Nudes, Portraits & Other Pictures
1970 - 1980

Updated May 2008

These black and white photographs are from my early period of photography in Bath and Oxford from 1970 'till I migrated to Australia in 1981

Mainly female nude black and white photographs, 1981 - 1993. I prefer the term naked portrait to nude, but for web clarity I use the word nude. I also prefer the word women to models for the women who collaborate with me in these projects

Pubic hair Some of these images include pubic hair. However, there is no detail shown on this website, this is a concious decision

Prints are for sale as fine limited edition archivally processed silver gelatine prints in rag board mats

WILD ARUM - Arum maculatum

Arum maculatum 1973

Arum maculatum, one of my favourite harbingers of Spring, also bears the common names of Jack In The Pulpit, Lords and Ladies, Cukoo Pint and many others

GLASTONBURY TOR

St Michaels Church Tower, Glaston Tor, 1971

Interesting to me is that when a Christian church was placed on something sacred in Somerset the church often fell down

STEVIE

Stevie, Bath, England, 1973

This was a black and white continuity photograph for a 16mm BW film I had started with Stevie - this still records her gorgeous beads and fur and things for film continuity - I had hours of free 16mm TriX stock but no processing funds - I kept the exposed film in a fridge 'till I left for Australia - at which point I dumped it in a bin - now, of course. . .

DAVID LASCELLES

David Lascelles sitting in Blossom, Beckington, England, 1973

This is the definitive portrait of David Lascelles, 'though he may no longer agree

EMMA

Emma, Summer Solstice, Glastonbury, England, 1976

IZZIE

Izzie, Oxford 1980

LAMBRIDGE PLACE

I still have the carpet, but not the 1936 Zeiss Contax it was taken with

RAE

Rae, Bath, England, 1971

The location was an abandoned house cut into the side of a hill in Bath with beautiful windows covered in leaves

These images are very black and white, but not much was grey in those days, apart from Winter

I received an email from Rae after she found my website while looking for Somerset images. As a photographic printmaker I have always stiven for interpretation of the negative and print quality over speed. Prefering to wait 'till I can look at an image calmly and objectively. On this occasion I really excelled in print delivery time. I made this photograph with Rae in August 1971 and posted prints to her in November 2007, exceeding even my normal printing delay - So, after thirty six years, Rae finally got a set of prints

LESLEY

Lesley, Bath, England, May 1971

The distortion is due to the photograph being made through two mirrors, the closest one to the camera being a bronze backed mirror with unflat glass

While reality appeared curved, which was quite frequent, Lesley's body absorbs the distortion to become the point of reference on a shifting ground. The suggestion the distortion is because I was using Swiss Alpa cameras at the time is quite erroneous

SUE

Sue, Bath England, June 1970

Sue - The beginning - June 1970 - This was the first photograph of a naked woman that worked for me

Looking at the negatives again after 37 years I see other avenues of thought leading out - much lighter avenues - but I had just seen the Bill Brandt exhibition at the Hayward Gallery in London - I still have the catalogue

John Austin
Quinninup, Western Australia