At age 19, I began studying photography at Ultimo TAFE in Sydney (“photography is not art!”). It was within these hallowed halls that I learned how to light and photograph a glass bottle using a 4”×5” camera loaded with black-and-white film. Upon graduating, I turned my attention to making pictures of two of the three things I was interested in. The ocean and surfing remained my muses for over two decades, both as an editorial photographer for domestic and international magazines and within my personal creative work.
I transitioned into filmmaking in 1995 with Litmus, made with Andrew Kidman. We premiered the film on VHS in my Cronulla lounge room in 1996. During the interval, my best friend was caught kissing my then-wife (now ex-wife) in the bathroom. Local Shark Island bodyboard hooligans Nugget and Percy were unimpressed with all the slow motion—but nonetheless, Litmus survived to become a cult surfing film of its generation.
Post-Litmus, I continued shooting stills and motion pictures of surfing for a range of eclectic clients, preferring to explore less-trodden corners of the world. During this period, I directed and photographed several 16mm surf films, mostly within the biopic and travel-adventure genres, and mounted several exhibitions of still photography.
In 2017, I started an independent book publishing company, working—as usual—out of my garage. In a rare smart move, I enlisted the formidable design skills of Stuart Geddes. Our first book, Broken, won multiple Australian design awards. Our next book, On Bones, was released in 2018 and was a finalist in the Best Designed Independent Book category at the Australian Book Design Awards.
I’ve worked on a number of projects for social causes and on a variety of film productions, both as a camera operator and water photography specialist. Clients worthy of name-dropping include Jane Campion (Top of the Lake 2), Sir Kenneth Branagh (Artemis Fowl), and Simon Baker (Breath). I recently completed filming on a big-budget action blockbuster (MEG 2) as an underwater camera operator. Its co-star was an actor some call the “Chinese Tom Cruise.” He hosted a dinner one evening after shooting wrapped and had the entire restaurant in hysterics by demonstrating a party trick: pouring two large cans of beer into a bowl, skolling it in one go, then inverting the bowl and placing it upside down on his head. This cultural exchange was most endearing.
I have collaborated four times with Richard Tognetti, the artistic director of the Australian Chamber Orchestra. Over a six-year period, we created four unique classical music concerts featuring video projections behind a live orchestra. Performance venues included the Sydney Opera House, the Palais Theatre (opening the Melbourne Festival), the Walt Disney Concert Hall (Los Angeles), and the Barbican (London).
In 2019, I spent a year working as a video producer for an Aboriginal-owned media organisation in a remote community in Australia’s Northern Territory. The Warlpiri mob were wonderful to live and work with. A film I produced with an all-Warlpiri cast and crew, entirely in the Warlpiri language, won Best Language and Culture Production at the 2019 First Nations Media Awards.
I am a CASA-certified RPAS drone pilot and an ADAS-certified occupational scuba diver, but I own neither a drone nor scuba tanks.
In October 2019, five months before COVID-19 hit, I moved to Spain with my (then) partner and our two young children. The four of us carried two suitcases between us, intending to stay for six months. At the time of writing, none of us have made it home.