The Marks of Man

Port Lyttelton. Passengers by the "Cressy" landing. by Wm. Fox Esqr. VOYAGES OF THE FIRST FOUR SHIPS. We have been favoured with the following accounts of the first ships, by passengers on board: THE "CRESSY" On the morning of Sep. 4th, 1850 the barque, "Cressy," 720 tons, J.D. Bell, master, left Gravesend, and was towed down the river. She sailed down the Channel, was nearly becalmed off the Isle of Wight, and did not drop anchor in Plymouth Sound before 3 in the morning of Sept. 7. At midnight she left Plymouth, and had an excellent run out of Channel. On the 10th she was almost clear of the Bay of Biscay, the nearest land begin Corunna- the antipodes of Lyttelton- but far from her. Five days of very light winds succeeded, and on the18th we made Maderia, and passed to the westward of it; on the 20th made Palma and Teneriffe; on the morning of the 26th made S. Antonio, passed to W. of all the islands, and ran as far as 26.26 W. We had no N.E. trades; and ...

Port Lyttelton. Passengers by the "Cressy" landing. From a drawing by Wm. Fox Esqr. Etched by T. Allom Here is an Arcadian dream in a lithograph. A man dressed immaculately and his wife, modest and matronly, covered with children, the oldestboy struggling up the hill with baggage, to populate the new Colony. They have just stepped off the boat in conditions most modern Kiwis would never tolerate. Shaking hands with a town official in a most formal way in their new land. I have to admit, it seems exciting and honest in way lost to most of us new immigrants and those already here in New Zealand. Though hang on if the place is so new, why have the trees have already been cut down and the stumps removed. This is the second clearance, after the great hunting fires. Camp Bay seems deserted though it was a hospital for those who suffered most in the crossing, most died there too. The buildings though few, are grand even the cottages seem prosperous, they offer the promise of wealth ...

Lyttelton, Port of Victoria, Drawn by E. Norman. Maclure, Macdonald & Macgregor, Lith:London, Lyttelton, published by Martin Heywood. Made only a hundred and fifty years or so ago. The hills are already clear cut , the the town seems out of a box it is so new, yet because the town is so far from England the engraver has made it seem bleak and alien. The original water colour captures the light unique to New Zealand. Here is the original Bunney, J. (John Wharlton), 1828-1882. Port Lyttelton, Canterbury 1858. 1 watercolour ; 41.5 x 61 cm.

From the New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/12/business/12stream.html Intuition + Money: An Aha Moment By JOHN MARKOFF Published: October 11, 2008 IT started with a Harvard physicist acting on a hunch. It ended up producing a new material, called black silicon, that could have a broad impact on technologies ranging from ultrasensitive sensors to photovoltaic cells. Rick Friedman for The New York Times James Carey, left, and Stephen Saylor of SiOnyx with black silicon wafers. Harvard plans to announce it has licensed patents for black silicon to the company. On Monday, Harvard plans to announce that it has licensed patents for black silicon to SiOnyx, a company in Beverly, Mass., that has raised $11 million in venture financing. This would never have happened if the physicist, Eric Mazur, and his graduate students had stuck to the original purpose of their research. He says their experience offers a lesson in government financing of science...

from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Bown Jane Bown (born 1925) is a British photographer who has worked for The Observer newspaper in the United Kingdom since 1949. Her portraits of the famous of the 20th and 21st centuries have received critical acclaim, earning her an exhibition of her work in the National Portrait Gallery in London in 1980. John Lennon , 1963. She works primarily in black-and-white , using available light, with a forty year old camera. She has photographed hundreds of subjects, including Queen Elizabeth II for her eightieth birthday, Orson Welles , Samuel Beckett , Sir John Betjeman , Woody Allen , Cilla Black , Quentin Crisp , P. J. Harvey , John Lennon , Truman Capote , John Peel , Richard Nixon , the gangster Charlie Richardson , Field Marshal Sir Gerald Templer , Jarvis Cocker , Jayne Mansfield , Diana Dors , Henri Cartier-Bresson , Eve Arnold , Evelyn Waugh , Jean Cocteau , Brassai and Margaret Thatcher . Her extensive photojournalism output in...

Federico Borrell García, a young Republican militiaman in the Spanish civil war, died, it now seems certain, on September 5 1936, shot by Francoist rebels on a hillside in Cerro Muriano near Cordoba. His death might have gone unremarked, except that the image of that moment was celebrated for 40 years as one of the most famous war photographs of the 20th century. It was not Borrell's name that was famous - his identity was established only relatively recently - but that of Robert Capa, whose reputation was made by the photograph. Then, in 1975, came the suggestion that Capa had faked the picture. Now new evidence suggests another, darker twist to the story and adds a new dimension to the complex ethics of reporting war. The first doubts were raised by journalist Phillip Knightley, in his book on media and propaganda war, The First Casualty, in which he alleged that Capa had staged the scene for the camera. Knightley discovered that the picture had first been published in...

New Zealanders talk about their love of native plants Politicians, artists, academics, farmers, business people - growing numbers of New Zealanders are committed to a passionate love affair with native plants. This collection of 44 personal narratives is sumptuously illustrated by photographs by John Maillard, who travelled from Invercargill to Auckland to bring to life contributors’ garden stories. Contributors include Peri Drysdale, Jeanette Fitzsimons, Tim Shadbolt, Steven Tindall, and a host of conservationists and gardeners esteemed in their locales. A richly illustrated celebration of New Zealanders and their passion for native plants has been published by Canterbury University Press. Living with Natives, edited by Professor Ian Spellerberg from Lincoln University and Napier-based environmental and planning consultant Michele Frey, is a collection of 44 moving and informative narratives by people of all ages and from all walks of life who talk about their love of, and experienc...

New Zealand and photography are strange bed fellows. The history of this remote country is about survival and making do. New Zealand went through a period of unusual home made left wing politics, that made it hard to import any item not made in part, in country. That led to the Kiwi make do attitude, which of course is the same in many countries around the world. The man in the shed making do, is reflected in Britain and other places. Unfortunately the idea has gone a bit far here in New Zealand. In my exhibition I had a perfectly reasonable and intelligent man who came in a few times to view a picture. He then went to the same location to recreated the photograph. Yep lots do that, but to do it repeatedly and still wonder why the result is not the same as mine, surly would lead a person to ponder, that it takes more then a location and camera to make a good photograph. What I think is missing is the realization that education and immersion into the context, both culturally and histori...

This is the lemon tree in my garden, just to test out the fantastically expensive software for the Scanning back. I had to get this version from Denmark, so it will run on Mac Os X, though not on an intell machine. Saves me trying to run OS 9.x and process the 700 megabyte files. I hope I don't have to spend anymore on an upgrade. Most companies upgrade software for their products for free as Operating systems change, not the Danes. Thank god I don't have to buy a Danish car, the engine would be an extra. Toyo View field 5x4, with a Calter 65mm f4 lens, 300 plus megapixal Danish scanning back.

Its been a while. The scanning back is almost ready, I purchased a good 65mm f 4.5 Calter lens, as a gift to myself for the print sales at Tony's Two Rivers Gallery (thanks Tony). I have had very little time to work on my images. On Monday had a portrait request for Lady Diana Isaac so had an opportunity to processes my other images at the same time. This is the first of the next batch, its a real indication of the change of land use in Canterbury. Those are cows not sheep and the sky reminds us were we are in Canterbury. I don't think there is anywere else in the world that has clouds like this.

This is not going to be scientific, as the light changes but I want to know the best settings for this back, I may not have to use iso 100, it may be fine at 400 iso or 800 iso. I am also unsure what happens when you set the film curve as it is not reflected in the curve on the right of the screen. I have taken a lot of images today and will edit this post once I evaluate the images. The day was overcast so the light was even. You will see on the last scan, (it took a whopping 33 minutes). The sun goes down, darkening the image at the bottom. First shot unprocessed at medium resolution, that is 22.22 cm x 26.67 cm at 300 Pixels per inch, 23.6 MB. 75mm Lens set at f8 ( I put the lens in upside down and lifted the front and managed to clear the bed of the camera). The back was set at 30th of a second and the exposure indicator was on the left of the green area, indicating slight underexposure. Film curve was set to "Linear". Other options are film curve natural black, black and...

I found this site with a taped interview with John Blakemoore http://www.lensculture.com/blakemore.html I remember in the 1980s seeing his work for the first time, it looked wonderful, just like the work of Wyn Bullock.

I missed the light today, I was on the wrong side of the Port Hills. I stopped at the sign of the Kiwi and did a quick run up Sugar loaf. After much flapping around and negotiating joggers, I managed to get one image. I took three images, one at 16 minuets exposure, the clouds looked amazing with scanner distortion. I got a contorted jogger in another, the first image was best. Bringing a book helped me wait for the image to scan. I love the distortion in the grass. Here is a close up of the grass before I have removed the colour shift . You can see the 3 colour split from the (Sony?) tri linear array, and have a taste of the resolution. Thanks for the tips on software and Macs.

As I am a photographer in New Zealand, a low wage place. I want to put together a high resolution camera system on a budget. The scanning back I got from Ebay is a Phase One fx, which is fine until you try to buy extras from Phase One like a filter. I was Quoted $800 NZ, worse I need the software to run it. I was told by Phase One (the dealer is great not his fault), I would have to buy version 4 for 500 Euros, out of my range, Most software comes free with the device, these scanners are selling at $38000 NZ new. Its a bit like buying a car, then being told the engine is extra. Phase one being the magnanimous Danes they are, offer software for free, but only for Macs and system 9. Steep learning curve meant that the old Titanium Mac I bought for my daughter is on loan till my new/old $175.00 Ibook arrives from the US care of the defence department surplus, with out a hard drive of course, not easy to put those in. Quick parting of the drive and OS 9 and X are working, down to the batte...

Tony Tucker kindly invited me to exhibit at his New Gallery in Cheviot. After a lot of hard work it opened on Saturday 19th of April. Here is a bit of the opening on video, I edited out my talk, I don't like hearing myself or seeing myself on the screen, I think its a photographer thing.

I don’t believe technology has really changed photography; other then to open it up creatively even further. It has shown us we have to be ambivalent about how and why an image has been created. This ambivalence and discarding helps us question some of the myths that we surround ourself concerning photography, the myth of the blur, the myth of time, the myth of capture area, the myth of the document the myth of the photographic rather then human perception. Rather the capture of time through representation and memory by the vehicle of a camera has been strengthened, because we have so many ways of capturing images and holding them with out relying on human memory. When I use the camera I am looking for so many things beyond what my eyes or camera tell me is there. The ghosts of people on a footpath, the change of the vegetation of hundreds of years, the memories of human loss and gain. I try to see the conflicts on the land both human and natural, the difficulty is expressing this all ...

If there is one thing that digital technology has affected it is the family photograph, arguably the most important form of photography, digital technology has enabled the average person more freedom in making the pictures and this is a good thing. This current era of photography has been the most important form of photography since its invention, it records our human frailty and mortality, our loves and our losses beyond the few years that we live. Eventually to fade itself once all who remember us have died or the memory has gone.

The passion I have about photography is not necessarily about the photograph, but about what the photograph could represent. I am ambivalent about the technique of photography as well as the process. Technique is important in the physical capture of an image and the effect a camera has on the perception of the photograph. But once the image has been captured the importance of the camera the method of capture and the materials used becomes insignificant, a bit like the wrapping on a chocolate bar, useful for a while but always discarded, the memory being the chocolate. I have spend years in darkrooms, ages in front of a computer making my work, none of which is relevant once the photograph has been printed, but less so after. I love to look at an Ansell Adams and I admit have read the vast amount of technical information in his books. However when you look at his work, the importance for us now is limited, as time has gone by. I have often browsed junk shops and antique shops and found ...