TAKE A WALK THROUGH YOUR HOME, WITHOUT MOVING ANYTHING, WHAT PHOTOGRAPHS CAN YOU SEE?
I arrive home, ignoring the junk mail in my hand, I see three bookshelves, laden with words as well as photographs. I put my bag down, grab a glass of water from the kitchen, where any unsightly packaging, including anything with photos, is hidden behind doors. Then I sit down to take my shoes off, to my left is a black and white salon-inspired gallery wall, there's an array of framed prints and, of course, photographs:
- A postcard featuring a photograph of Ansel Adams standing on the roof of a car using a large format camera in Yosemite National Park bought while visiting the park in 2015.
- A promotional postcard from a Trent Parke exhibition at Stills Gallery — a satisfactory substitute for the limited edition print I coveted.
- A candid photo of my now husband and I taken about a year after we'd met.
- A souvenir print of a low plane over Hong Kong, taken when the airport was close to the city centre, I have no memory of this spectacle, yet I did land in that airport as a baby.
- An A4 inkjet print scanned from a 35mm negative of my favourite local architecture — the Sydney Opera House — taken as a high school student in 2006, reminding me that while a photographer’s eye can be developed, an ‘eye' is as innate as it is ineffable.
- An A4 inkjet print of, perhaps, my favourite international architecture, which I managed to visit in 2011 — the Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao.
- A pair of photographs of bondi beach by Ursula Hechenberger-Schwärzler, probably the first photography by a friend I decided to add to my collection.
- A wedding photo.
- A 1:1 digital print of a square medium format Holga negative, of a dusk view over Lake Wakatipu and surrounding mountains taken on our honeymoon in Queenstown, New Zealand.
- A black and white photo postcard of the exterior of Anne Frank House, bought while visiting in 2011.
- A print purchased from a photography college friend Michaela Skovrenova of a place I'm yet to explore, filled with beauty, mystery and melancholy.
- A view of classic New York architecture looking north-east from the Empire State Building by Geoffrey Roberts.
- An image by Ian Berry of supporters climbing on a billboard featuring Nelson Mandela to get a better view of the same man, purchased in a Magnum Square Print sale after returning from South Africa in 2016.
- Four Instant Lab prints from my own series ebb+ (these were the only photographs I initially forgot were on display, perhaps, because as commissioned work, they evoke only insignificant memories...)
- Four framed photographs of grandparents — my grandfather in his antique gallery, my grandmother on her twenty-first birthday, my Nana at a similar age, and my grandparents-in-law looking radiant at our engagement party.
Next, I walk past the bookshelf where my photo albums are stored, glimpsing the frames of pairs of instant photographs of highlights from travels to South America and Africa. They might not be the best images, yet these photographs capture the euphoria of the experience, and are unique, tangible objects that traveled with all the way home from those moment with me. There’s also a uncommon view looking down on the the Golden Gate Bridge from the top, by a photographer who told me she gained access via her friendship with the Mayor, as well as an abstract print looking out an icy Japanese bus window gifted to me by Sarah Abad. On the wall above this bookshelf are two photographs of dense forests, a snowy European scene by Lara Miller and my own contrasting image of a green Yosemite.
Rounding the corner into the tiny hallway, I almost don’t notice three more Instant Lab prints, sheltered from most daylight, of a road trip in America — Sedona, Joshua Tree and, again, Yosemite. I can see into the spare room which stores cameras but not photographs, save for the ones on hard drives and DVD covers.
Finally, in the bedroom, three small wedding photos. Of course I have many more photographs, of various states, in cupboards and drawers, some waiting to hang, but that summarises what I currently see almost everyday. What do you see?
Walking in the front door I can see a linocut print by my friend Prue, and a vintage poster, which don't count here, so on to the living room... A vintage world map and 2 Bollywood posters - no! Above the TV are 3 of my own photos of street scenes in India - A cute smiling man on a motor scooter and a taxi in Kolkata near a lurking tabby cat, and a group of vibrantly-dressed grannies under their washing line in Ujjain. On the opposite wall is another street scene I took in Ujjain, this one a row of local shops and shoppers with a woman in a headscarf silhouetted in a distant doorway, and a photo I bought from my friend Saumil's exhibition, of the underpass in front of his family home in Ahmedabad, with vibrant street art of Mahatma Gandhi and the silhouette of a man drinking chai. When I went to visit Saumil I found this art significantly faded (and the chai-drinker wasn't there) but I'm happy to have been to the actual location. On the speaker cabinet are a stack of inspirational photo-books (including a vintage National Geographic) that we keep handy to open, study and enjoy all the time. They don't just sit there! On the top right now is Walker Evans 'Signs'. On the mantelpiece are 5 small (analog!) prints of my boys when they were little - 3 at the beach, (hmm, one looking significantly faded even though this isn't a bright room) another at the Maffra show with their great Uncle Ron in front of an old white-painted building labelled "Pavilion" which sadly has since been demolished, and a formal family portrait. My Mum somehow won that portrait sitting - interestingly the professional photos were all 4"x 5" ! Is that a photo size these days? Also on the mantelpiece, a belated Christmas postcard from and of my niece Sally with her boyfriend Kade and her dog Ginny, photo taken by my nephew Lachlan but not intentionally for Christmas use. Last but not least another photographic postcard, this time of a sweet little cat in a window in Portugal (not sure who gave it to me) Next to this, in the big built-in cupboard are heaps of my photo albums and my camera. Upstairs... On the wall in our bedroom is an enlargement of a photo I took of Bagbazar railway station in Kolkata, with numerous people waiting under the sign on the platform in the afternoon sunlight, and a bright yellow saree spread out to dry on the train track! On my dressing table in a dilapidated old round silver frame is a tiny wedding photo of my maternal grandparents and another little sepia one of my paternal grandma, Bessie. 3 more little framed baby photos of my boys. Several more frames in the bedroom contain not photos, but prints of paintings by Edward Hopper who I count as a photographic influence. On the bookshelf are many more photo books (including several of Chloe's). Notably absent are my own photo books which were so disappointing that I chopped them up! Who else has photos in the bathroom? I have 3 more of my own of India, all with a laundry theme (our washing machine is in the bathroom too). And a framed black and white photo by my friend Francine of a delicate transparent scarf hung out to dry in her garden. In the wardrobe room I've got a tower of shoebox-sized boxes containing 4"x 6" prints and negatives, and a few boxes of slides from the 1970s. I wish I had never taken any colour negative prints, and that all of them were slides, because the slides I have scanned are perfect and the colour negatives are horrible - dusty, faded, scratched, blurry, lacking detail and hugely disappointing. But slide film was so much more expensive! Time to print some more from my digital archive - yes it's even backed up!
January 30, 2018 by Margaret Swan
Thanks for recounting your inspiring home! I actually picked up the cat in a window postcard for you in Portugal because it reminded me of some photos I once took of a cat in your window — although I don’t think I actually posted any postcards from Portugal, hence the anonymity!
January 30, 2018 by Chloe