Surfer and Photographer 

 “I grew up next to the reserve on Mona Vale Headland, overlooking The Basin and Mona Vale Beach. Life revolved around the headland, the track down to the beach, surfing and hanging out at Peter Ritchards parent’s weekender that backed onto the Basin. Walking to Warriewood in the South Westers or getting a lift to Kiddies Corner with Peter’s mum in the Southerlies and of course summer was the Basin.

In the early 60s my father built a dark room under the house and showed me how to process black and white negatives and print. I graduated from using a Box BrIownie to borrowing my father’s 35mm D model Miranda SLR with no metering and a Tamron Tele lens. I clearly remember Russell Sheppard teaching me the finer points of my new hand held Weston Master V light meter on the waters edge at Mona Vale. Photographing surfing action was pretty straightforward. Good light, photogenic waves and a talented surfer. It also meant timing, anticipation and pulling focus on a manual telephoto lens. I was very influenced by the photos and words in American Surfer Magazine…it was my bible in the Sixties.

Geoff Channon 1964                            Peter Hughes Kiddies Corner 1965  

In February 1964, I purchased a Komura 400 mm telephoto lens with my first few pay packets. The outcome was that six months later I had five black and white photos and 250 words published in the August 1964 issue of Surfing World.  Subsequent feature articles and images were published in Surfing World until the end of that decade.

Humour…………
Highly influenced by the bent English humour of the Monty Python team, The Goons and Barry Humphries  (cutting edge humour in the late ‘6os) I wrote:  Beware of Large Moulded Plastic Imitations that was published in the October 1970 issue of Surfing World, and then:  Number Seventeen Honeysuckle Street Avoca Beach that John Witzig published in Surf International Vol 2 No 4. This included a portrait of Geoff Sedevic and Richard Harvey photographed at Rosedale Beach NSW South Coast in autumn 1969, which was my first portrait.

The Smoker Geoff Sedovic + Richard Harvey Rosedale Beach 1969

If you think that you have seen these buildings before….. you are correct. They were made famous a few years back when the Kidman family purchased the buildings and the surrounding property. Geoff and Richard are looking at the spot where the helicopter landed.

Portraits……..
Photographically I was beginning to see other things beside action and took a few portraits although only a few stand out. Technically my negatives were either over or under-developed.  I also used the occasional colour negative film and dabbled with an old twin lens Mamiya. One of my first pics was this one of Richard Harvey on a surf mat at Bawley Point, NSW. Later I started taking more abstract black and white images.

Moving Pictures………
1971, along with two long-time friends Russel and Phil Sheppard we started 16mm filming for 'Our Day in The Sun', narrated by Midget Farrelly. This was cut into a 25 Minute short that premiered at a Surf Film Festival at Sydney University’s Union Theatre. Prints of this film were also sold to Coca Cola and The Australian Tourist Authority. Early 1972, Russell, Phil and I commenced work on the feature length film 'A Winters Tale'. This was shot in New Zealand, South Africa, Hawaii and Australia and premiered in February1974.

October 1974 I began contributing to Surfing World Magazine. This lasted for several years but this time my subject from the previous decade, Bruce Channon , was the magazine’s editor. Early ‘jobs for the (Mona Vale) boys’.

Towards the end of the ‘70’s I was using a Leicaflex, handheld, with a 180mm lens to shoot action and was establishing myself commercially. My surfing photography amounted to the occasional arty wave and that habit continues to this day. In Vol Two, Number Two of The Australian Surfers Journal in summer ‘89/90 Phil Jarrett published six pages of montages with lengthy captions from my early 1960’s photo albums.

After selling Surfing World, Bruce Channon became editor of Australian Long Boarding in 2002. As well as contributing photography to ALB I began to write profiles of interesting people within the surfing community.  Commencing with a feature on John Cormack. Followed by Paul Morris, Ian Williams, Peter Hughes and Ian Reeder. The 2006 ALB Photo Annual featured 14 pages of my Album Pages with ten accompanying essays. These were followed by 'There’s An Astronaught At My Door', the John Haymes profile in 2006 and early 2008 'A Decade in The Life of Ross Renwick'.

I occasionally write about surfers who have an interest in photography, including Tom Carroll for Camera magazine. And the publishing and design talents of John Witzig for ProPhoto (Professional Photography).
 
Since the mid-seventies I have been a Sydney-based commercial photographer specialising in people and location assignments. My combinations of creativity and technical expertise have earned me many of Australia’s prestigious photographic awards including: images accepted into The Fuji ACMP Australian Photographers Collection and a Hasselblad Masters Award.

My assignments have covered Australia as well as the Asia Pacific region, for a wide variety of clients”.