Artospective: Photography by Tim Laffey from Sydney, Australia.

Lake Dream

An Interview with Tim Laffey.

Who and from where are you?

I was born in Christchurch, New Zealand, but grow up in the North Island of New Zealand, in the coastal town of Whanganui. Even though I now Live in Sydney, Australia, I make regular trips back to New Zealand to do much of my work. The New Zealand landscape is very sympathetic to my style, and of course there is the natural spiritual connection to one’s country of birth.

How you got into this?

My greatest and primary influence has been that of painters. I look in wonder at their complete understanding of light, shade, and their observations on how light plays in our visible world.

What is your driving force?

Turner's paintings have and continue to be my guiding inspiration; from the time I discovered his work as a boy to present day. I'm seeking that 'glow' from within the work! I was to discover that I did not possess the required skill with the brush to be able to live in the ‘Impressionists landscape’. But that was the landscape I loved and yearned for so much. I had to find a way! I turned to the camera, from the age of thirteen, and then through my years as a Cinematographer, which is how I understood the essence of motion blur.

I knew I could make the camera my paintbrush. So I have given a great deal of my life to perfecting the use of the camera to find my style, to be in the impressionists landscape.

What kind of work you do and why?

My work is both impressionist and spiritual in nature and I am seeking to transcend the image as a photo into something broader, an exploration of light and atmosphere. Not just a mere topographical representation but to embrace the joy and beauty of light, for me it is to think without words.

My images are created in camera and I originate on film (negative), this allows me to smear the colours, much like one would smear the palate, when working in pastels; this is crucial, as it enables me to react emotively and honestly at the point of exposure. It cannot be overstated the importance, in understanding, that my work is not manipulated in any way via Photoshop, to do so, for me, is making a lie of my relationship with the landscape.

The writings of Henry Thoreau, Alan Watts and Parker J. Palmer's book 'Let your Life Speak', are guiding lights in my spiritual influence over my work and my constant driving inspiration to continue to create. My favorite quote of Thoreau, is, “Find your bone and gnaw on it"

Through, diligence, practice and growth over a life of applied experience, there eventually comes a time when you find your own voice, and I feel have finally found my mine!

Nature never presents a perfectly framed image. The Landscape offers a vast amount of opportunities, a treasure trove of visions. But, fundamentally, it is the choices one makes to form the image that reaches the viewer.

I work in one medium to explore another!

An imagined placed.