peter gray photographer

I was performing in Hong Kong in 2008 as part of the Chinese New Year Celebrations and while exploring the shops decided to purchase a digital SLR camera. Up until then I had some experience in video camera work and editing, but none in still photography. I’ve always had a flair for visual expression and thought this would be a great way to remember and share my experiences pictorially along the performing road. 

After a short time of snapping tourist style photos that most people were already familiar with, the arty performer side of me began to kick in. I gradually found myself taking photos of ordinary and obscure things. For me the subject didn’t have to be immediately identifiable such as a landmark that reminded people where they’ve been. 

As I fossicked, I found that patterns, textures, shapes and anything that my eye wasn’t normally accustomed to started to have more impact. I began to realise there were lots of things staring me in the eye that somehow I didn’t see at first. 

Even though I enjoy taking textures and shapes, I do keep my photographic interests open on all sorts of levels. If a land/sea-scape, animal or other classic subject catches my eye I’ll stop in awe and attempt to photograph it. I think it’s a privilege to be able to capture a moment in time when the light, foreground and background all meet together for that split second forming a picture that will never again appear exactly the same.

Having said that I find I’m more artistically comfortable taking a photo of a section of something rather than the fullness of something. I like the idea that all is not seen straight away. As I look out towards the horizon I need to be aware there are things tucked away in the immediate foreground just waiting to be noticed. I find the more I look closely at things the more interesting they become. The challenge for me is how to put stimulous into the subject and make it more appealing by way of light, composition, design and cropping. 

After many months of creating and collecting I started to end up with an assortment of images in which friends and strangers started to show interest. Stemming from their encouraging comments the idea of photography as a profession entered my mind. It was then I began to realise my visual performing style using no words related perfectly to having a career in the world of still pictures. 

As a performer my work involves a lot of physical activity in regards to wire walking and juggling. I’ve been amazed I’ve lasted this long considering I’ve been at it for over forty years. The gradual emersion into the creative world of photography at this stage of my life all started to make sense and to some extent has answered my big question - What will I do when I can no longer perform? The step I’ve taken was completely a natural transition and I’m finding as I progress a deeply satisfying one. 

As I continue to explore this art form I’m always trying different ways to give an image more meaning. After the fun of going out like a hunter and collector and gathering my catch, I display them on my computer and go about the exciting and time consuming task of sorting and deleting. 

Part of this process is first identifying the potential in all or just part of an image and what it could become if given certain creative treatment. For example there are some parts of a photo where an element of a subject has appeal in itself, but in the overall image mixed with other matter and background it gets lost. These ones I keep for further work. From these photos I extract the parts that interest my creative eye and layer them to form a completely new image. For example the image titled ‘Chiffon Fire’ is made up of sapplings off the Australian Nullabor Plain cut out and coloured black against a layer of chiffon scarves. The chiffon scarves were photographed from underneath as they floated down to earth. The sun catching the rolling curves of the chiffon fabric then became wild flames in the newly created image. 

I find being able to recognise and imagine the finished product before it is processed is very helpful when determining whether an image should be saved or deleted. Decisions on what and not what to keep became a little easier after thousands of images began to fill every available hard drive space. I became more ruthless as I quickly made decisions on what was worth presenting and what needed to go into cyber space! 

Being able to create and work in this digital style was like going back to my art days at school, though this time it wasn’t with wet dripping paint or messy clay. I find with interest that in this digital age I now live in, all the art techniques I learned at school have once again come back into play using a medium which back in my younger days had not yet been invented. I’m so glad in my life time I’ve had this creative opportunity. 

There are a mixture of subjects in my gallery that I hope will interest a variety of people. Some are the scenic, animal and nature classics and others are a little off the beaten track. All my subject matter I have to say is nothing new. The human eye has seen it all before, but in all my images the one thing I’ve tried to do is add a sense of mood and emotion, colour and style with the aim of enabling the subject to take on a new life of its own. 

In my performances I’ve always found mood and emotion to be the essence of drawing the audience that much closer. In the same way I find my photographic interests beginning to take a similar path. Even though my images do not jump out and say “this is where I was taken” my gallery still represents a vast array of locations all around Australia with each image having its own story to tell.  

Behind each image there is a particular meaning and memory for me, however for you the meaning and what attracts your eye may be different. Whatever the case, I’m hoping there is an image waiting in my gallery just for you. After all, these images don’t want to live in a computer all their lives! 

They want a chance to get out and hang about!