Photography by Timothy Syrota

 
When I was eight years old, Kodak Instamatic in hand, I took a photo directly into the sun. This was when I learnt about silhouettes. I remember this realization quite distinctly, was very happy with the result, and still remember the photo. By contrast I was the captain of a winning Under 14 cricket grand final team and have almost no recollection of this match. Nature or nurture? My family are neither photographers nor sportspeople so there is no apparent reason why at an early age photography was making a greater impression on an impressionable mind than sporting success. But it was. Not that I became a photographer in any sense until the owner of a guest house in Bangkok (Sala Thai) saw my holiday snaps and asked me if I would do the photography for a book she was designing.
 
For a long time after that when I saw photos that I had taken that I liked I would think, ‘Lucky to get that one, hey. Yep, and lucky to get that one as well;’ I could recognize I was taking good photos but there was no real rhyme or reason to the how and why of it.
 
On the Thailand-Burma border I met Jack Picone over a pool table and too many drinks. He didn’t tell me how to take photos but having the opportunity to see the way he worked, particularly how close he got to his subjects, how at ease they were with him, and then seeing how he put stories of 5, 6, 12 photos together, that was a fortuitous meeting, both in terms of friendship and from a photographic perspective.
 
Now, if and when I teach people about photography the first lesson is always something to do with the fact that we can all distinguish between a photograph we like and one we don’t like. Everybody. But very few people then think, ‘Why is it that I like this photo more than this one.’ But once we engage this critical process then our photography begins automatically to improve as we try to take more like the ones that we like. I think this is something I had from an early age – an ability to judge which of my own photos I liked and which I didn’t. And I still remember the ones I liked. So there we go. Two bobs worth.

 

 
Photography on this web site is available for both private sale and sale for publication. Black and white photography has been shot with 35mm Kodak Tri-X or Fuji Neopan film. For exhibition and sale these images are hand (dark room) printed, presented full frame (a bit of a purist on this one), and are printed on archival fibre based paper. All images are part of broader bodies of work on the subject. Copyright currently resides with the photographer and images should not be reproduced without written consent. For any inquiries concerning the photography, purchase, or publication, please contact Timothy Syrota directly.