Glenn Homann

- So tell us a bit about yourself and your photography.

- Well, probably like a lot of photographers, I always had an interest. I'm 50 now, so I think when I was about 20, or even earlier than that, I knew that there was something there. It was always design for me. And I went into architecture straight out of school, which all that kind of visual, all those things going through your mind, I really didn't know what to do and I didn't really last in that. But yeah. I think I picked up my first camera then and tried it. I just realised the power of photography, trying to integrate it into all my interests. Like I had an interest in art, I was trying to connect them to telescopes and do all that kind of stuff. And I just knew it's a ubiquitous thing, you know? Something you can always use and utilise. So, yeah and I think I got an SLR in that stage of course, and experimented as people do. You get an old camera and just play with it and see what happens. And yeah, so that went on for a while. And then I think life gets in the way and that all kind of drifted away. It was all a bit hard obviously with, in the old days with film and all that. But yeah, and then I jumped back on about, I don't know, 15 years ago a little bit. And then when the iPhone came out, I kind of knew that was it for me. I thought, wow, this is it. Everything's kind of aligned. It feels right, that suits my style of just kind of teaching myself but also being, I don't like to be too formal with anything obviously. And yeah, and I think just having a real camera, it just formalises everything, for me anyway. I just liked the idea of being able to, yeah, let the image come first, you know? Like find, let it see you and or you see it rather than sort of go out tracking it down. Although that said, I think I've started doing that a lot more, but yeah. So that's kind of the philosophy anyways. And like I said, I've jumped on board since about the iPhone 4 and they're incrementally getting really, really good aren't they? I mean a lot of people would say that it's very hard to tell technically, well, I mean, pixel peepers will find a difference on the App. At first glance they're getting really, really good. But for me, it's just actually, it's not so much that, they've always been what you see is what you get. There's gonna be limitations but just the idea of just having it with you and that informality of just finding the image and making the most of what you can see around you, I guess. Yeah, yeah.

- Yeah, it's really nice, the immediacy, as you said, of having your phone there and people are so desensitised to phones being just part of everyday life now that it does take away that formality of some people, situations, whatever. If you pull out a camera, it immediately becomes false or filtered.

- Yeah, yeah. I mean, with a skilled photographer, maybe they can relax people, but yeah. Particularly for, It's common nature of a lot of things. I think there's that too that it does put people at ease, not so intimidating, but yeah, no they're definitely all around us and I guess that's a challenge, isn't it? Trying to create something that's a bit different when everybody's got a camera, you know?

- Yeah.

- And even people that aren't really skilled. I mean, I'm not saying I'm skilled at all, but people that haven't had a lot of experience can turn out some good photos. And so the challenge is to try and keep developing, I suppose and try and get more out of what you see. So I'm always like all photographers, just evolving, just hoping to get better. Not so much better, but I don't know, more interesting or that kind of thing, yeah.

- So tell us about your work that's in Living Memory Marion.

- Oh, Marion, yeah. Well that was a chance event. Again, just driving around and yeah. I was looking for, this is the kind of the planned thing that I've started doing, which is really just exploring. So there's the planning is just going somewhere and seeing what happens, but yeah outwards between Brisbane and Toowoomba, there's a few little country places there. So it's not that far out, although it kind of looks like it. And yeah, I was looking for old places and old cars and that kind of thing, which really interests me. And yeah, I could see her place sort of tucked away behind all the sort of very mysterious and a little bit old. Lucky it was sort of still standing to me, it really looked like it was uninhabited, that kind of thing. But yeah. No, no, I just drive up the driveway and like, I think I said on the thing, she was just singing away inside and living by yourself and with some miniature horses and that kind of thing, and just like a lot of people, if you go in just openly and expressing an interest in what they do and tell them, matter-of-factly what you wanna do. Just a great rapport. I think that photo that's in the prize, I visited maybe three or four times maybe more, but about four and that might've been on the third visit or something, just a bit of a chat and saying goodbye, and you know all the stars well, for me anyway, I just thought the lighting was nice and all the usual stuff. So again, not planned at all, just a spontaneous moment really. And I was quite happy, you know? I've got a lot of photos of her but that was one that stood out, so, yeah.

- So you sort of developed a rapport with her as well and have visited her a few times I know you said after that. Like, and she's often singing her away inside, so you can see there's that openness in the way she's standing and presenting to the camera, which comes across nicely.

- Yeah, she was a little bit, yeah, she wasn't exactly wrapped in the idea of having her photo taken, but she also wasn't, she knew what I was trying to do, which was again, very generous of her to open up and give a bit of her time just to, of us to just stop or stand or that kind of thing she would. And the property's amazing in and of itself. I mean, if she wasn't there, I'd spend three hours there anyway, just walking around in rusty buildings and all that kind of thing. But yeah. As is the case, the people are the obviously the most interesting elements of a lot of places you might wanna go, so.

- So what do you think or hope that being part of Living Memory or NPPP will do for your career? Have you been in prizes before?

- Yeah, but actually, well, it's really great 'cause a lot of it's been mobile. I should say, well, almost all of it. 95% of the success has been mobile, just the competitions and like the iPhone photography awards and things like that. So, yeah, this is a real, really, really this is a boon for me, really. It's really exciting to be and honouring to be, I'm honoured to be part of it, really. And it's sort of, it does give me a bit of confidence and a bit of a step up to think that, well A, that the phone can produce an image that's up to speed, although there was a bit of tinkering around to get it to look as good as we could. But also just the idea of, again, just the development of moving through and getting confidence to ask, to talk to people. There's always that fine line. You always wish you could plan images more. I'm very jealous of the people that are in the prize that have created these wonderful images where they've sort of lined everything up. There's that fine line. And it always feels like a minor miracle when you turn a good photo out because you're treading that line between spontaneity and not planning anything and producing a good image, which they kind of, they don't necessarily go hand in hand. So, you know. And an authenticity too, you don't wanna have anything too staged. So there's just that fine line that you walk along. And I think definitely for me, it's just great to be a part of it. You obviously observe all the other images, which is really fascinating. You have a really good look at them and all the discussions that you guys have are eyeopening. You know when the exhibition continues, it'd be nice if, I'm not sure how many people have got there. Have you got a few there? Or that have come down or?

- Not too many. Yeah, we haven't actually, I think it was really only, for you mean like photographers that have visited the exhibition?

- Yeah sorry, yeah.

- Yeah, there's only actually been a couple. I think it was, we only had a couple of our camera based photographers. And then I think we've had like maybe two that were in regional New South Wales.

- Yeah, yeah.

- But we've extended the exhibition to January 16th now, and the gallery is actually set to reopen on the 29th of October. So we're really hoping that, all those restrictions start to ease so people can come have a look at the show.

- I forgot that you had actually been, you've been closed down for quite a while now, is that right?

- Yeah, we've been closed down I think we're going into, it must be almost three months or so now, that we've been completely locked down. So that's where the decision sort of came about to extend the show and hopefully people like yourself get to come down and see it.

- Yeah, well, I mean we've been very lucky up here, but yeah as far as the rest of everybody else, it will be interesting to see how it all pans out in the next few weeks and months so. Whether we can move around, well.

- So do you think having locked downs and all the changes going on affected your photography practise at all?

- Well, no, we've been quite lucky, really. There was a phase there when we were a bit tied down. And I did consider doing the classic sort of shots of people, which kind of imitates my sort of aesthetic anyway, of just getting people sitting out in their front yard or that kind of thing. Yeah, but not necessarily. I mean, not as much as other places around Australia, that's for sure. I think we've escaped it quite well. So I can't say that it's, it'd be a different story if I lived in Melbourne or something like that. I think you'd be struggling to think how you could create imagery under those circumstances. But, no for myself personally, not a great deal, no.

- 'Cause you showed a bit of like urban architecture and like things like that as well, didn't you? Like buildings and street scene and very noisy environments as well, but.

- Yeah, they're the kind of ones you can, there was really only a few weeks when we couldn't really get out and do that kind of thing, but generally, in a way, it's kind of enhanced that, having less people around so. Less mucking around with people, which I really enjoy actually. There's nothing better than sort of, when there's nobody around, you know. The back street somewhere and you've got all the opportunities in the world. But, no certainly I'm not a great deal of effect for me, but I know others would be different, yeah, for sure. And probably informed their work.

- Yeah, we've talked a bit at the start that you sort of shoot exclusively of iPhones now. Is that been for the last 10 years, did you say?

- Yeah, yeah, I've actually, I won a decent camera a few years ago. Like a pretty good one, like for me anyway. A couple of thousand dollars worth and I actually got it out and I started using it, but I couldn't, not that I couldn't, I know technically how to use it, but I mean, it just didn't feel right at all. Like there's something about, yeah, the lack of planning, just the, I mean, it's been said before, but just that idea of it's sort of becoming an extension of yourself and frees you up just to look around and develop. I mean that said, every bone in my body wanted to grab that camera and take some awesome photos and blow them up and try and sell them and do all that kind of thing and I don't know, whatever it was. And maybe in the future, I certainly I'm a big fan of like George Byrne. He's actually had a bit of publicity in Australia recently. He's an Australian based in LA. And I think he started off on an iPhone and just very minimal urban kind of things. And he's gone to a medium format and it's sort of puts them, three metres by three, they're huge images. So there's always, that's definitely a goal. But for me I just thought, think that I'm still developing.

- Yeah, you're evolving.

- You never quite think you've made it. So when do you jump ship and say, "Well, this is great. I'm awesome now." I think it doesn't really compute. So I don't know, I think I'll probably always keep tinkering away on the phone and if people paid attention well, that's great.

- And do you do any commission work or any sort of photography hired or paid work as well?

- No, again, I sort of, I don't know. I wish I did, but no, I don't really have, again, I don't know where to jump in really. I don't really have any, I obviously maybe try and sell your work via various little bits and pieces, but again, that's quite fragmented, isn't it? It's very, it's difficult, you know at the best of times to work out how to do that, let alone if you're not focused on that. So, no I mean, I'd love to. Like all photographers, you'd love to have the opportunity to do all sorts of things. And maybe long-term yeah. But I suppose you'll run out of time one day, won't you? Certainly plans to.

- We all do.

- Yeah, but hopefully one day maybe something will happen. Yeah, for sure.

- So that's, would you like to work as a full-time photographer, do you think?

- Yeah I mean, that's the other thing too, is that well you do hear people that flip over and it becomes very commercial and maybe the fun gets taken out of it. Yeah I mean, obviously the dream would be to continue doing whatever you do and put your own style on things. I think I'd struggle to become, to be locked down, tied down too much. But yeah, I think, yeah that would be, yeah anyway I'm just pondering those ideas, but yeah now that'd be awesome one day, for sure. I think it would. I mean, as long as you had your own creative spin on things. I do see people that, do particularly, I follow some people that go out and through rural Australia and take portraits of people in areas and produce some amazing stuff that the families and people just adore, you know. And as they should, they get printed out and that's certainly appeals to me, that kind of thing. Maybe taking portraits of people in their own environments, particularly something that I really like. And that doesn't usually require extravagant lighting or anything, it's just really, you know. So I think that's maybe something and that also involves a little bit of exploration as well. So if you can tie all the things that you like in together, I think that'd be the ultimate thing, yeah.

- Well its that dissimilar to Joel Pratley, whose work won the prize. And when you look at his career over the last few years, that's what it was. He was shooting his family and sort of urban areas of Sydney and Wollongong out the front of the blocks of units and people he knew and then people in their environments and then with the rural trip, that has sort of evolved from there, so.

- Right, yeah, I didn't really realise that. And it kinda makes sense, yeah. I have read a little bit about him. That image certainly gets a lot of attention whenever I show it anyway.

- Similarities with you guys in sort of that documentary sort of style of people in their own environment. And just that very honest style of photography. Like not pretentious, just people being who they are in their own environments.

- Yeah it's very exciting, isn't it? I mean, that's what I've picked up being a part of the awards. It's quite widespread. I mean, that's not a unique thing, so yeah. A lot of people tap into it. And yeah, it's a win-win I think, everybody, if the photographer loves it, everybody gets some great results from it, so yeah, it's definitely something I pay attention to when I look at the other people's work, I sort of look at how they do it, what their strategies might be. So, yeah, that's one thing that being part of this has opened up for me anyway, the idea that it can be done really well with a lot of passion and everybody wins.

- Yeah I think as well, with sort of social media and those tools, you get used to such, contrived or polished perfectionism, when you see very honest imagery of people just being themselves and not posing, it's so personalised and it sort of invites you into it a bit more to who they are and what's their story.

- Yeah, absolutely, yeah.

- You touched on before a bit about photographers that you admire, so who are some of the photographers or artists, architects, artists, anyone that sort of inspire you and that you look up to?

- I'll always go to Jeffrey Smart. I don't know. I think that would be fairly, I feel like he'd inspire a lot of people with his work. I actually don't know a lot of names of people. I just, visually, I just remember an image and it sort of goes into the memory bank it'll get scrambles around and you produce something that sort of seems interesting. So I think, one of the main reasons I jumped with the phone too is I didn't wanna limit myself to any particular genres. So I really, and I do like it when people are kind of a bit surprised that you've taken it on a phone, that sort of does excite me a bit. So I do try and create things that may be, you'd almost wouldn't believe that, well A, somebody would attempt it maybe, but also that they've produced it on a phone. I think some of my favourite images have been ones that I have, not that I've imitated somebody, but I've seen an image, maybe 10 years ago and it stuck in my mind and I've tried to have a crack at it on my phone and yeah and they've turned out. So, it's about challenging yourself, I suppose. And I really do, I don't really stick to any particular, like I do get frustrated with doing stuff, like a lot of photographers, frustrated with doing the same thing all the time. So you might do people a while and go, "Wow, I'm sick of that." And minimal urbanism and then maybe beautiful, natural environments, flat lighting and really contrasting lighting. Just veering all over the place really. So yeah, inspired by obviously a lot of different genres. But I think that the go-to is minimal urban stuff, 'cause that, you don't need too much for that. You can be at the back of a shopping centre, which it often is. So it's always a bit of a go-to. Where where my factory is, I've got some award winning images just from out the back of my own factory. So within this area where I work is Richlands. It's a very kind of, that's where a lot of the people photos have come from. It's very, it's a bit run down, you know, old cars in front yards and lots of bearded guys walking around. And so I've recently, my car got written off about a year ago with some hail and I still haven't gotten a new one. So I'm continually public transporting. This is a borrowed car by the way. And the trains about 30 minutes away. And I've found every different possible route to get from the train to here and I still love it. Like it's been about a year, but I still find things that I can, I've got a list of people that I can go and visit after work on the way home if it's coming into summer, a bit more life in the afternoon. I've been sort of waiting for that and maybe get some more portraits hopefully. But, yeah I've met a guy just over there who's 97 and he still mows his front lawn. It's just people like that, and it's a massive lawn too. It's incredible. Yeah, so, I just like, yeah I mean. Yeah, I don't know. There's a lot to find if you look and I'd rather walk than get in a car, that's for sure. Because you can stop. And that's the other thing too, spending time with what you're looking at, you know? When you first get there, you think, oh, there's nothing here. The more you look around, almost certainly, you'll end up being fascinated with something that you didn't initially find interesting. So it's having that time to just explore and get closer and closer in on the details maybe that kind of thing, so.

- Yeah, being immersed in the environment you're shooting as well, it's always nice to sort of, if you visit somewhere new, I just love walking around, like walking everywhere.

- Yeah, yeah.

- You miss so much in a car, you know?

- Yeah, oh yeah. It's definitely about, yeah. You need to stop and smell the roses, have a look around and yeah. That's the other thing I was gonna say about the phone too, is you can almost take an unlimited number of photos, which is something that I often do.

- Yeah.

- Yeah. I've got the iPhone 11 and I don't think I've deleted a single photo in the year or so that I've had it.

- Crazy.

- Probably embarrassed to say it's about 75,000 photos. But, that's kind of the magic of it as well. You can take an extraordinary amount of photos that are always there and you can revisit them later or importantly, if you're out taking some photos, you can take hundreds and really not even delete them if you don't want to.

- And such an interesting thing where you can look back on images and see something different, like, in a years' time or a week's time or.

- I think that's a bit of a key too, absolutely. I do that all the time when I get a bit dry on photos. I'll go back and you think, wow, that's actually, you've thought of another way to see that image or that kind of thing or edit it, yeah.

- What about dream subjects? If you could take a photo of anyone, is there anyone you'd wanna get in front of your camera? In front of your iPhone?

- Wow, that's interesting. I'm not sure. I probably have thought of somebody, but I can't think of it right now, but I mean, you got me there. But I mean, I think, I mean, just probably anybody really as long as, the dream is to have time, just to have anybody and to have a great situation and have time. Like, I wouldn't really mind who it is, but if I had five hours or something like that, usually it's a bit of a rush and if you had the five hours and you could talk and you had somebody who was really patient and you could move them around. I mean that would be the dream. I really wouldn't mind too who it was as long as I had this time.

- The time.

- Yeah so yeah, no, I think I find women particularly interesting. Particularly maybe older women like Marion.

- Yeah.

- I think guys are easy. What you see is what you get. The beard, they don't mind. But women, there's something intriguing because it feels like there's always a bit of a mask there and the challenge of unveiling and how far do they wanna go as far as I'm having a rawness to the image is always quite a challenge. So it would probably be a woman and an older woman. I'm not sure who. But just opening up. Some of my favourite images are the rawest of images. Some of them probably featured in the show as well. And yeah, when you break everything down, hopefully.

- Yeah I mean, there's invisibility to women, I think sort of 50 plus, from the media or photography or the image being shared or recognised. It's nice in Living Memory that we've got quite a few women in their 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s.

- Absolutely.

- Represented, not intentionally either but just that that's the way, people were photographing their parents or.

- That's right, I think that's true that men and particularly women's start to. Yeah invisibility, that's probably the best way to think about it, isn't it? They lose representation and the idea of beauty sort of evaporating, which is sort of nonsense, isn't it? I dunno it's yeah, I don't know, it's definitely good to see some though in the show.

- I guess, particular in the Western culture that is in other cultures, you know, you're adhered for knowledge and matriarchy and family or other things.

- That's true, isn't it? Yeah, we've got a funny society. Our cultures it deserves, it needs to be looked at, doesn't it? We take it for granted, but it definitely has its flaws and maybe photography can open that up, you know. We fall into patterns and traps of how we think about things and most of the time they're not very healthy or good for anybody, so yeah.

- Ideas of beauty, the beauty trap, aye?

- Yeah, for sure.

- What about any shout outs or thank yous?

- Oh, well, I'd have to thank Marion, of course. I haven't been to see her since actually mainly because of the car situation. So I need to get out there and let her know.

- I think the exhibitions travelling up to Queensland, hopefully at some stage so that would be nice if.

- Oh right. Are the images they move around though? Is that.

- Well, I'm not sure, we are still, 'cause it's all sort of regional galleries are all affected as well with border closures and stuff. So we hope, we hope that the exhibition gets to travel next year sometime to a few regional galleries, but it's a wait and see.

- Oh, that'd be really exciting. I think I'd get on a bus and go and see that for sure. Whatever I could do.

- And there's the artist. There'll be the exhibition catalogue as well once it can be released. You can take her out and show her a copy.

- Yeah that'd be awesome. Yeah if I can get her out she's yeah, that'd be great, yeah.

- Sorry I interrupted you, go on with your thank yous.

- Oh no, no, it's just, well do you mean like, as far as getting the image printed as well?

- Anyone, whoever you want, you can go on.

- Oh, well I just thought it was really nice how, again, when I first heard that I was in it, I panicked, I thought, "Oh my goodness, how's that little photo gonna turn into something?" I hope it looks pretty good, 'cause I obviously haven't seen it, but I don't know. But yeah, just the guys that helped me, Sun Studios I think. Yeah, they really helped. I was amazed actually that, how well, the input that they had and just churning out a hopefully a pretty good image. It was really nice of them to do that. I was really quite flattered that we could put something together.

- They are amazing and driving, they drive all the works down as well to Canberra from Sydney, so.

- Yeah that kind of thing, I thought it was great.

- They did a great job on the printing and framing. It looks beautiful.

- Oh, that's good. And yeah, I see a lot of different approaches to the framing which is really interesting too, isn't it? I was fascinated by that too.

- Yeah, artists having free reign on how they wanna present their work always more personalised, yeah. Rather than just having that uniform gallery.

- Yeah, yeah for sure. Definitely different sizes creates a bit of interest, yeah. I dunno, well, everyone at the gallery of course, for all the work that you guys put in. It's just disappointing to not have got down there, but hopefully and thank you all in person, yeah.

- Yeah fingers crossed we get to see everyone.

- Yeah, Steve Jobs for creating the iPhone, I dunno.

- And will you enter again do you reckon? You'll enter the prize again?

- I'm hoping I can produce something that I think is worthy. Yeah, definitely on the radar to try and it does keep you going, things like this to yeah, just keep you on your toes. And the dream that maybe you can, have an image that's worthy of at least putting in. I mean that sometimes feels like the victory to me anyway. You've got something that you think is okay. So yeah, I'm definitely hoping to get in whenever it pops up next. Is it exactly or you gonna sort of?

- It'll be coming up soon entries. So yeah, this one's sort of running over, everything's melding into this COVID plan.

- Oh, wow, yeah.

- All right the last is your parting words of wisdom. It can be art, photography, whatever you want.

- Oh gosh.

- It can be towards aspiring photographers that are doing what you do, working off a phone, whatever you want to.

- Oh yeah, well, I think the idea of, I'd probably do the old cliche with the iPhone, with a phone of just all photography really of just, I was gonna say, follow your heart and follow your passions. It's always, everybody says it I suppose, but just stay true to yourself and hopefully the rest will follow.