Tags
Adelaide, ART, Australia, PHOTOGRAPHY, SALA 2020, South Australia, SYDNEY, TRAVEL
1. In the Time of ‘Self-Isolation’: At the Drive-In – Adelaide Hills, South Australia (Sony ILCE-7)
INTRODUCTION
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic I was unable to hold my annual photographic exhibition for this years South Australian Living Artists Festival (SALA). Subsequently I will present my exhibition via my WordPress website as well as other social media; all 18 photographs in this collection are available for sale via my Bluethumb.com site.
The overall theme for this exhibition is Australian Romanticism. The collection includes ‘Landscapes’, ‘Seascapes’, ‘Sunsets’, ‘Night’, and ‘Abstracts’, as well as photographs from on-going series, namely ‘Adelaide Noir’, ‘Through a Window’, ‘Pareidolia’, and ‘In the Time of Self-Isolation’. This later series, exemplified by the above photograph, is an attempt to express the surreal nature of these current times in dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic.
The sources for inspiration behind this collection are numerous. They include the natural extraordinary beauty of the Australian countryside, as well as influences of major artists; this includes early colonial artists John Glover, German ‘romantic’ artist Caspar David Friedrich, and American ‘abstract’ artist Mark Rothko.
As the above photograph also exemplifies there is often a romantic ‘theatrical’ aspect to my work. Behind all my work is my motto and attempt ‘to make the ordinary “Extraordinary”!’ Hope you enjoy this collection.
LANDSCAPES
2. Through a Window: Ruined House, Silverton, New South Wales (Sony ILCE-7)
The old mining town of Silverton is about 25kms north of Broken Hill in the north-western corner of New South Wales. It has often been used as a location for Australian films, including George Miller’s Mad Max series. This photograph is part of the on-going series ‘Through a Window; gazing through a window one can see and imagine numerous possibilities.
3. ‘The Sugarloaf’ – Hallet Cove Conservation Park, Hallet Cove, South Australia (Sony ILCE-7)
‘The Sugarloaf’ is one of the most distinctive features of the Hallet Cove Conservation Park, about 21kms south of Adelaide on the Gulf St. Vincent. This extraordinary formation is part of the remnants of an old pre-historic glacier; white sand replaced the ice as the glacier slowly melted 15,000 years ago. Early colonial settlers called it ‘The Sugarloaf’ due to its resemblance to a ‘loaf’ of hardened white sugar.
4. Autumn 2020 – Mt. Lofty Botanic Gardens, Mt. Lofty, Adelaide Hills, South Australia (Sony ILCE-7)
Autumn in the Adelaide Hills is simply spectacular! The Mt. Lofty Botanic Gardens is a terrific place were one can see this colourful spectacle. Unfortunately, the gardens were closed for most of this Autumn due to the Covid-19 pandemic. However, it re-opened for the final week of Autumn 2020 and I drove up immediately and found this tree that seemed ablaze with Autumn colour.
5. Penny’s Hill Vineyard – McLaren Vale, South Australia (Sony ILCE-7)
Penny’s Hill Vineyard is one of the most charming and picturesque established vineyards in the McLaren Vale, approximately 35kms south of Adelaide on the Fleurieu Peninsular. There is a strong sense of old England at Penny Hill’s Vineyard, with its sandstone Georgian two-storey main house, as well as these Suffolk ‘black-faced’ sheep.
SEASCAPES
6. Maslin Beach, South Australia (Sony ILCE-7)
Maslin Beach is one of the ‘best beaches’ in Australia. It was also the first nudist beach in Australia, which is at the southern end of the beach. You can just see the small sign on the left of this photograph that states that this is the ‘Unclad’ section of the beach. I took this photograph one cold and stormy Winter’s day. I waited for a break in the cloud, a ‘decisive moment’, when the sun burst through the clouds and lit up the cliff face. Extraordinary.
7. In the Time of ‘Self-Isolation’: The Walker – Port Willunga, South Australia (Sony ILCE-7)
This photograph was taken one early Winter morning at Port Willunga, about 35kms south of Adelaide on the the Gulf St. Vincent. It is part of the on-going series ‘In the Time of “Self-Isolation”‘, and can be seen metaphorically as a reflection of these current times. The cliff face can be representative of the almost overwhelming nature of the Covid-19 pandemic, with the female walker standing tall but alone against this formidable force.
8. The Conference of the Birds – Port Noarlunga, South Australia (Sony ILCE-7)
This photograph was taken from the Port Noarlunga jetty on a cold early Winter’s day. It looked like this flock of seagulls were debating certain issues; such as, in the case of the Covid-19 pandemic – ‘Where have all the humans gone? Where are out chips?’. Subsequently, in order to find food they would need to brave the cold sea and debating, ‘Well – who’s going in first?’
PAREIDOLIA
‘Pareidolia’ is that unique aspect of the human imagination that sees faces in natural and man-made objects. The following photograph is part of my on-going series devoted to this wonderful human phenomena, which is something that unites rather than divides us. Nonetheless, the faces and creatures that one may see in these photographs is up to you.
9. Pareidolia: ‘What Lies Beneath?’ – Port Noarlunga, South Australia (Sony ILCE-7)
‘What Lies Beneath?’ – some see a serpent, some see a crocodile, some see a turtle, and some see a ram with a golden fleece – what do you see?
ABSTRACTS
10. ‘Brave New World’ – Austinmer, New South Wales (Sony ILCE-7)
This photograph was taken in January 2020 during the height of the Australian Summer Bushfires. Whilst it may seem that this photograph has been ‘doctored’ in some way in actual fact I did very little re post-production. The unique and relatively disturbing colours were due to the continual haze that hung over Austinmer, a beach town on the South Coast of New South Wales, for days and days and days.
11. Ripples – Christies Beach, South Australia (Sony ILCE-7)
This was taken one Winter morning on Christies Beach, which is about 20kms south of Adelaide. The ripples across the sad reminded me of the work of German illustrator H. R. Giger who created the ‘Alien’ for Ridley Scott.
SUNSETS
12. Sunset #1 – Port Willunga, South Australia (Sony ILCE-7)
This photograph and the two following were all taken at respective sunsets at Port Willunga. They are all very different in their own ways, inspired by different artists. The one above is influenced, particularly in terms of colour and tone, by the early Australian colonial artist John Glover.
13. Sunset #2 – Port Willunga, South Australia (Sony ILCE-7)
This photograph was taken on Autumn 2020 sunset. This photograph and the one following were influenced by the American ‘abstract’ artist Mark Rothko. They are specifically designed and crafted to encourage and support meditation and reflection, particularly during these challenging times.
14. The Bather – Port Willunga, South Australia (Sony ILCE-7)
This photograph was also taken one Autumn 2020 sunset. The young woman in the photograph swims every day and in every season the considerable distance from the ruined jetty at the southern end of the Port Willunga beach to the northern headland. As with the previous photograph this is specifically created and designed for meditation and reflection.
15. Bowral ‘Bushfires’ Sunset – Bowral, New South Wales (Sony ILCE-7)
This photograph was taken one January 2020 sunset at a friend’s place in Bowral, in the Southern Highlands in New South Wales. Whilst all may seem relatively calm and peaceful, nonetheless, this was taken during the height of the catastrophic bushfires that dominated the Australian Summer. The orange glow in the distance is not from the setting sun but from a relatively nearby fire. As my friend and I gazed out over this landscape water helicopters continually flew by and over us.
ADELAIDE NOIR
16. The Beacon – Dolphin Sanctuary, Port Adelaide, South Australia (Sony ILCE-7)
This photograph was taken at Port Adelaide at the end of Summer 2020. It can be seen as a metaphorical expression of ‘Hope’, referencing the old Australian Labor Party and Christian motto of ‘the beacon the hill’ being a light of hope in the surrounding darkness.
NIGHT – TOWN & COUNTRY
The following two photographs may be taken as continuing the ‘noir’ theme from the above section. However, these two photographs are from two radically different locations – one in a modern Australian city and one in a remote Australian country town.
17. Sydney War Memorial – Hyde Park, Sydney, New South Wales (Sony ILCE-7)
The was taken one still and balmy Summer’s night in late December 2019 in Sydney. Whilst the city was surrounded by Bushfires there was a relatively strange peace and quiet in this place of memorial and reflection.
18. ‘Municipal Chambers’ (in a Dust Storm) – Silverton, New South Wales (Sony ILCE-7)
This was taken one night in early December 2019, in Silverton, in the far north-west of New South Wales – during a furious dust storm. The taking of this photograph was a ‘decisive moment’ and more. I was driving very, very slowly through this dust storm when I noticed the way the ‘Municipal Chambers’ appeared under the respective lights from the moon and nearby lamp, both affected by the haze of the dust storm. With the wind, dust, and rocks whirling around me I positioned my car up against a wall on the opposite side of the street, and with my back against a wall to keep me steady and using the open car door for some protection I took this one shot – which in the end came out rather well – like a Russell Drysdale painting.
If you have read and gazed at all the above I hope you have enjoyed it. I feel I have grown considerably in my development and evolution as an artistic photographer. The future? Who knows – but I am more certain about my artistic eye and aesthetics, which is, unashamedly, ‘Romantic’.
Tony Knight – August 2020.
DAME OLIVIA DE HAVILLAND was born 1 July, 1916, in Tokyo and at the grand age of 101 she is still alive and well and living in Paris. Whilst her parents were British, nonetheless she and her younger sister Joan (later known as Joan Fontaine) was raised in Saratoga, California by their mother. She made her acting debut in an amateur production of Alice in Wonderland. What follows in this rather lengthy article is essentially a tribute to Olivia de Havilland’s brilliant career. In my respective acting classes I am often citing past great actors and films, of which my young (and not so young) students are often completely unaware. Many have not even seen or even know about Gone With The Wind, which is perhaps the film that most would identify with Olivia de Havilland. However, there is so much more to this extraordinary actress and 20th and 21st Century woman.
In 1934 she played the role of Puck in a local production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. That summer the legendary director Max Reinhardt came to Los Angeles to direct a production of The Dream at the Hollywood Bowl. One of Reinhardt’s assistants saw Olivia de Havilland in the Saratoga production. Due to this assistant’s praise Reinhardt offered de Havilland the second understudy for the role of Hermia. One week before the production opened Gloria Stuart (Titanic), who was playing Hermia, and the first understudy left the production and Olivia de Havilland went on. Reinhardt 
was so impressed with the then 18 years old Olivia de Havilland that he subsequently cast her as Hermia in his lavish 1935 film version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. She appeared with alongside other Hollywood legends including James Cagney, Dick Powell and a very young Mickey Rooney. Also in the cast was Australian actress Jean Muir who played Helena.
The 8 films that Olivia de Havilland did with Errol Flynn’s is a classic example of the successful on-screen romantic couple. Born from the Hollywood Studio system, as well as the classical theatre, many have tried to emulate this very specific but elusive kind of movie magic, but only a few have ever been as successful as the de Havilland-Flynn pairing. This includes, Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy, and Doris Day and Rock Hudson. In modern cinema the films of Drew Barrymore and Adam Sandler are the only on-screen pairing that comes close, although I would also argue that the pairing of Kiera Knightly and Orlando Bloom in the Pirates of the Caribbean film series captures this special type of movie magic.
In the 1930s as well as the films she made with Errol Flynn she also appeared in a few films with Bette Davis, my favourite being It’s Love I’m After (1937). This marked the beginning of a life-long friendship between Olivia de Havilland and Bette Davis, which is an aspect of de Havilland’s current plans to sue the producer’s of the TV series Feud that deals with the relationship between Davis and Joan Crawford, and in which Catherine Zeta-Jones appears as Olivia de Havilland. One delightful little story about Olivia de Havilland’s relationship with Bette Davis can be found in the This Is Your Life: Bette Davis episode in which Olivia de Havilland makes a surprise appearance. She talks about her relationship with Bette Davis, who is sitting right next to her, and they laugh about how prior to The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex de Havilland was Flynn’s leading lady, but in Elizabeth and Essex she now was Bette Davis’ maid! Haha!
Olivia de Havilland also appeared in such ‘big budget’ epics such as Anthony Adverse (1936), but then came the biggest of them all – Gone With The Wind (1939).
I love Gone With The Wind, in which Olivia de Havilland played ‘mealy-mouthed’ Melanie Wilkes. She, like the rest of the film, is simply wonderful. I am fully aware that it now attracts some severe criticism in regards to its depiction of slavery and African-American stereotypes. Whilst there may be some validity in these censures, nonetheless, it is still a great film – for many reasons. Olivia de Havilland was amongst the first to congratulate Academy Award co-Best Supporting Actress nominee Hattie McDaniel when McDaniel won the award – the first African-American actress to do so. I love Hattie McDaniel’s quip when she was criticized as subscribing to so-called ‘Uncle Tom’ black stereotypes for her fabulous and memorable performance of Mammy: “I’d rather make seven hundred dollars playing a maid than seven dollars being one’.
Despite being somewhat overshadowed by Vivien Leigh, with whom Olivia de Havilland enjoyed a great friendship and working relationship, nonetheless, de Havilland’s Melanie also displays a wonderful ‘cool charm’ and ability to successfully lie and deceive. This ‘cool charm’ is particularly apparent in the second half of the film, in the Atlanta section, involving the deception of the army in regards to her wounded husband, Ashley (Leslie Howard). Olivia de Havilland is also at her best in all her scenes with Vivien Leigh (and there are a lot) including the final ‘death of Melanie’ scene. She is also wonderful in her scenes with Clark Gable, comforting him after the death of Bonnie, and before that her one scene with the terrific Ona Mason as Belle Watling.
One terrific example of superb screen acting is the sequence in which Melanie recognizes from afar the returning battle scarred Ashley (Leslie Howard); in this short sequence there are no words spoken, and the range of emotions that go across Olivia de Havilland’s face is wonderful and extraordinary – from concern, intrigue, disbelieve, realization and finally rapturous joy. I love Gone With The Wind and have watched it many many times, and always find it delightful and discovering something new about it.
Olivia de Havilland made 16 films during the 1940s. The best of these in the e 40s are Santa Fe Trail (1940), The Strawberry Blonde (1941), Hold Back the Dawn (1941) and The Died with their Boots On (1941). During WW2 Olivia de Havilland was an active member of the Hollywood Canteen, dancing and entertaining troops. This is somewhat reflected in the film 
Thank Your Lucky Stars (1943), in which she appears in a comic song ‘The Dreamer’ with Ida Lupino and George Tobias. Olivia de Havilland also bravely visited front-line troops on islands and other places in the Pacific war zone.
In 1945 she signed a two-picture deal with Paramount Pictures and subsequently made To Each His Own (1946), for which she received her first Academy Award for Best Actress.What To Each His Own exemplifies is Olivia de Havilland’s artistic need and desire to play characters that go through a considerable transformation, physically as well as psychologically. In To Each His Own Olivia de Havilland beautifully plays an unwed mother who has to give up her child. In this highly romantic drama the character she plays, Jody, ages from a young innocent American girl to an old woman in WW2 London. Whilst it is perhaps easy today to dismiss this sentimental drama, nonetheless, for its time it was covering controversial ground. Furthermore, To Each His Own marked the beginning of a new period in Olivia de Havilland’s career that saw her make films which what are possible her most impressive in regards to acting performances.
This includes the complex ‘film noir’ psychological thriller The Dark Mirror (1946), in which she plays the dual role of twins battling each other in a torturous love triangle. This fascinating film, written by Nunnally Johnson and directed by Robert Siodmak has been regarded as a precursor to Johnson’s The Three Faces of Eve (1957). Olivia de Havilland was experimenting with the so-called ‘method acting’ technique, and did an enormous amount of research into the psychology of twins. It is speculative as to whether or not she also drew on her own problematic relationship with her sister, Joan Fontaine.
The Heiress is based on Henry James classic novella Washington Square, and the play adaptation by Ruth and Augustus Goetz. It is a story about deliberate cruelty. A young woman, a wealthy heiress called Catherine Sloper who is cruelly treated by her father, brilliantly played by Ralph Richardson. She falls in love with a young man, Morris Townsend, played by the irresistible Montgomery Cliff, who deserts her after being offered financial remuneration by her father. Years later, after her father has died and Catherine has inherited her fortune, Morris returns in the hope that Catherine will forgive him and that now they can be married. Catherine goes along with Morris’ plans until the devastating ending. When challenged by her Aunt Lavinia (Miriam Hopkins) as to how Catherine can be so cruel, Catherine replies, “I was taught by experts”. This is a great story, complex and intriguing and Olivia de Havilland is simply brilliant, especially in the final scenes. Once again – as with The Snake Pit, and her other films in this period, one is seduced by her seeming innocence, unaware of the serpent that lies beneath until the end. Well worth watching.
Due to family commitments and various theatre engagements in New York, which included playing Juliet in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and Candida in George Bernard Shaw’s Candida, Olivia de Havilland did not make another film until 1952. When she did it was the mystery romance, My Cousin Rachel (1952), which was Richard Burton’s first US film. This was followed by Not as a Stranger (1955), which was Stanley Kramer’s debut film, and also featured Frank Sinatra. Her marriage to French journalist Marcus Goodrich meant that she relocated to live in Paris. She returned to Hollywood to make Michael Curtiz’s western The Proud Rebel with Alan Ladd, and 1959 she was in the British courtroom drama Libel (1959), directed by Anthony Asquith with Dirk Bogarde.
Her marriage to Marcus Goodrich ended in 1962, but they continued to 
cohabitate in the same house in Paris. In that same year Olivia de Havilland scored her greatest stage success, appearing with Henry Fonda on Broadway in Garson Kanin’s A Gift of Time. She also appeared in Guy Green’s film Light in the Piazza (1962) that many years later became the basis for Craig Lucas’ and Adam Guettel’s magnificent musical The Light in the Piazza (2005). In 1962 Olivia de Havilland published her semi-autobiographical book, Every Frenchman Has One, about her life in Paris, which subsequently became a bestseller.
In 1964 Olivia de Havilland made two rather extraordinary psychological horror films. The first was Walter Grauman’s Lady in a Cage (1964), which featured a young James Cann. This is really odd 1960s film – and it is stylishly very 1960s, almost psychedelic at times, with the addition of a doco-drama element. The other film was Robert Aldrich’s Hush…Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964) with Bette Davis, as well as other ‘old Hollywood’ actors, Joseph Cotton, Agnes Morehead, Mary Astor, and Australian actor Cecil Kellaway. Olivia de Havilland took over the role that Joan Crawford was playing when Crawford became too ill and had to withdraw. This film also features the young Bruce Dern.
Hush…Hush, Sweet Charlotte is Robert Aldrich’s follow-up to his What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962). As Bette Davis told me (yes – me) Baby Jane was the better of the two films due its script superiority. Still – Hush…Hush, Sweet Charlotte is a highly entertaining film, with the seemingly innocent Olivia de Havilland being actually as ruthless and cold-blooded as she was at the end of The Heiress.
