Tamara Dean Interview
Who:
Tamara Dean Interview
Where:
Tamara Dean and Dean Sewell are speaking at Semi-Permanent next month.
When:
Wed Apr 8
How much:
Early tickets $130 (extentend!) Late tickets $200, students $70, VIP early $230 and VIP late $330. Super broke? Get in touch, there might be some volunteer positions still available.
Contact:
02 9360 0690 and for Tamara & Dean via their site
Image by:
Photo by Tamara Dean
Tamara Dean and Dean Sewell are an unstoppable force in photojournalism. Married with kids certainly doesn't mean you can't be two of Australia's most highly respected photojournalists. Based in Sydney, the pair work for Fairfax media and like to hang (no pun intended) with Oculi, the photographic collective Sewell co-founded 8 years ago. If you're into the nitty gritty of snapping for the media, covering natural diasters and the like, then Tamara and Dean will have something for you at Semi-Permanent. They've certainly got some rather breath-taking shots to woo you with.
Rachel Surgeoner catches up with Tamara Dean for a quick interview in-between running errands and looking after the young'ins.
Rachel: I heard you recently won the Moran Contemporary photographic prize? That's really exciting...
Tamara: Well, I didn't, my husband Dean did, I came highly commended, so I also got a prize, but he got the big one. I mean, who ever knows someone that wins? And it's my husband!
R: When did you get your first camera?
T: I used to take photos in high school, I remember the first competition I entered I won, but only because I was the only person who entered, that must have been about year nine, so I cleaned up.
R: So you've known for while you wanted to be a photographer?
T: Well, I had a strong interest in photography for many years, but I'd never decided that it was what I was going to do until my mid-twenties really. I studied visual communications at UWS (University of Western Sydney) but when I first started uni I was actually at COFA (College of Fine Arts) and then moved to UWS, so it was sort of in the art/design degree that I did photography, but it was only when I decided I wanted to get training by working on a newspaper that I completely focused on photography.
R: Do you shoot on film or digital?
T: I shoot my own projects on film, actually I do both, but my most recent project and a lot of the documentary work I've done previously is all film, but another project I'm working on is in digital. It just depends on how I want the images to be presented at the end. If I'm shooting on film I have the intention usually of exhibiting quite large. Where as with the digital series I'm working on, I understand my limitations in terms of size. So it's an intentional thing to be using either one or the other.
R: Have you travelled much with your work, has it taken you overseas at all?
T: Yes actually, quite a lot, on the personal projects that I've done. Dean and I used to go travelling and do stories together. When we first got together we went and documented country shows around rural NSW, so that took us away every weekend, but that was still pretty local. Through my work at the Herald (Sydney Herald) I was sent away to cover a story in Bali for 6 weeks, and that was a year after the Bali bombings and then in the tsunami a few years back I went to Thailand, so they are the most serious places I've been sent to for work.
R: What's the worst job you've ever had? Have you ever had to shoot weddings when you first started out, or just really cringe worthy stuff?
T: I pretty much almost outright refused to do weddings, except for the exception of a couple of friends. But the worst jobs for me are definitely court jobs - when I'm working on the paper. I guess any job where I'm taking a photo of someone who doesn't want me taking it.
R: What about when you are doing a shoot with someone who does want to have there photo taken, what is your best method for getting that perfect shot?
T: I guess my methodology with that situation is for things to be as casual as possible, so I'll spend a fair bit of time looking at the person, I'll engage with the person through my eyes not just through the lens.
R: Who are some of your favourite photographers, Australian / international?
T: Desiree Doldron she is a contemporary photographer who I really love, but with my documentary work, I was heavily influenced by Mary Ellen-Mark and Sally Man and Eugene Richards.
R: What inspires you, what are you favourite subjects, to shoot?
T: At the moment, people in the landscape, I'm in the middle of series, where I'm working within the landscape and bringing people into the photograph to create an entrapment - so I'm very much involved in that. It's all I can think about that the moment.
R: Do you have a sneak peak for FourThousand readers on what you'll be talking about at SP?
T: Don't make me nervous! (Laughs) Uh, It'll be an explanation of the way my work has evolved and how I used the industries available to grow my work... Because it's visual, it's really effective to show as a timeline. How does that sound?
R: Perfect.
Gallery Type: Other
Location: Other
Medium: Photography
Keywords: Dean Sewell, Tamara Dean, Photography, Semi-Permanent
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