May 8th
Marcus & I are the parents of premature twins. Our boys were born 2 months early and they did not have an easy start to life. I am forever in wonder of the perfect little crazy, boisterous, brutus, capable human beings that inhabit my house today, 7 years on. The odds said it should not be this good. So, because we know we are lucky, we do our little bit throughout the year to raise money for projects related to newborn babies and perinatal research. Maybe more people will get to have healthy children like ours.
The day our twins were born at the Royal Brisbane & Women’s Hospital I became a “Royal Mum”, one of the thousands of women in the history of Queensland to give birth at “The Royal”. The RBWH Foundation has created a book about Royal Mums documenting the stories of women since the 1930′s that have had babies at their hospital. Volume 2 was launched on Friday with a fabulous morning tea.
We are proud to say that Studio Impressions has been a collaborator on this book. We donated the photography for Volume 1 in 2010, and now we have photographed, Volume 2. This has been an exciting and uplifting project for our little team. We have gotten to meet women of all ages, from all over Queensland and who all have stories that are funny and sad and uplifting and heartwarming. This book is both a story of the experience of women, the creation of generations of Queenslanders, and the story of the history of Brisbane as it describes historic events in our beautiful city through the eyes of new mothers.
Royal Mums: A Collection of Memories Volume 2 is for sale through the RBWH Foundation. All the money goes toward creating a Mother’s Milk Bank which will provide life saving nutrition to newborns when their own mother cannot produce enough.
Here are some behind the scenes from Volume 2. If you like what you see – buy the book - you’ll love what you read and you will help make a difference to the start of someone’s life.
Left Image: Makeup artist extraordinare Kari Chaney who donated all the makeup for our Royal Mums, at work on Royal Mum Kaley. Kaley’s boy, Vincent, was born a premmie.
Right: Marcus at work on the portrait of Royal Mum Angela. Angela was presented with the first release of Volume 2 in honour of her beautiful baby boy Noah who was born on January 23rd 2011 and passed away a few days later. Read more of Angela’s story here and how Noah’s life is making a difference for other little babies.
Below are the Royal Mums portraits appearing in the Book. From top to bottom, left to right: Anna Porfryio, Charmaine Giarratano and baby Brooklyn, Christine Bennett, Muriel Porter, Laura Perkins and Betty Biggers, Angela Perry, Marjorie Bowers, Barbara Underwood and Kaley Butten. Ladies, it was a pleasure to take your portraits. Thank you for being a part of this very special project.
The launch morning tea:
The launch was MC’d by ABC Presenter Jenny Woodward. We also heard from 94 year old Betty Biggers who told the crowd what it was like to have a baby in the early days of the RBWH – when Dads were not allowed in the room, and long before the days of disposable nappies. A neonatal intensive care nurse told us of the daily experience and hundreds of babies every year that will benefit from a milk bank, then CEO of the RBWH Foundation Peter Treseder spoke presented the book to Royal Mum Angela Perry.
If you are looking for a unique Mother’s Day gift guaranteed to make your mum laugh, smile, cry and retell her own story of your start to life – this is a book you HAVE TO GET. PLUS it is only $35! Should I say it again? Do something good today - Buy it now!
Mar 28th
It is Photography Awards season here in Australia. Although it always seems to sneak up on me, I love the Awards process. At times it is more of a love/hate relationship. It is hard to put yourself out there. Even after years of entering it is a confronting experience. You are putting something you have created, up to be judged. But the reason I do it is because it makes me stop and think about my work and it tests me creatively. When you push yourself, you have to become a little better and in the end that makes a difference for the people who trust you to photograph them as a professional.
I’m pretty happy with how my prints went this year, but what I am most proud of is not my work, but Aurelie’s. Aurelie really put herself out there this year and she not only just went okay, she became Runner Up Queensland AIPP Illustrative Photographer of the Year. The smile on her face was better than any award I’ve won. Aurelie joined our team a little over 2 years ago and has quickly become an incredible shooter, fast booking weddings of her own. You can check out her portfolio of images in the photo gallery here.
This was just one of the many moments already this year that have reminded me how lucky I am that Studio Impressions is more than just me. Studio Impressions was started by me, but it is really a collective of passionate talented people who love photography and how it can make us laugh or cry or argue or smile. Each one of them is talented in their own right. I’ve told you about Aurelie and you often see Adam’s work on this blog, but also sharing our little workspace are Karen & Tania who create cuter baby images than I can, and Gabe who is my right hand man at weddings and has recently produced some of the most beautiful albums the Studio has ever done. And then of course, there is my wife Penny who has been there behind the scenes from the very start, by my side, building this dream of ours. It really is a team I am super proud of.
I’ve decided it is time that you started to hear a lot more from them too. Along with Adam’s weddings you can look forward to some future posts of weddings by Aurelie and newborns by Karen, and I have asked Penny to write a few posts of her own too. I think it will be nice to hear a female voice now and again, starting tomorrow when I let the girls loose on the blog to share their favourite wedding fashions.
In the meantime, a BIG CONGRATULATIONS to all the very deserved Award Winners at this year’s Queensland AIPP awards. Here are just a couple of Aurelie’s gorgeous images that scored solid silver with distinctions from the Illustrative and Wedding categories.
Jan 2nd
Happy New Year!!
Over the holiday break that is Christmas and New year, I take the chance to have a look back over my year in pictures. Every year one image will stand out. Sometimes it is an image that I took, sometimes it is one I’ve seen. This year it is one I was given. My favourite image from 2011 is very special to me because the first time I saw it was when I was taking it out of a fedex satchel on my 40th Birthday back in September. It is an image from one of my favourite photographers Sebastio Salgado. Besides just being an incredible portrait, I love this image because of the multiple meanings that it holds for me. The image is of a father and son, which instantly resonates with me because it was partly due to my father that I became a photographer, and now I have 3 budding photographers of my own. I also love this image because of the use of light – one of the things I like most to experiment with in photography. It is also a powerful image of people in a landscape, stirring in its simplicity – all stuff I love. But most notably, Salgado is one of a handful of famous photographers that provided me with inspiration in my early days in photography. Elliott Erwitt and Henri Cartier Bresson are also on this list. I looked at their stuff in awe, & it stirred a desire to capture the things I saw around me in that same ‘stop & feel it’ kind of way. Who am I kidding? The work of these guys still provides me with inspiration, and aspiration, today.
I love this image for all its meanings but mostly I love it because it reminds me that as much as i love being a photographer, it is not the most important job I have. The other special thing 2011 brought me was a poem that my eldest son Jackson gave me on Father’s Day, just a few days before my birthday (courtesy of his grade 2 teacher). I’ve reproduced it below. This poem + this image really helped ground me this year. 2011 was a year of ups & downs & challenges for almost everyone I spoke to. It is great to have a reminder that no matter what is going on in the world, the ones you love will see you through.
Walk a little slower Daddy
“Walk a little slower , Daddy” said a little child so small
I’m following in your footsteps and I don’t want to fall
Sometimes your steps are very fast, sometimes they’re hard to see
So walk a little slower Daddy, for you are leading me.
Someday when I’m all grown up. You’re what I want to be.
Then I will have a little child who’ll want to follow me.
And I would want to lead just right, and know that I was true,
So walk a little slower, Daddy, for I must follow you !
Nov 3rd
I woke up this morning and my weekend photography project had disappeared – loaded onto the back of a truck and taken to be recycled, dumped, buried, discarded. Little parts of people’s lives forming one large pile of rubble.
It had been council curbside collection week in our local area and as I carted our junk onto the footpath I couldn’t help but notice the buzz all this “junk” had created. People coming from everywhere to rummage through other people’s trash, marvelling at the treasures they discovered and carted away to serve a new life in someone else’s home. Amongst all this happening there was an underlying dimension that speaks volumes about people – it says much about who you are, who your neigbours are. What does what we throw away say about us? Couldn’t help myself, grabbed my camera & asked the questions.
Here are a few of the images, each one with a story to tell. You’ll find an old couch – how many stories would those chairs tell? What life did they bring to that family? The entire furnishings of a baby’s room – a new phase in the life of this family perhaps? A lone vacuum cleaner hose – what happened to the vaccuum that it belongs to? What of the image you will see of the disgarded beer and golfballs? The stories that could tell. Or maybe there is no story here. Just random pieces of various lives thrown on the sidewalk – a sad indictment to our disposable society.
For me curbside collection is like a cleanse – a fresh start, a change. So when I took these images I could not help but feel a sense of renewal in my neighboured, reinforced as I watched people load their new found treasures into the back of their car. Everything old is new again.
To view the complete gallery of “Found Treasure” click on the image.
Jul 25th
Each year we sponsor the Powerkidz program at the Brisbane Powerhouse. It’s a fantastic week of school holiday entertainment for the family and the perfect way to introduce your kids to all kinds of creative art. We usually just capture some of the fun & festivities. This year though, we wanted to go a step further an introduce kids to the fun of photography, so we enlisted the help of the team at In the Booth. Steve & his team set up a Photo Booth just near the Costumer Corner at Powerkidz and we just let the fun happen! There were some hilarious shots of kids in all sorts of costumes, and of some mums & dads too. Even Penny & my 3 boys couldn’t help to get in on the fun, although with boys they weren’t too keen on the costumes.
We’ve worked on a lot of weddings & events where In the Booth has provided the guests with hours of fun & entertainment at the reception. It really is a great way to have a little fun posing for the camera.
Thanks to In The Booth for helping us bring a little more fun to Powerkidz this year!
Jun 28th
Over the weekend thousands of photographers congregated on Sydney’s convention and exhibition center for the annual Australian Institute of Professional Photography Awards (AIPP) It’s certainly one of the most prestigious and also one of the toughest awards a photographer can enter.
Only a small number of GOLD awards are handed out each year and I’m very excited that Adam received one of them for his stunning image taken at a recent wedding here in Brisbane, at the Gallery of Modern Art, just as the bride is entering the wedding reception. Though hard to see at this size, I just love the expression and the eyes peaking over the glasses of the lady from gallery security about to say “You can’t photograph in here!”
Adam also received his double Masters of Photography, which is a pretty amazing achievement for a photographer who has only been a member of the AIPP for eight years. Congratulations Mr Finch.
Bringing photography to life
Describes what we do. This blog is about exactly that - here we will share a little of our life and a lot of what we love - people, art and photography. Whether you are planning a wedding, a family portrait or building your own professional photography business, I hope you find something to inspire you here. Thank you for visiting.
- Marcus Bell | Brisbane, Australia
