I studied photography in Melbourne in the late 1970’s and early 80’s under the tutelage of the late Athol Smith (1914-1990) and John Cato (1926-2011). At this time, and subsequently, I undertook extensive studied in the fine arts. It is from and through the ongoing study of these two disciplines that I now draw some of my inspiration. For example, the motivation for my current work has its genesis in the work of Australian Impressionist painters of the late 19th century, more particularly that of the plein-air style adopted by artists of the Heidelberg School. (see the example from Arthur Streeton, right) I then tie this in with the more current genre of the work of photographers like Ken Duncan.
Importantly in the case of Streeton, using the Australian landscape as as subject matter, but very much playing with the notion of light and colour rather than the the realistic representation for historic record. Similarly in my attempts, I am not so much concerned with the realistic representation of the subject matter, although originally a photograph, but more so (as in the example right) each pixel of my images is manipulated in photoshop to stylise the landscape; in essence using the pixels to paint with.
Michael Sankey 