James Mountain

Alison Mountain

Joshua Healey

Bill Maude

I believe Bill started teaching at Grammar the year before I started there in 1975. He retired in 2013.

Bridget Middleton

I first encountered Bridget in 1975. She was married to the housemaster of the other boarding house at Canberra Grammar School. I boarded in my first year.

Bridget has been working at the school right up to her retirement this year.

Bill and Wendy Cowey

I spent nine years filming and editing film of Wendy so I know how much she dislikes being photographed.

Wendy is one of the key developers of a major literacy program in Australia. My role was to record and edit video-footage for teacher-training. We spent years in remote (typically indigenous) schools accumulating zillions of frequent-flyer points. I think Wendy may have grown wings of her own. Wendy is now working as a consultant across Australia. 

My work with the program and with Wendy was truly life-transforming. It helped me understand where and why my own education failed, how education fails for so many kids, how it could have been different, and how to teach others.

Leonard Weiss - have harp will travel !

Leonard kindly brought himself and his harp to my studio. What an instrument to lug around? But someone has to do it and Lenny plays beautifully. He also a Carillonist here in Canberra and composer.

What an interesting instrument the harp is to photograph. Whatever you do it is going to dominate an image, naturally. But how do you bring something fresh to shots of the harp, or any instrument for that matter? Is the shot about the instrument or the musician? Whatever, one of the functions of a shot is to make people look in the first place which is why I've chosen this particular image. But then I hope there is something else to look at when I have your attention.

With these shots getting around poor Lenny might not get any more engagements. But it may reflect how he feels at times, sitting in an orchestra waiting for his part...

Sunday, Melissa, Millie and Bella Oloyede

I photographed the Oloyede several years ago and included Melissa and the girls in my Mothers and Daughters collection.

The photographic appeal of the frizzy-haired girls is obvious. I also captured the girls many times when they were in the infants section of the boy's Grammar school. Now they are at the girls' Grammar I miss them (and the school misses them too).

I will, however, endeavour to capture the family every few years for as long as I'm around and they are all nearby. It will be interesting to see them age and grow.

Donna Storen - at a reflective age (somewhere in her 40's)

I have known Donna about 12 years now. Our first-borns were at school together and are now at university on different sides of the world.

Donna helped select the images displayed here. I had made a short list and had some favourites but a few of those were discarded and a few others added.

Donna is rarely photographed because she prefers being behind the camera. A lot of us are like that. So the process of being shot was a novelty. She loved the experience but was a bit shocked (startled? confronted?) by the results.

Donna brought along a few costume changes and we had more fun working with the dress she had bought for a ball but never actually worn because she didn't end up going. Long story... 

I liked this because it contrasted her glamourous side with her more rugged golf-obsessed and suntanned lifestyle. It presented an interesting contrast of textures and personality.

So, why 'shocked'? Well, women are always tough to photograph. As a man I'm amused (but understand) how a woman will look at herself and just see problems, no matter how favourably her genes, life and ageing may have treated her. This is not such a problem for men, although we are all confronted by the mismatch between our self-image and the photographed-image (particularly as we age).

But this was never a glamour shoot. It was about capturing an attractive woman at a particular point in her life, "somewhere in her 40's" she tells me. With the right treatment a photograph can be flattering, but my objective is to tell a story of life. This is why we chose the main 'reflective' image. Donna preferred the image with me in it for the humour and to prove she is willing to be photographed ...if she must. 

I have included other images to flesh out Donna a bit more, particularly for others who know her.

Tristan, Carissa and Annalisa McGrath: a young family starting a long journey

I really do wonder how humankind managed to evolve to this point WITHOUT "i" technology. Kids (and many adults) take to it like their lives depend on it. It is the ONLY important thing in our lives. Without doubt it is a major game-changer for humankind.

My kids are older, but I feel some sympathy for younger parents who will have to battle the iDemon forever.

When, during this shoot, the iPhone was produced to make Annalisa look in the right direction, the challenge then became to get her to forget the device. 

Technology is a fantastic tool, but a bad master...

I have photographed Carissa many times: with her Mum, with tristan many times and now with Annalisa many times, including when VERY pregnant.

I hope to photograph them for many years to come.

Ellie Templeton, Ally Gould, Erin Straude, Claire Daly and Jemima Daly ...age 24.

No One Gets Left Behind...

No, it's not referring to a football position. It is their motto. As they move through life these close friends pledge to support one another and always be there for each other. I guess we all need family and support and a gang or friendship-group provides just that, particularly as young people try the big world around them. Sadly, they did leave one behind for the shoot, but she was in Melbourne and couldn't make it. Another time, I hope...

My connection to this group is through Jemima's Dad, my old school mate. I met Claire through a previous shoot and the others I recognise from their images popping up on each others' facebook snaps.

Their friendship goes back in some cases to the first years of schooling. The others got tacked on as they progressed through life. They are all now 24 years of age.

I was interested to know what they hoped for in the future and asked each where they thought they'd be in 5 and 20 years from now.

All have a tertiary education. One is currently a public affairs consultant, one a media adviser for a politician, one has just finished University and is working in childcare, another is a teacher and one has just quit her job in retail. Four had a reasonable idea where they wanted to be in the future, with two pretty sure they'd like kids. One claimed to have no idea where she'd be in years to come. I will try to catch up with the gang in 5 year to see what has become of them.

I understand my father was evacuated from London during the blitz to the village my mother lived in Cambridgeshire. So they have known each other since they were 4 years old.

There seemed to be something that 'clicked' with them from childhood because they always seemed to be together, along with a few others. While my father was back in London after the war, he seemed to spend a fair bit of his childhood and teenage years in the village still. I'll upload some more photos of them from their childhood soon.

My father joined the Merchant Navy at around 16 years of age - his mother was keen to get him out from her life and independent so she could get on with her life (she was left with 3 kids to raise and my father was the last of them). My mother left school at around 15. She was not academically minded and her parents couldn't afford to keep her at school. 

While my father sailed the seven seas my mother worked in cafes and factories and married young and had my older brother. Apparently my father was a bit put out by this. As they've recalled, it was 'understood' they were meant for each other even thoughI don't think that was expressed between them at the time. The first husband killed himself when his motorbike hit a lamp post.

My parents then married in 1960 when they were still only 21 and 22. I was born in 1962 and tony left the Navy a year or so later. Left England for Australia in 1972.

These photographs were taken in 2011. I see my parents for lunch about once a month. They live in the country outside Canberra. We usually talk about photography and during one of the lunches we were talking about remembering people, particularly those who had died, and what our enduring memories of them might be. Often we are left with an image of when they were sick, which is a shame. So we decided to take some shots to make sure we had some alternative options. Not that they look like dropping off for sometime, but you never know.

It is a shame that we tend to avoid the camera as we get older. Vanity... We might be caught here or there in snaps, but these are usually terrible shots and not something we'd ever like to be remembered by.

A cold and windy Canberra Winter's day but absolutely superb location, vista and atmosphere.