I have had a long association with the ANU School of Music and the Canberra Symphony Orchestra, and it saddens me to hear about the proposed staff cuts as a result of reduced funding. Lets hope it does not affect the fine reputation of this prestigeous institution. Here are a few of the staff and alumni I have photographed – you can see more in my collection of Noted Australians on my website www.heidesmith.com
Geoffrey_Lancaster
Virginia Taylor
Timothy Kain
Larry Sitsky
My collection of photographs of speakers taken at the National Press Club Canberra between 1979 and 1996 will soon appear on www.heidesmith.com , that is, when my new book is safely at the printers in early June. In the meantime, here are a few examples, hopefully to whet your appetite!
Indira Ghandi Prime Minister of India
His Holiness the Dalai Lama
Bill Gates at the National Press Club Canberra
British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher
Front cover of Heide's 5th Canberra Book
For the last few weeks I have been apologising for the delay in writing new posts for the blog. My excuse has always been that we are just too busy trying to finish our latest book to meet the printers deadline. We have to meet that deadline because the venue is already booked for the launch, and one very busy lady has already agreed to launch it on that one specific date; she flys out to America the next day! So just to prove that there is substance to my excuses, here is the front cover. We will gradually release more details in the weeks and months ahead. If at any time you feel that you absolutely have to have this magnificent, incredibly beautiful and meaningful creation, we will take advance orders for signed copies.
Bob Brown - the man who saw tomorrow
I photographed Bob Brown last May at Parliament House. He is without question my favourite politician, by the proverbial country mile, and also one of my favourite people. I am sure that Christine Milne will be a very able successor, and that the Greens will continue to prosper, but Bob Brown is a hard act to follow. I wish you happiness and success in your new life Bob, and don’t forget to share with us,some of the many photographs which I am sure you are about to take. Heide
fish in bath in box - my Fyshwick studio 1980's
I was scanning some old negs yesterday and I found this! I did a lot of work for advertising studios in the 80s in my Fyshwick studio, which was big enough to drive a car into, and had a large two sided curved panorama, which I miss terribly. Everything was real, including Bruce the Fisho and the fish – heide
Genieve Lacey testing the new Sound Shell
Just a few notes for photographers – amateur or otherwise, on a shoot I did recently for the Four Winds Festival which in on in Bermagui next weekend.The rain was bucketing down and the ground was sodden as I was making my way down to the new sound shell at the Four Winds site, which was actually still a building site. But the sweet sound of Genevieve’s recorder cut through the weather. Bill Brown from the ABC wanted to record a sound test and I was asked to ‘take some pictures’.The little bit of light under the shell was blue and gray and very, very flat. The artist was moving about; not exactly ideal conditions for brilliant pickies. The situation improved, when the construction manager brought along a large floodlight, which we propped up on the floor, lighting the ceiling. I did not want too much grain, but had to krank up the ISO to 400. I liked the warm coloured light and did not correct it. I even used a slow shutter speed to show some movement which created more emotion . So here it is: the gorgeous Genevieve Lacey dancing in the rain with her recorder, luckily under the fabulous new sound shell, designed by architect Phillip Cox.
New Sound Shell designed by architect Phillip Cox
The portrait of the late Larry Adler, which I took live during the 4 Winds n 1997 using film and darkroom techniques. What a great subject!!
The late Larry Adler live at the Four Winds Festival Bermagui in 1997
The Four Winds Festival is recognised internationally as an outstanding world class music festival; and the setting in a natural amphitheatre in the forest is unequalled. We can only make it on the Sunday this year, but I would recommend it to all music lovers. I have included the website link in case you want to reserve tickets – See you there, heide
http://www.fourwinds.com.au
Klaus 1959
Sorry it’s taken so long to post this edition. Both Brian and I had totally separate accidents; Brian’s back and my ankle which slowed us down considerably. That and a couple of unexpected commissions has put us behind schedule for our new book, (which I think will be number eleven ), so I am afraid that everything else had to wait, including the blog.
Nikos 1959
In February, Brian explained the reasoning behind our new blog title and logo, and asked the question “What is Contemporary Portrait Photography ?”Brian explained what he thought it meant, and asked for your opinions. So this week I have included some portraits that I took in Germany50 years ago, at the very beginning of my professional career, and a few notes on equipment etc,
Volker 1959
The camera that I generally used for portraiture was a twin lens Rollei, but occasionally, as with this shot, I used the 4”x 5” view camera from ‘work’, where my job was to photograph heavy plant and equipment (like bulldozers). Of course, when you shot portraits with a view camera, you had to have patient sitters. So, all my friends had to volunteer. But using a view camera does focus the mind of the photographer; you make darn sure that you get the lighting, the exposure, everything just right.
annemarie 1962
There was no Photoshop to help you in those days; though, one of my teachers favorite phrase was: ‘the best photographs are made in the darkroom’. What I learned in the darkroom later helped me with photoshop techniques.
nude in doorway 1961
This shot was taken in 1961, and I sandwiched the portrait with another negative.
So my question to you is
Are these contemporary portraits ?
Portrait of the late Prof Manning Clark at Wapengo in 1989
Manning and Dymphna Clark were dear friends and I miss them both. I visited them often at Wapengo and this is one of my favorite shots of him; I think that fishing and cricket were his two great loves.
Happy birthday Manning.
Welcome to our new look blog – hope you like it.
Old fisherwoman in Steinhude in Germany taken in 1960
For some time, Brian and I have felt that we needed to define the focus of our blog. Up to now our posts have been more like a personal diary, which is fine if all you want to do is chat. But the aim of a blog is ultimately to attract readers; producing blog posts is time consuming, and to be rewarding for authors, posts need to be read by as many people as possible . So the first question for us was what should be the focus of the blog? Easy answer, my photography. But I have had a long and varied career. In Germany, I did my apprenticeship working as an industrial photographer, followed by a lengthy stint as a photo-journalist. In England I freelanced as a society and magazine photographer.
In Australia I worked for a leading colour lab, and for twenty years in my own studio, where I photographed Canberra for architects, anything and everything for Ad Agencies, landscapes for my four books on Canberra, and people; thousands and thousands of people, from Governor Generals, Prime Ministers and Queens, to families and weddings.
Tradesmen of Fyshwick - electricians Kevin and Chris Pritzler with their dog 1987
I have always stated that I am a GP, a General Photographer, but if I have to be more precise, I am a People Photographer, and to be even more precise, I have had the most success as a Portrait Photographer and as a Documentary Photographer. So there you have it. From now on our aim is to produce interesting, topical, and informative posts , with the modest aim of attracting a community of readers who will contribute their thoughts and ideas on Contemporary Portrait Photography and Documentary Photography.
So to the second question. What is Contemporary Portrait Photography? The Oxford Dictionary defines contemporary as “of these times“. But what is meant by “these times” ? Today, this year, this decade? Pretty scary, does that mean that all my earlier work is not contemporary?
Writer Rodney Hall at home near Bermagui in 1986
Fortunately Wikipedia is more specific, when it defines Contemporary Art, (and photography is recognised as art, hence the term Fine Art Photography) as:
“art produced at this present point in time or art produced since World War II. The definition of the word contemporary would support the first view, but museums of contemporary art commonly define their collections as consisting of art produced since World War II”
Which is a great definition, because even I am not that old, so all my portraits qualify, at least on the basis of age.
David Nuttall oboeist with the CSO, taken in my Fyshwick studio in 1996
There is also a widely held belief that the goal of contemporary portraiture is to capture the personality, as well as the physical likeness, of the subject.
I have included some of my portraits in this post, and I would welcome your opinion as to whether you feel that they are, or are not “contemporary portraits”. I would also welcome your opinion of “What is Contemporary Portrait
Photography?”
You can see more of my portraits on my website http://www.heidesmith.com
Last week we returned from visiting our daughter and family in the Huon Valley Tasmania. Their place is a bit crowded with two children (and two dogs, and two goats and a goose, and forty domesticated ducks and zillions of wild ducks, a-n-d forty chucks).
So we stayed at a great self contained cottage called Shetlands Rest in Glaziers Bay,
with views across the Huon River to die for. 
If you are planning to visit that area, we can highly recommend it. We also dropped in on an old mate Richard Bennett on BrunyIsland. Unfortunately we missed Susie, but had a great time anyway. Like us, Richard is still producing books, and now that he has a new printer, he is even more enthusiastic.
The only drawback with visiting Tassie is that it takes us as long to get there as it does to
travel to Asia. It’s nice to be home and at long last we have had some decent rain. It’s a real pleasure to sit in the deckchair and watch the grass grow.
This morning Heide woke me at 5 am to tell me we had a bat in the house. She thought that she had heard a possum on the table tennis table (our latest passion), and when she opened the slider (door) to check, the bat flew in! It made it’s way to the bedroom and flew round and round – with us chasing, until we eventually thought to open the bedroom slider; a couple of dozen circuits later it decided enough was enough and flew out. We were so exhausted we had to go back to bed. And Heide didn’t even get a photograph of it!
