A series of short films about photography in East Africa

The racing was tight and thrilling, even if the give way rules were unclear. Doing about nine knots we wove in and out of the local craft going about their daily business, and by the bottom mark we were coming third. When, on the first beat, the boat sailing just to windward of us shattered its boom sending splinters onto our deck, we moved into second.

Like an outpouring of grief.
The Buddha will prevent a car crash.
The father will love his daughter for ever.
The clear plastic cape will keep the rain off.
The thing you dread may never happen.
And of course, you will win the lottery.

The Cham people of Vietnam descend from refugees of the Kingdom of Champa, which once ruled much of Vietnam between Gao Ha in the north and Bien Hao in the south. The Cham developed under both Hindu and Muslim influence in their early history. The imprint of these two civilizations, although altered by local tradition and superstition, is still evident in the customs, and religious practices of the Cham.

“Everyone has the right to life. Hurting or killing someone because you think they are a sorcerer or a witch is against the law.”

I do not imply, for instance, that we should always suppress the utterance of intolerant philosophies; as long as we can counter them by rational argument and keep them in check by public opinion, suppression would certainly be unwise.

I like things with function. The objects around me that best perform the tasks they are designed to do, are the ones that become most cherished. And perhaps unsurprisingly they are often the most beautiful. Olin Stephens, perhaps the greatest yacht designer of the 20th Century said  “Though per se beauty is not a factor of speed, the easiest boats to look at seem the easiest to drive.” 

I had fled Melbourne, escaping to the coastline west of Apollo Bay. At the time I didn’t know it, but it turned out to be a few rare days of freedom, sandwiched between two lockdowns.

A few weeks ago, I had the great pleasure in documenting the work on set of a group of highly dedicated young professionals as they went about the complicated business of shooting for an upcoming short film called “Call me Puritan”.  The pleasure was intensified, (pleasure and pride are closely linked) because the director of the film is my son Archie.

The group of 12 photographs below are of my mother and father, my sister and my grandmother and yes, the fat little boy with the worried expression is me. They were made over 50 years ago and I suppose were intended to be shared amongst limited family members. I find them enthralling and not just because they are so personal.

Here he sits in the Styx Forest amongst “Eucalyptus Regnans”, or giant ash. Some of these trees are more than 500 years old, 20 metres in girth and stand 90 metres tall.

The 14th Dalai Lama fled Tibet in 1959, following the brutal suppression by Chinese troops of the Tibetan national uprising in Lhasa. He escaped into exile in Dharamshala, Northern India, where he has been living ever since. Chinese officials have vilified him as a "wolf in monk's clothing" who seeks to destroy the country's sovereignty by pushing for independence.

The challenge of trying to dial down the technical perfection, accept accidents, embrace chance, is one that I find hard. I’m struggling to understand whether it contributes to the objectivity of the documentary photographer. Perhaps it does…after all, randomness is an honesty in itself.

In the developed world the conical bamboo leaf hat has become a trite symbol of the rural poor of South East Asia. And yet here in Vietnam these much loved hats are beautifully constructed examples of where form and function intersect.

A scene repeated all over the world. The shining goals of education, healthcare and human rights, sparkle a little less brightly when seen from inside of a cinder block, windowless home, buzzed by dengue carrying mosquitoes, where the little cash you might earn from selling an excess crop goes on topping up a 1990’s mobile phone, or buying antiseptic cream to hopefully stop the infected cut becoming an amputation.