Photomedia – What is it? – Yeeehah PhotoMedia

Whatever you want it to be.

FEB 06, 2025

When I began my PhotoMedia degree at Sydney College of the Arts (SCA) in 2010, I had been taking photographs and working with film and video for much of my life, but I really didn’t know what Photomedia was. Some would question that I know now.

Marrakesh

I intrinsically went into the course as a photographer but quickly discovered there were many other possibilities.

I was privileged to have some amazing tutors, all great working artists. People like Julie Rrap, sister of Mike Parr, both of whom are incredibly intriguing artists.

Most importantly for me though, was the wonderfully eclectic David Haines, https://experimenta.org/artists/david-haines/
who became the supervisor for my Honours degree.

From my first class with David, I knew something had changed in my thinking. He really opened my eyes, ears and whole body to an inclusive concept of what photomedia could be. His enthusiasm and multiple talents encouraged me to explore possibilities I had not have previously considered. And isn’t that what a teacher should do?

The way I practise Photomedia today, is to incorporate anything at hand to create a work. Software, computers, cameras of all kinds, as well as audio-visual equipment and physical manipulation. This includes models, airbrushing and lighting effects.

The video above and the one that follows were created in a multi-stage process described below.

Essentially, I conducted a number of photographic studio shoots with various human models. This consisted of airbrush painting them in fluorescent paint, using a variety of fluorescing props and then photographing them using black (UV) light. I built two lighting boxes with UV Tubes. My camera was a Nikon D700 and I shot in burst mode to capture as many frames as I could while the models variously moved or danced. The limitations of the camera frame rate and the ability of the capture card to record meant I usually captured somewhere between 12-20 frames per burst. These bursts were linked together as “takes” in Final Cut Pro to create longer video sequences, one for each model shoot. I then combined all of these together and began manipulating the video with a range of filters and other techniques to distort them. The wonderful colour intensity and vibrance of shooting fluorescent paint made me very happy.

Kat

The audio was created using a variety of wildtracks and one of my favourite obscure apps called PhotoSounder. With it you can turn an image into sound and vice versa. It was used extensively in these videos. I further manipulated the sound, variously changing the speed and frequencies. My favourite wildtrack is a recording of thousands of cicadas singing on a hot summer afternoon. This is responsible for most of the drone sounds.

The video below is a greatly abbreviated version my major work and was displayed as a multi projector installation in a completely dark room.

These days, I still predominantly take photographs, mostly digital, and I really like to mess with them. For example I have taken many photos using 360 degree cameras.

I like the look but even more, I enjoy mutilating the heck out of them in software. Upping the saturation, twisting them as far as I can, animating them.

Before I quit using Photoshop several years ago, because of what I consider Adobe’s unfriendly subscription scheme, (I had been using PS since the 0.93 beta) and moved to Affinity Photo, I used to manipulate images using scripts to make what I call Mosaics. This was a precursor exploration to the processes in the videos above.

London Big Mosaic

This process segmented the original image and then, using a variety of filters and manipulations I worked to find something I liked.

Oh yeah, I’m very visual. I’m not overly interested in the intellectual breakdown of visual art. I want something experiential that stimulates parts of me to alter my state of mind and I sometimes get a visceral response as well. I guess this harks back to my first experiences of Surrealism in High School, seeing some of Rene Magritte’s work in the Art History classes. I haven’t really looked back since then.

So all this once again begs the question, what is Photomedia? For me it is almost anything visual/audio/tactile that creates an altered state… an Alter’d Ego. An exploration of possibilities. Oh yeah, and it’s fun and AI free.

I would love to hear your thoughts.

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