Inspiration | Andrew Styan

Posted

February 4, 2020

News from Antarctica

In 2015 I created the underbelly installation as a way of imagining what it might be like beneath an Antarctic glacier where the sea is melting the ice from below – somewhere humans have never been or seen. Later in that year I worked with sound artist James Maher to create a video. Well, scientists have just filmed beneath a melting glacier for the first time and it seems our work was pretty accurate!

The Thwaites glacier holds 3 metres of sea level rise and its decay is accelerating. Full story in The Atlantic: The New Video of One of the Scariest Places on Earth

Posted

October 2, 2011

Return home

I only took a couple of days to get home after the Snowy River – the weather didn’t look too good and I had a toothache developing which I needed to get seen to before the long weekend. Apart from that I was getting a bit photoed out and lacking inspiration, especially after a night in a tent. A couple of spots did strike me though:

10 km from Bombala

I deliberately started the coastal part of the drive home from Eden as we have never travelled the South coast before. The highway and the coastal towns are reminiscent of the Pacific Hwy and the NSW north coast 10 years ago before the highway upgrades. On the advice of the man behind the counter in the Moruya petrol station I drove the short stretch of coastal road from Moruya to Bateman’s Bay and stumbled upon this photographic gem – Jimmy’s Island in Guerrilla Bay.

You may have noticed that I have taken a liking to extra wide panoramas and long exposures (2 seconds in this case). I know some people think it is overused but in this case I think the blurred detail and the motion that the longer exposure invokes work well against the sharp angles and colours of the island. Thoughts?

Finally, I am always moved by these when I pass them alongside the road:

Red Poppy, (36º 56′ 39″S 149º 50′ 15″)

I counted at least a dozen memorials on the Hume between Sydney and Goulbourn and I think we all know of one or two that we pass regularly. They represent such powerful stories and I think a photographic series on roadside memorials would make a great portfolio. I will try it soon as it something I could tackle to get me out of my landscape comfort zone. In this example the red reflector reminds me of a Flanders poppy, which itself holds a strong meaning, and the anonymity of the marker suggested the latitude/longitude reference.

Posted

September 25, 2011

Weekend in Melbourne

I’ve been in Melbourne for the weekend with very little photography happening, but visited the 1140 gallery in Malvern which turns out to be the only gallery in Melbourne permanently exhibiting photography and is just just 500 metres up the road from my daughter Katie’s apartment! Some great fine art work by various artists I hadn’t heard of, all huge prints and priced from $3,000 to $10,000. They are working with Robert Besanko, who is in his 80’s and apparently famous, but I hadn’t heard of him, to release his work as limited edition prints and to stage an exhibition at the Sydney MCA in the next 2 years. So watch out for it, stunning work, follow the link.

I took some good waterfall images on the way to Melbourne, but they will require a bit of fine tuning before I show them here. Also played around with vertical panning of the camera on some trees which is really not so hard, about 1/8 th second exposure, the difficult part is panning smoothly. Guesswork required to know when to press the short, but just keep trying until you get something you like. I almost convinced Katie to put it on her wall as abstract art.