After nearly 20 years of living through “horrific” domestic violence, Kristy* has turned her life around and is now using her traumatic experiences to help others.

The 43-year-old was physically, emotionally and financially abused by a former partner.

Now, she is one of the subjects in a photography exhibition showcasing the reality of domestic and family violence on the New South Wales Central Coast.

She said being photographed in such a vulnerable way felt empowering.

“There were parts where I was a little triggered,” she said.

The exhibition opens at a Tuggerah theatre on the Central Coast today to coincide with the start of Domestic and Family Violence Awareness Month.

Shock to create change

According to NSW Police northern region domestic and family violence coordinator Sharon Wilkinson, officers responded to “over 140,000 domestic violence incident reports” across the state last year.

Crime data also shows that rates of domestic violence are rising in NSW.

Across the Central Coast police districts alone, officers respond to more than 1,000 reports a month on average.

In a new campaign to tackle the issue, NSW Police have partnered with a local photographer to put on an exhibition, which has been 12 months in the making.

Photographer Victoria Fitzmaurice says she wants the project to educate the community while also showing victim-survivors that there is hope.

“I wanted an emotive reaction from the viewers,” Fitzmaurice said.

“The only way I was going to do that was to grab them by the throat and go, ‘look at me’.

Powerful ways to increase awareness

Ms Wilkinson said it was important for the project to be driven by victim-survivors.

“What I wanted to do with this project was really centre victim-survivors’ voices on what the impact of domestic violence to them,” she said.

“And then look at sensitive and powerful ways to bring that impact to the community to increase that awareness.”

The exhibition showcases 27 unique photographs accompanied by impact statements from real local survivors of violence.

Ms Wilkinson said it was critical that police listened to people with lived experiences of domestic and family violence.

“We have to centre victim survivor voices a lot more in strategies to reduce domestic and family violence harm,” she said.

Kristy says she is proud to have taken part in a project that pushes for change after working hard to recover from the trauma she endured.

“I rose from the ashes and pretty much decided that was not going to be my life,” she said.

“These pictures display the severity and the destruction of domestic violence and why it’s so hard to get help.”

The exhibition will move from the Red Tree Theatre at Tuggerah to the Art House in Wyong on May 15.

*Kristy’s last name has been withheld for privacy reasons.

Kate Moss poses topless in rare 32-year old images from celebrated photographer Michel Haddi as they go on display at a new exhibition of his work in London

By Geraint Llewellyn For Mailonline

Published: 19:36 EDT, 30 April 2023 | Updated: 20:06 EDT, 30 April 2023

Rare snaps of supermodel Kate Moss taken by legendary photographer Michel Haddi are to go on display at an exhibition in London.

Haddi has photographed a host of celebrities, including Jennifer Lopez, Clint Eastwood, David Bowie, Tupac Shakur and Sir Sean Connery, and will showcase his images of other stars such as Uma Thurman and Linda Evangelista at international photography fair Photo London this month.

He recently discovered a series of rare Polaroid photos – while cleaning out his storage – of British supermodel Moss, in which he said she looks “very powerful”.

The images now form part of his new book, The Legend – Kate Moss.

The photographer, who has had studios in London and California, said: ‘It made me very happy… to look at the past because I met Kate back in the 90s when she was not known in LA.

‘She was young and she looked like the mermaid of Copenhagen, I said: ‘Oh my God, this girl is like a dream,’… she doesn’t care about nothing and she’s so beautiful.’ 

Recalling working with Moss on a Bloomingdale shoot after meeting her in California, Haddi said: ‘I think that at first she didn’t think that I liked her because I didn’t work with her in LA, but I couldn’t, I was (working), I am as shy as she (is) even now.

‘So there is two models of 6ft tall and she feels a bit embarrassed, I say ‘Darling listen, stay the way you are. You look pissed off, doesn’t matter because even when you look pissed off, you look beautiful’.’ 

The images on show at his London exhibit include black and white photos taken for a shoot at British GQ in New York in 1991, where Moss sits on the edge of a sofa and in another picture lies down.

Recalling meeting Moss at the Cannes Film Festival while she was dating Hollywood actor Johnny Depp, Haddi said she greeted him with “the most beautiful letter”.

Haddi said: ‘This was a girl that at the time was a big star then, but she said: ‘Your photo work of Johnny is so beautiful. I will love that if you could do some like that of me.’

‘I was very touched but so embarrassed because I didn’t know what to do. I mean, you know, it’s like it’s a task for me beyond anything, and so anyway I did some photographs of her there and then.’ 

At his studio in Los Angeles in 1993, he took photographs of There’s Something About Mary actress Diaz for Vogue Homme Magazine which will also be on show in London.

Haddi said Diaz came dressed in a T-shirt featuring the words: ‘Our pussys, our choice.’ 

He said: ‘I looked at it and I said: ‘Darling, okay, I love it.’

‘You have to keep in mind that Cameron used to be a model before so she was very aware of all the in and out of the business.

‘When she came, she was so happy, because one hour before I (received) a big bouquet of flowers of roses. Huge. I mean, so big, and it was from Matt Dillon, because they used to go out together.

‘She was a delight. She was very sweet. She has a great sense of humour.’ 

When asked about difficult people he has worked with, Haddi recalled photographing Shakur, who came to the shoot with John Singleton – director of Poetic Justice in which the rapper starred.

Singleton, Haddi claimed, did not like Shakur being dressed as civil rights leader Martin Luther King and Haddi told him to take the pictures instead.

Haddi said: ‘Tupac being super elegant and very intelligent. He says to John, ‘John, please let the man work. Okay, let him be.’

Haddi’s images will be displayed at 29 Arts In Progress Gallery booth G27 during Photo London from May 10 to 14, which takes place at Somerset House.

On May 13 at 3pm, Haddi will sign copies of his book on Moss which contains the Polaroid photos.

The exhibition will be on display at Somerset House during Photo London from May 10 to 14. 

For many people, landscape photography has become a popularity contest, chasing likes and adulation over creative inspiration and an individual voice. And that is a shame for many reasons, both individual and collective. This important video essay features an experienced landscape photographer discussing the issue and what really matters in the craft. 

Coming to you from Alister Benn of Expressive Photography, this insightful video discusses the meaning of the pursuit of landscape photography. As Benn discusses, one of the most frustrating aspects of the collective craft is the disrespect sometimes displayed toward the environment and wildlife in the pursuit of shots. While most of us can agree that getting a shot does not justify destruction of the natural world, I think more of us get sucked into the pursuit of online clout without realizing it. Not only is this unfulfilling in the long run, it often censors individual creative voices because people stop developing their own style and instead chase the latest social media trends. And why pursue a creative craft if you are not expressing your individuality? Sometimes, it is important to take stock of things, get out into the field, and reset your expectations and experience a bit. Check out the video above for the full rundown from Benn.

A 2018 survey found that only 18 percent of photojournalists worldwide were women. Women Photograph is a nonprofit group working to elevate more female and nonbinary photographers. Founder Daniella Zalcman joins John Yang to discuss a new book published by the nonprofit, “What We See: Women and Nonbinary Perspectives Through the Lens.”

SNOHOMISH COUNTY, Wash., April 30, 2023—Snohomish County PUD announced last Wednesday, April 26, the winning entries for its 2023 student photography and art contests. All students in grades K-12 who live in Snohomish County or on Camano Island were eligible to enter.

PUD Art Competition Winners

Artists were challenged with creating a superhero with energy-related superpowers. Entries were judged on creativity, content, clarity and originality related to the theme. Each winner received $75.

PUD High School Photography Competition Winners

Artists were challenged with creating “Energy in Action.” Energy comes in many forms including: radiant, thermal, potential, electrical, motion, sound, chemical. Entries were judged how well the photograph illustrates the theme “Energy in Action,” artistic merit and technical quality. Each winner received $75.

About Snohomish PUD

Snohomish County PUD is a municipal corporation of the state of Washington, formed by a majority vote of the people for the purpose of providing electric and/or water utility service. It is the largest of 28 PUDs in Washington state, the second largest publicly owned utility in the Pacific Northwest, and the 12th largest in the nation in terms of customers served. Snohomish County PUD serves 875,000 residents of Snohomish County and Camano Island providing electrical service to over 373,000 homes and businesses and water services to over 23,000 homes.

Woodland photography works best during foggy days. It helps to simplify the often chaotic forest environment. Soft sunlight early in the morning or late in the evening can also create a beautiful mood for your woodland photos. But what if you have neither fog nor the right light conditions? You can create those yourself, as I show in this article.

For the technique below, it has to be dark enough. You want the ambient light to reveal just a few details in the forest as a foundation for your photos. The end of blue hour in the evening or the beginning of blue hour in the morning is perfect. Then, you can produce compelling atmospheres by using a strong enough light setup. I used the Colbor CL60R combined with the Moman Power 99 battery for the photo below.

In the Field

Scouting is crucial for night photography. So, I selected a forest I knew very well for this experiment. I also arrived long before sunset to find a good composition and started planning where I wanted to set up my light later.

If you arrive early, take photos of the final scene while it’s still bright enough. Although I didn’t need those for the image above because the Colbor CL60R provided enough light, I wanted to play it safe. If the light is flat, it’s easy to darken those photos to later blend them with the night images where more detail is required using a technique called time blending.

Once you have arrived at a composition you like and taken your first photos, it’s time to plan the location of the light. I didn’t know what would look best when I began this experiment. But I found that having the light hidden behind a tree in the center of the frame results in the most dramatic atmosphere. Lighting the scene from the side causes too much chaos, and having the light source visible in the image can be distracting.

That’s why you should try to find a composition with the main subject in the center of the frame. Then you can set up the light directly behind it to create a beautiful rim light. It draws further attention to the shape of your subject, with shadows radiating out from behind.

Below is a comparison of the scene before sunset and during blue hour. You see how I turned ordinary light conditions into something magical.

All that was missing now to create the moody title photo was some post-processing.

Photo Editing

Looking through the photos from that evening for the first time, I knew I wanted to try a black-and-white conversion. Although the dark blue sky contrasted nicely with the red and orange leaves on the forest floor, the colors didn’t contribute to the atmosphere I was aiming for.

I wanted to show a scene that looked as if it was taken during the witching hour, with the trees dancing around the ethereal glow in the background.

As a first step, I did my usual raw conversion in Lightroom, mostly bringing up the shadows to reveal all detail my Canon EOS R5 had captured. The result is a relatively flat image, perfect for further editing in Photoshop.

After making the adjustments, I synchronized them to a few more photos I had taken for focus stacking. I then opened all photos as layers in Photoshop and performed the stacking through manual masking. If you want to learn more about my workflow, I recommend this article I wrote last year. I show different techniques, including manual stacking in Photoshop and automatic stacking in Helicon Focus.

After the stacking, there were two more steps. First, I performed the black-and-white conversion using a combination of a Gradient Map and Black and White adjustment layer. I show how I combined the two in the feature video. Alternatively, you can use plugins like Nik Silver Efex, which can yield great results.

Above, you can see that the black-and-white conversion alone wasn’t enough. The image on the left still looks pretty flat and lacks atmosphere. I could add further interest to the photo with a combination of “Curves,” a dodge and burn layer, and a blank layer, which I painted with different white textured brushes.

The image on the right pulls the viewer into the center of the frame. Drawing on the blank layer, I created a mist-like atmosphere around the dancing trees, making the scene look even more mystic.

Conclusion

While you can also use a torch to light-paint such a scene, using a static light allows you to produce predictable results. Mounting it on a tripod lets you create precise lighting by fine-tuning how your scene is lit. It’s similar to using a tripod for your camera, where you can make fine adjustments to your composition.

And by using a battery like the Moman Power 99, you also don’t have to rush. It was only 5 °C outside during my shoot, and I used the light for close to 30 minutes at intensities between 60 and 70%. When I packed up, the battery still had close to 80% of its capacity. I could have continued with my night photography for at least another hour.

It was definitely not my last time taking night photos with a studio light. Before that evening in the woods, I hadn’t taken many photos this year yet. The conditions so far weren’t inspiring after a year of traveling the world and the sensory overload this had created. But experimenting with the light helped ignite my creativity again.