley one came out just fine. I am going to try and redo the Helga one again as the background which used was the same for the two cameras.

23rd: Wow - art really is like catching a bus - nothing comes along for ages and then within the space of two weeks you find that you have sold six pieces. Two helgas have been sold and then four shirlies, three of those were snapped up Standard Bank for their collection. The sad thing was, rather than being able to pop open the champagne to celebrate I had make do with a chocolate milk shake drink from woolworths. That champagne is just going to have to wait a bit longer.

In the mean time I have been busy taking more pics. Mainly self portraits, I have been experimenting with covering up different sections of holes. The pic to the below is my new shutter design for Helga. It features, of course, all the latest trends and innovations in design Using an old folded up sheet and a curtain I have been covering up one set of holes while opening the other. After exposing one set, moving the camera i have been swapping over the arrangement to open up the rest fo the holes to light. Thus one half of the paper is being exposed differently to the other.


28th: Thanks to Tristian Hall I have just been published in the March 2011 edition of photocomment, a local photographic mag. The printed version is only available in South Africa but it can also be viewed over the internet.