The Full 360
(and then some)
If you follow me or my photography you’ve heard of Matt Allan.
I’ve “known” Matt peripherally through an online photography for some time before his job brought him from his home in Melbourne to the western suburbs of Sydney and not long after he was relocated to western Sydney a bunch of us got together for a shooting day on the weekend after Australia day, and I finally met the luminary Matt Allan in person. This shot was taken that day, about an hour after meeting him …
That first day, just over 360 days ago, became something of a turning point. We started shooting some (fairly boring) V8 racecars at Eastern Creek (Eastern Creek is not a good subject for photographers without media passes to get behind the ropelines, but I managed to find something a little more interesting …)
From there we moved to the now torn-down old Rozelle Tram Sheds, to photograph the graffittied trams …
Prior to that day I knew very little about Matt other than he liked being controversial because it got people talking about his (and my) passion – photography.
I’d never shot in either of these environments, but I managed to spend most of my time with Matt that day, and I found that our styles were both wildly different and stongly complimentary.
Over the last year we’ve shot some fetish fashion, a bunch of classic car shows, waterfalls, The Choir Boys (live, on stage!), the Coca Cola Amatil Family Day (which was HUGE), spent a whole day dropping things into a fishtank full of water, a Zombie Walk, and more cars. We spent an evening photographing an ATROCIOUS event together, and then consoled ourselves with a drive around the City of Sydney, cameras in hand, getting some night-scape shots. The 2010 Worldwide Photowalk was followed with a ferry trip to Cockatoo Island and more hours of photographic wandering and discussion.
Matt shot possibly the best ever photograph of my mother and I, at my sons 21st birthday in 2010, and had it framed as a gift for my birthday. It now hangs in a prominent place in our lounge.
He convinced me to enter my first ever juried photographic competition, where I placed a Bronze (and Matt got two bronzes, a silver, and a gold), he inspired me to do more with my photography and to stretch my boundaries. He has been honest in his appraisals of my photos, both positive and negative, but always supportive,
And I even managed to get him out to where I shoot most of my sunsets, where we not only got a cracker sunset, but a kick-ass lightning storm that decided to slowly move towards us …
Matt has been relocated back to Melbourne, and after spending the Australia Day Holiday with my family and other friends he drove back to hearth and home this morning. I’m going to miss having him around, but the REALLY nice thing about techmology is that it’s an enabler – and I have little doubt that our friendship will continue for a long long time.
Thanks for the last, VERY full, 360 days mate. It’s been a ball.
Matt Allan, Photographer.
To quote Top Gun – “You can be my wingman, anytime.”
Cheers,
