5 minutes with the Artist: Michael Prideaux

Michael Prideaux has been photographing Port Phillip Bay for over 40 years and uses a variety of digital cameras to produce images that he minimally manipulates to enhance tone and colour. His exhibition Sea & Sky runs from 22 July till 2 August 2014.

What is the inspiration behind your current body of work? The inspiration behind my current work which is photographs of Port Phillip Bay is partly the opportunity to observe the bay in all kinds of weather and lighting conditions as I live close to it.  A coule of the photos were taken while I was walking my dogs,one of whom makes a cameo appearance in one of the photos.

How do you create these works, what is your process? The works were created with a variety of digital cameras and post processed fairly minimally in Photoshop.  Polarising filters were used in the daytime shots to increase cloud contrast and a small aperture (F11 or greater) was used to increase depth of field. The photos were printed by me on Museo Silver Rag paper using an Epson Pro 4800 printer.

What is your background, education, experience or how did you evolve into being an artist? I have had a lifelong interest in photography but have had no formal training.  Over a decade ago I switched from film to digital at about the same time that I retired from practice as a barrister.  Both were positive moves.

Tell us a story connected to these works: All these photos were taken while walking or cycling by the bay. I of course alighted from my bicycle to take some of the photos. For the night shots I took a tripod to obtain long exposures.  The shot of the Muslim Bridesmaids at Lagoon Pier which is more akin to photojournalism than the other works was due to a bit of happenstance where I happened to be in the right place at the right time.