In conjunction with the West Australian branch of the Australian Institute of Professional Photography we will be presenting a personal insight into our photography, our business, our development, our philosophy and our albums. We want to inspire, provoke and encourage other photographers to best themselves.

This is a unique opportunity for us to speak in tandem. We never do this. Its easy as photographers to become self centered so having the two of us creates a balance of 'selves'. We want this to be interactive and informative. Its two days on growing, surviving, nurturing, and why coffee is important.

We have nothing to sell but so much to give. We have won too many awards to worry about, we have shot in many amazing places, but when it comes down to the everyday truth of being a photographer for the people, we are singly most motivated by striving to give our best to the ones who gave us the trust to be their photographer.

We look forward to seeing you in Perth

Johannes Jo and Ida

I was in the UK for a couple of weeks speaking about photography.

Just before I left our local television station put together a short series of interviews with me. You can see them here ... mixed with people much more inspiring than I could hope to be, but I am proud to be in their company.

The talks overseas were a privilege to be involved in. I spoke on everything from Lovemarks to the Butterfly Effects, and from my beginnings as a wishful scientist to my life as a photographer, not in the hope of people doing the same but that they might learn from my lessons/mistakes and look at their own strengths to become better in their own way.

I am looking forward to going back next year.

Peace

Johannes

This town, Lyttelton, is inhabited by artists, port workers, librarians, vegans, fast-food workers, teachers, authors, poets, real-estate agents, carnivores, designers, musicians, coffee addicts, and several photographers.

It is very real and surreal in the same moment.

I have never been to war, and have lead as normal a life as most, suffering only at the hands of love, fate and opportunity. I did once find a dying man, and have often wondered if I could have saved him had I not been only 11 and naive to the ways of people.

I have nothing to say that hasn't been said before.

In a short time I am making a tour of the UK to talk about my photography.

What can I say?

I thought about musicians ... not the rock stars, but the ones who are musicians because they need to tell a story to those who will listen.

I thought about the musicians that write a great song or three, and want to share it with the world, not because they want to travel the world in limousines, but because they have stories to tell. Their stories are made up or based on their experiences. Sometimes they tell other people's stories. This is me, I am telling other people's stories, but as I see them. I photograph who they are, and the things and people they Cherish. I create a story for them, in a moment, or over time. This is the luck I have created for myself, it is the privilege of telling the stories of others.

So again I ask what can I say?

I want to tell a story about love. I want to tell another story about death, and then one about life. These are my stories. The stories themselves will probably change very little for you if you are a photographer coming to hear me speak, but if you can understand 'why' I am telling you these stories, and how that is important for you, then I will have done what I set out to do. I could teach photoshop, I could teach business ideas , I could talk about album design (and I probably will)

I guess that what I want to do is not to talk you into becoming more like me, but better at being you.

If I was a musician this tour would be acoustic, honest, and personal. I hope that if I end up somewhere near you that you will come and see me.

cheers

Johannes

Philip said 'but you aren't even cool now.'

How true.  We often hope that the future somehow has the answers when really we are the answer, ... or not.

When I travel I get to look at myself from a distance. I get to stand away from myself. I get to look at others and wonder at the differences.

Luis is the antichaos.

Simple, dark, well pressed clothes.

Colour coded order, and all that might be random has been carefully placed that way.

At any time a thing could be found with ease.

Or

Crumpled, multicoloured, and often displaced.

Everything is everywhere.

At any time a thing could be found with luck and persistance.

A full life filled with fractions and disorder, but sometimes the chaos gets too much.

Should I colour code my life?

Just a  question.

Hugs

Johannes

Photographers often start by asking themselves 'who am I?'  but they end up asking 'how can I be like somebody else'?

In truth they could be asking 'how can I be better at being myself?'

When I feel no connection with the bride and groom ... it makes what I do into a job. A job that I am good at, but something is missing.
I believe I have their trust and I am able to do a fabulous set of pics for them but if I know very little about them (... what makes them laugh, what makes them cry, how they see themselves, what they love about the way they look and the things that they don't like, are they afraid of heights, do they like architecture/vast landscapes/  ... all of these things ... ) then the thing that is most important, the connection, is not there.
I want to know what they love about each other and I want to watch them interacting when they feel they are not under public scrutiny. I would prefer not to be the complete stranger with a camera.

By doing this I earn permission to partake in their intimate moments. I earn permission to record their emotions.

And together we can do great things.

I have also written about this here, in my role as a Queensberry advocate, in two parts The Strangers part 1 and The Strangers part 2

It gets out of hand!

Then you might ask what does it matter.
The 'matter ' comes with the bestowing of value through the artistic label.
So then it is that art is about money ... but as soon as it is about money it is no longer art!

Confused ... I am .... almost

There used to be a cool video clip here from the Creature Comfort Series ... unfortunately it disappeared for now ... but while it was up we enjoyed it

Yes I know it's a chicken

"What is REAL?" asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. "Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?"

"Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real."

"It doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand."

from The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams