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Hi Dorkroom, been a while. I think last time I posted was about my last large completed project 2 years ago. I'm currently in my home town of Sydney, where the Head On photo festival is running for most of May. I'm presenting the following project at Artsite Gallery in Camperdown if anyone wants to see it in person. It's open Wednesdays to Sunday, 11am-5pm until the 27th. With that plug out of the way I want to quickly thank a fellow Dorkroomer for actually finding and introducing the subject of this project to me about 6 years ago. Problem is, I don't remember his forum name. Maybe he was Pompous Rhombus? Or that could be someone else. Sorry... He knows who he is, as we became friends in real life and first visited this island together years ago. Couldn't have done this project without you guy, thanks a tonne! So, some images:  The island of Aogashima is an active volcanic caldera, poking up from within another volcanic caldera.  It is 400km south of Tokyo, and requires about 16 hours of boat rides (two different boats) to reach it. The cliffs surrounding it are very steep, and even small amounts of bad weather can make the boat landing impossible, so it's canceled about 50% of the time. I visited the island 6 times over a year for this project, and was frequently stuck on the neighbouring island of Hachijojima because the boat couldn't make the crossing.  The seas are so bad in fact that they can't keep any of their fishing boats in the port, so they lift them to and from a dry dock every day by crane.  You can make the last leg of the journey by helicopter from the next closest island, but it wasn't an option for me during the project as my gear wouldn't fit inside the heli's small luggage hatch. In high winds or mist, the helicopter also can't arrive. In summer, mist is really common and the island can be cut off from the outside for weeks or months at a time.  There are only about 150 residents, who live on the rim of the larger/outer caldera. There are subsistence farmers, fishermen who sell their catch back in Tokyo, construction workers supporting the island infrastructure and a huge amount of government positions on rotation working at the town hall or in the school (which has more staff than students). Unlike many other island communities I've visited, the quirk that this island is technically part of Tokyo's governance means that they get a huge amount of support and are actually doing really well. When I've visited places like the Shetlands, it's clear there is no government support and those communities are slowly dying, whereas Aogashima really feels like it's thriving (relatively speaking) despite its isolation and tiny population. There is a mix of people who were born and grew up there all their life, and younger people on contracts on the island for a few years, but everyone seems to intermingle and get along really well.       My first few trips I hardly spoke to anyone. It wasn't like they were rude or cold, maybe just disinterested and assumed I was a regular tourist passing through. But as I kept coming back, and people started to recognise me, they really opened up and became incredibly warm. As part of this project I produced a documentary (currently only viewable projected at the gallery) and I was amazed at some of the candid things they gave me when I interviewed them for it. As I got to know the people, the whole tone of the project shifted for me. It was initially all about how mysterious and isolated this crazy island was, but as I saw how these people were leading really normal lives despite their unique surroundings my thoughts on that changed.  Inside the caldera the plant life is completely different to outside, thanks to the geothermal energy of the volcano. It's incredibly wild and jungly, and volcanic steam can be seen rising from the ground all over the place. They use it for a sauna, for cooking food, and for producing sea salt for export.           Apologies for the hair and dust on the scans, the final images in the gallery aren't that filthy. All deving and printing done by me with the exception of two larger prints in the gallery as my darkroom was not equipped for that size. I really wanted to do this project entirely by hand, so that's why I chose black and white film, but the island is actually a really colourful place. Because of this, and because of the amazing people that I got to know, I decided to produce a mini documentary (about 40mins run time) about the island. It features a bunch of drone footage too which really contextualises the place in a way the silver gelatin prints do not. I consider it an integral part of the show, with the two halves supporting each other. Unfortunately the documentary is currently only viewable in the gallery so I can't share it here, but I do have a trailer for it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5OzaKq9LEg Thanks for looking, I'm keen to hear what people think of the project and especially keen for any constructive criticism. If you're in Sydney and can see (or send anyone to) the show and the documentary in person, that would be amazing. I'll be in and out of the gallery throughout the week and can probably meet up and walk you through it if you let me know when you're going, or I'll be giving an artist's talk there on May 20th at 2pm. I've only been printing in the dark room for about 18 months so if you can see the prints in person and pass on any tips that's especially useful.
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May 12, 2018 03:01
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These are fantastic. What were you shooting?
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May 14, 2018 12:10
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DJExile posted:These are fantastic. What were you shooting? Thanks! All of these were on a Hasselblad 500cm, mostly on the 80mm with a few on a 40 and a 150. A little TriX and TMAX but probably 90% Acros. I shot part of the project on 35mm with an XA2 but for consistency ended up sticking with only the medium format shots in the end. The video was done on Sony A7 with aerials from an Inspire 2 with X5S/X7.
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May 14, 2018 22:59
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Just wanted to put in my "these are awesome" as well.
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May 16, 2018 18:57
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I've scoured that spot once or twice on google maps, and couldn't figure out what the cause of the lines of trees on the inner cone is. I assume it's someone's orchard, or is it from forestry?
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May 16, 2018 21:01
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xzzy posted:I've scoured that spot once or twice on google maps, and couldn't figure out what the cause of the lines of trees on the inner cone is. I'm actually not sure. One person told me it was part of a tea plantation, but when I was up among it it just looked like a crazy jungle of weeds and random trees, and I've heard contradictory explanations to that from other residents. Possibly it was an actual usable orchard at one stage and it's just wild and overgrown now, although due to the way they cleared the land the ridges remain.
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May 17, 2018 12:49
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wow, these were great. Good luck with your exhibition!
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May 18, 2018 16:38
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BetterLekNextTime posted:wow, these were great. Good luck with your exhibition! Thanks a lot! Gonna pimp this one last time; I'm giving a talk at the gallery with a screening of the documentary tomorrow 2pm Sydney time (AEST), if anyone is in town you're more than welcome to come check it out. Gallery details here: http://www.artsite.com.au/exhibition/2018-05-hamish-campbell-aogashima.php
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May 19, 2018 00:14
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Good work OP. This location is really great and you seem very embedded in it in this series. On a thematic level I think these are good at putting into relief the odd relationship people have with the earth, which can be alternately symbiotic and adversarial, but more often than not is completely indifferent to our presence. I particularly like the one of the boat on the crane, the labyrinthine roads/steps leading into the sea, close-up of the guy with the towel, the night shot with lanterns, and the bamboo creeping up the tree. Together I think these have a really remarkable amount of cohesion thats rare.
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Jul 6, 2018 17:08
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Woah, these are phenomenal.
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Jul 6, 2018 19:36
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You are inspiration. I love poo poo like this.
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Jul 7, 2018 04:38
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I just want to join the "this is awesome"-train!
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Jul 7, 2018 15:34
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Very glad I clicked on this thread.
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Jul 7, 2018 22:27
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Too late OP
The XKCD Larper fucked around with this message at 04:41 on Jul 19, 2018 |
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Jul 16, 2018 01:36
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It's-a-me, Pompous Rhombus! Great photos as always Lon Lon! That was such a great trip (Hachijojima + Aogashima), one of the highlights of three years living there for me. It might take me a few weeks to get to it, but if there's interest I could try and dig up some of my stuff from that first trip we took.
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Jul 24, 2018 21:29
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Sorry I missed a bunch of replies! Thanks for the kind words. Sorry I forgot your forum name Pompous, and yeah it was a really awesome trip. Also bumping this cos if you happen to be in Tokyo this week a slightly smaller version of the show is on over at Place M Galleries in Shinjuku. The full documentary is also playing there. I'll be in the gallery every day from 12pm-7pm until it closes next sunday (12th). Come say hi if you're in town!
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Aug 6, 2018 10:54
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That's really awesome. I guess as a foreign 'tourist' in a small, isolated area where the whole population is probably keeping tabs on your location and activity practically every minute, it's kind of inevitable that you'd end up making something nice for them. I bet they'll be talking about you for a long time. It's kind of crazy that the Tokyo government keeps up that frenetic lifeline to this tiny group of people an a remote island. But as you say, thanks to that they're doing much better than other similar places. It's inspiring and seems very cool that they have large modern buildings and even a drat boat lift. Islands like Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha must feel pretty desolate and bereft by comparison. There's a twinge of hubris to it all, though. And a weird sort of contradictory fatalism. It's like, the people are expending millions of dollars and hundreds of lifetimes of industrious exertion and resource consumption, all to keep a toehold on the caldera of an active volcano. Maybe one day it will become an archaeological treasure like Pompeii. I admit that kind of a grim thought, and I'm sure they know way more about the geological risks than I do. Maybe the thing isn't ever expected to erupt again. Also cool that you used a 6x6. The frame edge indentations on a few of those scans really had me thinking they was done on 4x5 and cropped.
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Aug 19, 2018 04:09
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Don't have too much more to add over what others have said other than I am always impressed when people are able to commit the time and effort into projects like this.
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Aug 26, 2018 06:16
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