LightVision

Taking Stock

Just like the stock market we are shedding stock as quickly as the Aussie dollar is going through the floor. Difference is we are doing a careful cull…of images and not a panicked sell off of ridiculous assets that no-one understands.

I was always proud and thought it impressive that the Wildlight analogue library contained a whopping 300,000 images. With some of the best names in the business, it’s an archive with great depth and top quality imagery. Despite this abundance of cellulose resources, we are hurtling towards a business model which embraces virtualisation. In these bleak economic times, automating labour-intensive business processes is a big saving for a small business like ours. So picture an office with loads of filing cabinets labeled ‘empty’. Feels good - my eyes are wrecked and at the end of the day, seeing or talking about image-making has me reaching for the Stoli. We are keeping the cream of the crop and sending the rest back to photographers. What do we do with the edit?…edit it again…and again - hopefully, we’ll have a few thousand survivors to scan - sigh.

We haven’t been the only ones hunched over a light table waiting for the chiropractor. The Rennie Ellis Photographic Archive has spent the last five years editing 500,000 images of the late Melbourne identity, Rennie Ellis. Wildlight is proud to represent his images in our collection, and now you can see them at a well deserved major retrospective of his work at the National Gallery of Victoria - it’s going to be very retro - I just finished starching my safari suit for the opening night!

We’ve been very privileged to participate in a new book compiled by filmmaker and photographer, John Ogden. With a working title Portraits from a Land Without People, it’s sure to stir the pot. Oggy has researched hundreds of thousands of images of aboriginal Australians dating back to 1847. The book comprises 300 powerful images which describe a pictorial history of Aboriginal Australians. Wildlight is proud to have contributed seven images to the book by David Moore, Penny Tweedie and Carolyn Johns. The book is scheduled to be released in February 2009, with proceeds flowing to the Jimmy Little Foundation, to help improve kidney health in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. To see a multimedia slideshow and interview with Oggy by the Sydney Morning Herald, then click here. I’ve been trying to get John Ogden to join the Wildlight library for a year now, but he seems to be distracted by this book…good luck Oggy!

A fascinating and quite unexpected discovery at the PictureHouse Sydney 2008 tradeshow did present itself rather perplexingly in the unisex toilet block at B2 Studios. All manner of derrière delights could be experienced just by sitting down on the throne. And futuristic command module it was, complete with a control panel which would instantly retire the space shuttle program. A picture is splashed a thousand words…

Firstly, Jean-Marc and I were really disappointed that we didn’t win the print, all our ballot rigging would have had George Dubya (and Jeb) and Bob Mugabe cheering, instead, fairness won the day. And what a fair and impartial hand to draw the winning card from the lucky dip bowl - the lovely Gabrielle Haumesser.  This cool, framed Rennie Ellis print of Bondi Beach, complete with Certificate of Authenticity was won by, Linda Brainwood - freelance picture researcher. Congratulations Linda! She was thrilled, and her wall will be thrilled to have it hanging there too!

Many thanks to Manuela and Kerry at the Rennie Ellis Photographic Archive for contributing the artist proof. Special thanks also, to the guys at Acme Art and Framing Gallery in Surry Hills for doing a fantastic framing job in such a short time. The expert advice and archival materials used were first class.