[Photographer Profile] #6 pete4130

pete4130

Boards Photographer Profile

The idea of these threads is to give some insight as to how some of your fellow photographers operate. Each person invited will write about their photography and provide some examples. This thread will be sticky for about a fortnight (longer if needed) During this time feel free to comment and ask questions. Please allow the subject to answer questions and do not do so on their behalf.

While this process is taking place, the subject will approach the next person to be highlighted. Please keep this secret and do not prompt.

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So here I am, Peter Conway, 32 years old and living in Sydney, Australia for the past 2 years. I work as a Land Surveyor over 1000Km's away in the desert and commute to work on a jet plane.





When I was about 19 years old I got my first proper BMX. It seems like yesterday and a million years ago. The first time I rolled out on my new bike I didn't realise how far it would take me. That was almost 14 years ago.

Since then my bike has taken me to the middle of the woods, cities far and wide, prestigious universities, across continents, to the corner shop and even to jail.

How amazing is this vehicle we call a bicycle? How far can it take you? How far are you willing to go? None of that matters as long as you enjoy the time you spend getting there.

The reason I shoot photos is rooted in BMX. I discovered something, at the time that was so out of the loop, so underground, so forgotten about and I was part of it. I wanted to document it so other people could see & understand. At the time I was living in an inner city ghetto in Dublin, with my windows being smashed daily with bricks, rats running over my feet, mould on the walls, junkies urinating in the letterbox, defecating outside my front door, local kids in my class getting a life stretch for murder, friends dead from drugs & my family huddling together and crouching around an open fire during winter to stay warm. I needed an escape to stay sane. BMX was my escape back then. BMX opened up photography to me.

At the time, everyone had a Hi-8 video cameras and were filming everything going on. I decided to step in a different direction and went for a 35mm camera. I blindly bought a Pentax MZ-50 because a friend in Uni had one and it was silver, and looked cool.




I taught myself how to use the college darkroom, with really, really poor discipline and atrocious technique. I was producing images that, at the time blew my mind when I'd see them appear on paper. I smile when I look back at these prints now, all yellowed and fading from being fixed so badly.

After finishing Uni I took a year out and did a PLC course in photography. It didn't think it taught me anything new but realised now that it improved my darkroom technique. It didn't give me vision that I was aware of at the time. The main lecturer, Ciaran O'Keefe was brilliant. His words still ring true at some of my core values in photography and art to this day. My dream back then was to get into DIT or IADT to study photography. I was extremely unsuccessful when I applied with my portfolio that year! Thankfully my arrogance pushed me forward, believing the mistake was theirs, not mine and set off on an adventure to NYC to shoot some photos. It's this trip where everything just clicked with me. It all came together and I could see. I could see an end result, not an idea but a vision, realised in a print.




In 2006 I went digital and it blew my mind. I knew nothing about RAW, processing, editing, software....I sadly turned my back on analogue for some time. I did the whole digital thing, getting photography magazines, doing the tutorials, trying different techniques, working to improve on them, practicing in photoshop.
My background is science based, so photography for me is science albeit with an aesthetic end result. Digital allowed me to play around with ideas and really get to grips with how things worked in the real world. I even got sucked in to the HDR thing for a while.......



Fast forward a few more years and my work was being published internationally in BMX magazines which was really awesome but not very profitable. It was ok. I didn't get into photography to make money. I did it because I enjoyed it. I did some commercial work from weddings, real estate (which is mind numbing), some music stuff, some celebrity portraiture work, make up and fashion shoots, movie stills etc.. and it just killed photography for me. For the most part as I wasn't enjoying it anymore.
I realised I couldn't continue to take pictures that other people wanted if I wasn't interested in the images. I had started to stop taking pictures outside of work. That was my tipping point and I pretty much stopped doing paidl work so I could continue to enjoy photography for myself. At this point I was over digital and embraced analogue again.

Film just makes me excited thinking about it. It's tactile, you can smell it, you can load it, unload it, you get nervous, you anticipate what you might be getting back. You forget what you've shot and gasp when you see your rolls come back.
Film is more forgiving than digital too, so in some respects you can be a sloppier photographer and get better results with film (all the digi shooters out there will love hearing that....
Given a choice, I'll shoot film for 90% of stuff. Digital is great. It's got a big, fast turnaround for work and its great. I just don't enjoy it as much. Film isn't a snob/exclusive thing. It's a qualitive, artistic and aesthetic choice.

I spent about 15 months in London too before making my way to Australia. I became a total voyeur there. The amount of people, the public transport, the awkward acceptance of having an armpit in your face on the underground. It was almost like you were invisible...



I don't shoot nearly as much as I used to. I think I used to shoot photos that I thought other people would like and give me praise for online. It's an easy trap to fall into, finding things that will get you lots of likes on Flickr or Pix.ie etc. I think most people do the same at some point. Now I think that when I shoot I hope it has more meaning and value for the image, for me at least. I try not to get stuck in a rut shooting the same way or with the same style all the time. If I feel thats happening I just stop shooting for a while. If I feel I've overdone something I try to never shoot something similar or in the same way again. It forces me to try to progress how I see things and evolve how I shoot. In saying that I still feel I probably have a style of shooting I'm not aware of. It's probably why I like to use so many different old cameras. They all have their pros and cons and they make me see and shoot differently depending what camera I'm shooting with.

I've definitely moved more towards intimate candid portraits, if such a thing can exist and documenting where I am, people I'm with and experiences I'm having.





This whole profile has been much harder than I imagined it would be.

sineadw

Yay! Delighted you're up. You were on my list of three or four to ask, but after Daire and me I thought we'd be accused if being film snobs

Will have a proper read later..

frozenfrozen

Loved it

ronanc15

Good read Pete, was interested to see your background as soon as I saw the thread. For some reason I thought you would be older, must be the grumpyness :P

I joke

Interesting to see your photography's evolution and I think you definitely have your own unique portraiture style!

Well done

Borderfox

Really enjoyed that Pete, what do you see yourself shooting more of in the future?

starr0409

Brilliant! Very well written- honest and original. Great photos too

chisel

Great read, well done. This series has been really great - its so good to hear where people have come from and their approach & sensibility.

gloobag

Great stuff Pete. Very interesting read and top notch images as always. That one of the kid taking a whizz is one of my personal faves. Don't think I'd have the balls to capture it myself.

pete4130

Thanks guys. I'm not actually as grumpy as I might seem. Deliberately dry perhaps and grumpy sometimes?

The kid taking a pee was pure chance. My Bronica battery was almost dead, I metered with an iPhone, camera adjusting to humidity after being in air con hotel, crazy hot, hungover and stressed my camera might not be exposing properly (a few PM's to Daire Q consoled me a great deal...thanks!). The shot was already framed and the kid ran into it as I was about to fire the shutter. So I waited a few seconds until he had a good stream flowing and that was it!

As for what I'm planning on shooting next? It's more portraiture of strangers with one thing in common with me, and each other. It's a social documentary series mostly in one demographic I suppose. I just have to pull my finger out and get it organised.