When I began to photograph my friend’s vintage microphone collection recently, I was reminded that I’d always wanted to shoot 1950s and 60s American cars.
Like those fin-and-chrome-covered cars, vintage microphones are all about design aspiration - mostly an expression of modernism and the space age. Sometimes even functional considerations seem to be quite a low priority!
I’d always assumed that my interest in old cars was a result of my having initially studied engineering, but these microphones have revealed to me that it’s more a fascination with the designer’s intent. Happily for me, vintage microphones fit into the studio more easily than Cadillacs.
I think it was the same kind of curiosity that drew me to commercial photography in the first place - it’s always an attempt to impose some kind of scheme or order on the chaos of the real world, expressed visually.
It occurs to me that food is the most chaotic of things, though it experiences a glorious moment of chef-imposed order on the plate in the moment just before we eat it!
I can’t say that I thought about any of this before developing a love for food photography. In my years of working for magazines, agencies , restaurants and other businesses I have found that chefs and food industry people are a pleasure to hang out with, particularly when food is around. Which it usually is.
I am Sydney-based and have a studio in the northern beaches area.
