Giles Hugo: Five Photographs

‘Risdon zinc works, Hobart; eucalypt-covered slopes of kunanyi visible through background haze.’

Photo © Giles Hugo 2016. Across the Derwent, with a rich palette of mixed lighting — dusk tones, incandescent, neon, mercury, sodium... and not a human in sight. Olympus OM-D/E-M5, Olympus Zuiko 300mm f4; @ f4, 1/20s, ISO 800.

‘Hope.’

Photo © Giles Hugo 2016. Skyscapes are my passion — hence a secure ladder with access to the garage roof to see above visual pollution of surrounding poles, wires, trees. I need a tower, like Yeats. Experiencing dawn daily helps tame the Black Dog. Olympus OM-D/E-M5, Olympus Zuiko 75mm f5.6, polarising filter; @ f5.6, 1/2000s, ISO 200.

‘Sixto “Sugar Man” Diaz Rodriguez.’

Photo © Giles Hugo 2016. In the ‘70s, Sefrikans and Strines were the only kidz who ‘got’ Rodriguez, and he became a cult figure. It took over 25 years before he was ‘rediscovered’ and belatedly lauded. My hero. Olympus OM-D/E-M5, Olympus Zuiko 300mm f4, 1.4x tele-extender; @ f5.6, 1/125s, ISO 1600.

‘Lola’s Joy.’

Photo © Giles Hugo 2016. Found abstract; part of ongoing ‘Black Dog’ narrative project. I associate music and visual art closely— synaesthesia? When objects exhibit rhythm and a ‘groove’, senses overlap, hues resound and echo strange undertones and riffs. Olympus OM-D/E-M5, Olympus Zuiko 300mm f4; @ f5.6, 1/500s, ISO 400.

'Spider and Fly'

Photo © Giles Hugo 2016. Kitchen window drama. In macro work, ring flash at the right distance, adds the sculptural quality of what I call ‘omnidirectional drop-shadow’ to minute 3-D subjects. Olympus OM-D/E-M5, Olympus Zuiko 60mm f2.8, 26mm extension tubes, polarising filter; @ f11, 1/250s, ISO 400, hand-held.

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Giles Hugo: former writer and journalist; self-taught photographer since 1968; digital since 2005, but still using Leica, Canon and Zenit lenses from the ‘60s and ‘70s. Work mostly macro, abstract, skyscapes, people and ‘street’. First solo exhibition 2015, Nolan Gallery, Salamanca Arts Centre, Hobart — still exclusive agents for all Hugo’s print sales. Present photographic mission: Shooting my Black Dog Project — images to help counter depression.