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After undertaking an ‘Issues in Art Conservation’ subject for my Master of Art Curatorship at The University of Melbourne I have become more aware of the fragility of my black and white fibre-based prints and negatives. I have therefore decided to scan negatives made during the years 1991 – 1997 to preserve them in the form of an online archive as a process of active memory, so that the images are not lost forever.
The medium format negatives were taken by my trusty Mamiya RZ67. I started taking these photographs in the first year of my Bachelor of Arts at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia and continued through my Master of Arts until I took up colour and digital photography in 1998. Previsualisation was strong – the negatives and subsequent prints are usually full frame. I used Kodak T-Max 400 film, developing my own negatives with T-Max developer using a unique processing technique (timing and agitation). I printed all my own photographs on fibre-based silver gelatin paper, usually the beautiful warm-toned Agfa Portriga or the cool-toned Kodak Polymax using a variety of paper developers such as Amidol and ANSCO 120. Early influences were master photographers such as Eugene Atget, Minor White and Alfred Stieglitz. Of great help was the mentorship of my friend, the Australian photographer Ian Lobb.
These photographs were images of my life and imagination at the time of their making, the ideas I was thinking about and the people that surrounded me. As such they form part of life – of Melbourne, of Australia and of humanity in general. The preservation of such moments in time are vital to the continuing enrichment of culture.
Marcus Bunyan 2011
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1991/2
Objects and Places
Please click on the photographs to go to the posting for these images.
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1991/2
Self-portraits and Nudes
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1991/2
Portraits, South Yarra, Melbourne
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‘At Newport’ series 1991
This series of photographs was taken in Melbourne at the old Victorian Railway’s Newport Workshops and formed the second part of my first solo exhibition, ‘Of Myth, Magic and Music’ held in 1991.
Please click on the photographs to go to the posting for this series.
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‘The Regent Theatre’ series 1991
The photographs of the dilapidated Regent Theatre in Collins Street, Melbourne were taken with the permission of the National Trust after the theatre had been closed for 21 years on an open day when the theatre was open to the public. The series formed part of my first solo exhibition ‘Of Myth, Magic and Music’ held in 1991.
Please click on the photographs to go to the posting for this series.
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Beautiful