About A Glass Eye and Three Wooden Legs

 Stephen Hall

Large format landscape photography requires a slow and contemplative approach to image capture which best suits my attitude towards landscape. I use mainly black & white film and large format (5"x4" and 8"x10") cameras to get high quality images.
 
I consider myself a print maker as much as a photographer and have worked extensively in both traditional silver, and digital inkjet processes. I am currently working with 19th century processes including Cyanotype and Gum-Bichromate printmaking processes.

I was fortunate to be living in the Dandenong Ranges during the Melbourne pandemic lockdown and found myself with the time to properly explore this beautiful region and all it's seasonal moods, as well as to revive my alternative process printmaking practice. The tall forest, the fog and soft morning light amongst the trees, the calls of Lyrebirds and Currawongs still connect me to this place. Many of the images in my Alternative Process page are from this period.

My fascination with urban night & low light photography is part of my continually evolving relationship with the landscape. I am primarily a landscape photographer and I see streetscapes, buildings and modified environments as another aspect of the landscape.

With urban architecture photography I strive to exclude the signs and indications of day to day human presence;  people, parked cars, traffic, etc. from images. I aim for a timeless appearance where the streets and buildings are the main players; the actors not the stage, without distraction from the bustle of humanity.

Many shots in this portfolio, whilst looking simple are the product of long, painstaking attempts to capture a pure image. This can be exceptionally difficult, especially at night; shielding the lens against every passerby or moving car can double an exposure time and require me to be constantly attentive throughout the exposure; otherwise perfect compositions may be spoiled by the streak of a single line of headlights through the image. My night-time photographs sometimes have exposure times of an hour or more. I never use photoshop to manipulate or delete unwanted subject elements.


I have work shown in exhibitions in Adelaide, Cairns, Toowoomba, Natimuk, Cygnet and Ballarat. My work has been published in RACT, Wild Magazine, Australian Conservation Foundation & Wilderness Society Calendars and Diaries.

My first solo exhibition, 'Peripheral - Images of Regional Victoria', was shown at The Goat Gallery in Natimuk in December 2011 to great success. I also exhibited my work with the Ballarat International Foto Biennale in 2017 and 2021

 I am currently living in Hobart, Tasmania.

Exhibitions:

Solo Exhibition: Ballarat International Foto Bienale - 'Studies in Iron and Coffee' 2021: The Turret Cafe, Ballarat

Solo Exhibition: Ballarat International Foto Bienale - 'The Prints of Darkness' 2017: The Unicorn Cafe, Ballarat

Solo Exhibition: 'Peripheral' 2011: The Goat Gallery, Natimuk, Vic 

Group Exhibition at the Natimuk Frinj 2011 - Skylines Gallery  

HAEG Art exhibition 2007: Cygnet, Tasmania

McGregor Prize exhibition 2005: 2 prints highly commended- Toowoomba USQ 

Graduating Images 1991: Student images exhibition

Two prints acquired by The Horsham Regional Gallery for their permanent collection