MJR http://wearemjr.com MJR Photo Collective Tue, 31 Aug 2010 00:57:58 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 Weekly Collection 75 http://wearemjr.com/2010/08/30/weekly-collection-75/ http://wearemjr.com/2010/08/30/weekly-collection-75/#comments Tue, 31 Aug 2010 00:57:58 +0000 MJR http://wearemjr.com/?p=1981 ]]> http://wearemjr.com/2010/08/30/weekly-collection-75/feed/ 0 Words by Everynone http://wearemjr.com/2010/08/24/words-by-everynone/ http://wearemjr.com/2010/08/24/words-by-everynone/#comments Tue, 24 Aug 2010 22:51:53 +0000 MJR http://wearemjr.com/?p=1980 WWW.EVERYNONE.COM

WORDS from Everynone on Vimeo.

]]> http://wearemjr.com/2010/08/24/words-by-everynone/feed/ 1 Forest for the trees http://wearemjr.com/2010/08/23/forest-for-the-trees/ http://wearemjr.com/2010/08/23/forest-for-the-trees/#comments Mon, 23 Aug 2010 15:09:45 +0000 ying http://wearemjr.com/?p=1977 Driving the outlying areas of greater Melbourne with my father and my sister. Contemplating nature and our place within it… or without. Often, I get the feeling that I am seeing a time and a place on the brink of disappearing. The way of life that we have grown accustomed to is becoming extinct by its very existence. It’s the simple record of our habitat, softly dying, that I want to keep for posterity.

Meanwhile, we stumble on, as a species, blinded by the childish will to pursue our own happiness at the expense of history’s lessons and our obligation to future generations. Unable to assess the dire consequences of our actions happening in the present tense, unable to muster the intent and action to save ourselves. Unable to see the value in a reshuffling of priorities and lifestyle choices to offer a little more respect to what we take from so freely. Unable to see the forest for the trees.

]]> http://wearemjr.com/2010/08/23/forest-for-the-trees/feed/ 0 Retrace http://wearemjr.com/2010/08/20/retrace/ http://wearemjr.com/2010/08/20/retrace/#comments Fri, 20 Aug 2010 12:20:15 +0000 ying http://wearemjr.com/?p=1973 I went back to retrace my misspent youth and found a place essentially the same, but the young girls who used to hide in fire escapes smoking cigarettes, all grown up with babies… and the babies i used to look after, all grown up in nightclubs…

]]> http://wearemjr.com/2010/08/20/retrace/feed/ 0 Weekly Collection 74 http://wearemjr.com/2010/08/17/weekly-collection-74/ http://wearemjr.com/2010/08/17/weekly-collection-74/#comments Wed, 18 Aug 2010 05:26:56 +0000 MJR http://wearemjr.com/?p=1969

]]> http://wearemjr.com/2010/08/17/weekly-collection-74/feed/ 0 F A L L http://wearemjr.com/2010/08/10/f-a-l-l/ http://wearemjr.com/2010/08/10/f-a-l-l/#comments Wed, 11 Aug 2010 03:40:56 +0000 MJR http://wearemjr.com/?p=1966

F A L L from Darren McDonald on Vimeo.

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]]> http://wearemjr.com/2010/08/04/weekly-collection-73/feed/ 3 Smooth & Empty http://wearemjr.com/2010/08/04/smooth-empty/ http://wearemjr.com/2010/08/04/smooth-empty/#comments Wed, 04 Aug 2010 11:06:26 +0000 ying http://wearemjr.com/?p=1964 From his place at the apex of the triangle formed by their bodies, he was facing Anne’s upturned profile with a resolute stare that I recognised. His hand opened and closed on the sand with a gentle, regular, persistent movement. I ran down to the sea and plunged in, bemoaning the holiday we might have had. All the elements of a drama were at hand: a seducer, a demi-mondaine and a determined woman.

I saw an exquisite red and blue shell on the sea-bed. I dived for it, and held it, smooth and empty, in my hand all the morning. I decided it was a lucky charm, and that I would keep it. I am surprised that I have not lost it, for I lose everything. Today it is still pink and warm as it lies in my palm, and makes me feel like crying.

~ Françoise Sagan from the novel, “Bonjour Tristesse”

]]> http://wearemjr.com/2010/08/04/smooth-empty/feed/ 0 The Rapture http://wearemjr.com/2010/07/25/the-rapture/ http://wearemjr.com/2010/07/25/the-rapture/#comments Sun, 25 Jul 2010 17:27:49 +0000 ying http://wearemjr.com/?p=1957 July, 2010
I learnt that I wanted to speak with photographs in 2002. Really speak. In an articulate and sophisticated way about how I felt and the rapture and humanity going on around me… the everything and the nothing. I realised that it wasn’t enough for the photograph to be vernacular.

It was summer, I was in Paris and my father had given me a Canon Powershot G3 to photograph my debut independent voyage on foreign soil. I wandered down the Seine, through the Tuileries and criss-crossed the Pont des Arts during those long and meandering hours on the hazy cusp of sundown. It was my first day away from home, without the guidance of my parents. I photographed incessantly, the scenes around me, the people (timidly and from afar), the landscapes (much bolder and sadly predictable) and occasionally myself (black and white and in the nude – as you do when you begin thinking of yourself as an artist). I stumbled through my images and clumsily composed frames that I was mildly interested in, but mostly around my misconceptions of what makes a good photograph.

8 years later and I find myself again in Paris. It is the same time of year, the same time of day and I wander a similar path to that of 2002. This time I have learnt better how to articulate. I am closer to knowing what I want to say and I know how to begin saying it. I confront, with each frame, the myriad of decisions I didn’t even know mattered when I was 22, that lead up to the final pressing and releasing of the shutter. I know how to woo the people whose faces I am captivated by and the way to frame a landscape that I want to remark on. I have begun to understand my tools. Paris saw the beginning of this process, the shy introduction to my coming-of-age as a photographer.

Now perhaps, I am more the tenacious teenager – bolder, unwisely cockier and still so damned eager to take on everything the world can throw at me, broken bones, grazed knees and all.

]]> http://wearemjr.com/2010/07/25/the-rapture/feed/ 5 The Other Exotic http://wearemjr.com/2010/07/23/the-other-exotic/ http://wearemjr.com/2010/07/23/the-other-exotic/#comments Fri, 23 Jul 2010 13:30:19 +0000 ying http://wearemjr.com/?p=1955 I left the metal and concrete of New York and found myself on the shores of The Other Exotic. Not Asia, Africa, South America… but a world of paleness, order and milky light…

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