Nude and naked : refiguring voyeuristic structures through feminist photographic techniques

Using theoretical, aesthetic and formal means specific to photographic processes, the relational exegesis and exhibition "Visual pleasures" attempts to disrupt visual structures and notions that have traditionally been used to objectify and idealize the body and, at the same time, open the field of vision to alternative and lived feminine pleasures.

Use of a photographic manipulation tool to assess corneal vascular response

Purpose. Corneal vasculature change in contact lens wearers has been linked to the level of hypoxia within the cornea. To assess the impact a treatment has on limbal vessels, a sensitive method of measurement and quantification is required.

Methods. A group of 21 highly myopic, hydrogel wearers, with preexisting signs of corneal hypoxia, were enrolled into a study where they wore sifilcon A silicone hydrogel lenses (Dk/t = 117), on a daily wear basis for 9 months. At all scheduled visits, photographs were taken of the superior, inferior, temporal, and nasal limbal regions which were then imported into Adobe Photoshop. A red-free filter was applied to enhance the contrast of the blood columns. In each quadrant, the length of the longest visible blood column was measured and the blood columns that penetrated >0.5 mm into the cornea were counted. A control group of 11 non-lens wearers was recruited. Their photographs were taken at the beginning of the study and 9 months later. An independent, masked observer assessed the photographs.

Results. There was a significant decrease in the maximum penetration of the blood column in all quadrants (p < 0.001) from baseline to the 9-month visit (e.g., superior: baseline 0.84 ± 0.39 mm; 9 months 0.63 ± 0.20 mm). There was also significant reduction in the number of visible blood columns longer than 0.5 mm in each quadrant (p < 0.001) from baseline to 9 months in all quadrants (e.g., superior: baseline 14.0 ± 8.2; 9 months 6.5 ± 6.0). The control group showed no change over time for the maximum blood column length (p = 0.638) or the number of columns >0.5 mm (p = 0.341).

Conclusions. A group of highly myopic subjects exhibited reduction in the maximum length and number of blood columns in the cornea when refit with a highly permeable silicone hydrogel material. The use of photography, along with Adobe Photoshop software, provides a reliable way of measuring corneal vascular responses over time.

Correspondences: A personal photographic journey between past/Iran and present/Australia

This project is an autobiographical photography series entitled: Correspondences; A personal photographic journey between past/Iran and present/Australia. This series of photographs are partly influenced by being born at the beginning of 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran . Also, having the experience of living almost thirty years in Iran and immigrating to Australia afterwards. This display consists of presentation of photographic images and will be presented in two series.

Technology as collaborator in somatic photographic practice

This article will address several areas of research. Firstly it will propose that a dance experience can translate into another discipline such as visual art. In my visual art practice I combine both photography, which is traditionally seen as a still medium, and performance in order to create a new form of embodiment. By acknowledging the inter-relationship between the body and the camera my project seeks to challenge a perceived separation between the disciplines. Fly Rhythm, an exhibition of 13 photographs and one video projection was conceived through a performative somatic process. I have developed the term ‘somatic photography’ to articulate subjective experiences in the context of my process of imaging movement in stillness. My thinking has been informed by visual art practice exploring movement and meaning using video and an older history of performance as a dancer and choreographer. I am primarily interested in movement initiated by a bodily response to light through still rather than moving imagery although artists such as Maya Deren whose films explore themes of time and space have influenced me. In my practice the term ‘somatic photography’ helps articulate the act of taking photographs, which is how meaning is being created rather than purely in the finished art works. The term somatic photography puts emphasis on the action of taking the image. Through using a custom made camera I was able to negotiate time and space as a dancer and create a visual drawing that talked to both choreography and fine art practice. This article engages with the following ideas: somatic photography, photography as choreography, body memory, ageing body, technology as collaborator, gallery interface, screen interface and movement.

Improvisation in visual art practice using a photographic process

In this article I discuss how I have come to understand embodied processes in my visual art practice using photography. I danced professionally for 25 years and performed in various contexts including classical ballet repertoire, contemporary dance, and commercial dance. I choreographed for various productions working with a group of dancers for seven years before studying visual art. I experienced a particular sense of embodiment as a live performer in which prescribed movements were learnt, performed and repeated as if second nature. Transitioning into a conceptually based visual art practice the creative process was flipped around. Using painting, sculpture, performance (in a different context) and photographic methods I explored ideas from which forms such as video/audio installations, photography, performance art and painting emerged mostly in a gallery context. Although I still think of forms of movement as content, in a visual art practise the idea or concept invokes form.

Fallen hut #1, forest pathway, fallen hut #2 (a photographic triptych)

Three large format photographic images which form part of an ongoing documentation of old huts in a Poplar forest at Vaughan near Castlemaine in central Victoria. I have been documenting this location and these abandoned huts for fifteen years. These images were made between April and June 2015 and were presented in the exhibition titled: 37° Sur a 19° Norte: Fotografía contemporánea de Australia.

Technology as collaborator in somatic photographic practice

This visual essay will address several areas of research. First, it will propose that a dance experience can translate into another discipline such as visual art. In my visual art practice I combine both photography, which is traditionally seen as a still medium, and performance in order to create a new form of embodiment. By acknowledging the interrelationship between the body and the camera my project seeks to challenge a perceived separation between the disciplines. The following images were conceived through a performative somatic process, which I define in the course of this article. Through using a custom made camera I was able to negotiate time and space to create visual drawings that talk to both choreography and fine art practice.