My Publications

2005 Australian Photography November Issue. Australaian Photographic Society Gallery page print a profile as a recognition of members who attain their Honours. In this issue they published my profile for attainting my LAPS Honours.

2002 Living History book with photographs of volunteers of the Neerim District, launched at West Gippsland Art Centre
2002 Living History catalogue essay by Kerrilee Ninnis, Director of Photography, Tacit Contemporary Art Gallery
Radio Interviews for publishing Living History.
 

About My Journey and the birth of my book 'Living History'.
It is amazing how one thing leads to another.

After retiring from the Warragul & Drouin Gazette as their staff photographer, I decided I would like to further my education in photography. I could not have imagined the journey my enrolment in the Melbourne School of Art in that year would lead to.

I needed to learn more about studio portraiture as I was doing more and more weddings. The lecturers at the school have been and still are very supportive. A major project had to be submitted as part of my certificate requirements. I had several ideas for this assignment, after discussion with my lecturer, she advised me if I completed the Living History project and presented it to the schools satisfaction they would consider it for entry into my major project.

To give you some idea of time factors;

This discussion took place in July 2001. In August of that same year I visited a very special lady and well known identity in Neerim South, I thought she would have a good idea of who I should photograph being a local historian and also a fellow Warragul Camera Club member an understanding of my photographic requirements.

During my three hour chat with her explaining how I first got the idea which was to photograph as many people living in the Neerim District that helped shape the district into what it is today, she had jotted down 40 names. Then she said to me "why didn't I do this 10 years ago as there are so many folk that should be in this project but have died." She asked me how long did I expect to complete this project, I told her my lecturers said to allow 12 months. She also pointed out to me that as it was the Year of the Volunteer., and all these folk were volunteers., wouldn't it be nice if we could do it in that year.

Looking back this was just one of many instances that guided my journeys direction.

I had to agree with her and during this initial visit we had booked the AJ Algie Hall for an exhibition for the weekend of 7/8/9th Dec 2001. I asked her how involved she wanted to be with me on the project, she readily accepted and became my co-coordinator of appointments. She also came with me almost every time.

Locked in now I faced the many decisions necessary, my exhibition hanging space dictated how many images I could capture. I decided on approximately 50-60 images. The final number was 61. Who to capture, as it was the Year of the Volunteer, I wanted to try and cover every aspect of voluntary work in our district, my focus was to concentrate also wherever possible on the more mature aged volunteer. I already knew how I wanted these images to look. They had to be fine art fibre based B/W prints mounted in ivory mounts.

I now had three months in which I had to visit, interview, photograph all these people, develop and process all these images. When making arrangements to visit these volunteers I asked if they would be willing and or able to be photographed wherever possible in the environment in which they were carrying out their voluntary service. Obviously many of these people are in their senior years and no longer working, in which case I would photograph them in their home environment.

I wanted to allow ½ a day for each person. I have to say it was all my years of experience working under pressure for the paper stood me in good stead here, to complete a project such as this in such a short time, One needs to be very discipled with time, and dedicated, to producing quality work even when you are tired, as I often worked into the wee small hours. I like working alone in my darkroom or now at my pc.

There are many people that came on board and helped me in one way or another, all of them I am truly grateful to. The first person to offer assistance after the lady in Neerim South, was a representative from the local Lions Club, he was the second person I photographed , he said to me that day if there was anything the Lions could do to let him know.

The exhibition name evolved after a bit of brain storming very simple really, it was all about history and all these folk were still living at the time. So Living History seemed appropriate.

The Lions Club helped me with the setting up and dismantling of the exhibition. The local ladies of various guilds helped with the fantastic supper we provided to 150 invited guests on opening night. The Managering Director Mr Brian Hopkins of the Warragul & Drouin Gazette officially opened the exhibition., and also printed all my flyers and invitations for both the exhibition and my book launch. Among the guests on opening night was one of my lecturers Kerrilee Ninnis-Bateson; she came to assess my project, and I quote her:

"The project not only fulfils a wish to put together a body of accomplished work, but in essence it is Ruth's gift back to the community and to communities in general because it is a community of active participation (not a passive dreaming and waiting), it really is a living history". Unquote Her written comments regarding her assessment were things like "surpassed all expectations"

During the exhibition many people suggested that I should publish a book of all these images to record forever some of our local history. After some consideration on this idea I decided it would be a worthwhile exercise, and a permanent tribute to these wonderful people. As my husband and I are both on fixed incomes we were not in a position to fund such a project as a book. So I submitted three separate applications for grants one through our local shire council, and two with Victorian Government. One of these applications required a corporate body to submit, so I approached The Lions Club of Neerim South and through them their secretary helped me prepare a submission. Sadly all of my applications were unsuccessful.

This took up the first three months of 2002, a little depressed I gave up for a week. Then in mid March I decided to hell with it, its too good an idea to give up on. I will do the book myself even if I have to get a loan to do it.

So I commenced re-interviewing all my volunteers again, as the first interview only gave me their voluntary service record, now I needed more detailed information. To quote my lecturer again "With a book format, the character's stories are able to be added, to give each personality a 'voice', and we see just how broadly their support for the community stretches".

Some of these interviews took up to 4 hours once again sitting around the kitchen table over a cup of tea. Since they had already been interviewed previously, seen their images on display both at Neerim South exhibition and then again down in Melbourne at the Tacit Gallery, they were much more relaxed and happy to chat about their past. I used tapes to record all these interviews. I will keep these takes for as long as I am alive. Some of the stories were just amazing; in many cases you could publish a book on individuals. It is interesting to note here that while the exhibition was on display for the two weeks in Melbourne many comments from city people were: amazed at the number of hours people give to their community, the type of community work they do, and that would never happen in the city.

My representative from the Lions Club visited me one day and said, that the Lions club would like to offer some assistance with the printing costs. It is just amazing how things seemed to fall into place. The Lions offered to fund half the cost of the printing. I was extremely grateful for their offer but felt that their hard earned money was needed in much more needy places. So I suggested to them that maybe if they were willing to put the whole of the money up front for printing, and I would pay them back entirely on book sales. They were happy with this arrangement. The Lions Club were paid back within one month of book launch on November 5th 2002 at the West Gippsland Arts Centre, the extire photographic exhibition hung in their gallery for two weeks. So it was just wonderful, they saved me from having to get a loan and they weren't out of pocket.

Another way the Lions Club helped me was with proof reading, they have a professional proof reader in their membership without his expert correcting and knowledge the book would not have been so polished I am sure. My lecturers were just thrilled and so supportive towards me, they helped me with the formatting of the book scanning the images and laying my text into Quark Xpress ready for the printer. My special lady in Neerim South became my editor and checked everything for historical correctness and helped with deleting text out where necessary. I used Microsoft Word for the text..

The front cover of the book to me represents an elderly hand reaching out for help and the flurry of busy volunteers hands preparing countless sandwiches.

This Project was really a team effort, without all the extra help I am sure I would not have completed it.

I must mention how this whole project has been a learning curve for me in so many ways. I have loved every minute of it.