Are Australians very good photographers on a whole?

[welly]

I've met a number of amazing Australian fine art photographers who in my opinion are up there with the best. Google Richard White, David Tatnall (his colour work isn't his best stuff..), Maris Rusis. Also, Matthew Kovacs, Chris Tuffin, and Bill Henson obviously. There's an obvious bias in that list of photographers as I'm primarily a large format film photographer but the work by those guys is truly outstanding.

[Lance B]

Yep, I have seen your bird photos, Lance. That's one of the reasons I was surprised that you said what you did. I think Oz bird photos are as good as any and yours are well up there..

Thank you very much for your nice comments, Steve. Very much appreciated!

Can't say I agree about the forests here compared to Europe. Almost all the native forests in Europe are gone and there are still a few left here, though they do keep trying to cut those down. I love the rainforests the best, but the wet sclerophyll forests are almost as good. Bit messy by European standards, but maybe the original forests (Little Red Riding Hood type forests) were also a bit messy. Everything is nicely manicured now, but that is due to human intervention. I lived in England for about 6 years and it was great, lots of history, but we have history too, we just pretend it only started with Captain Cook. Our limits are self imposed.
Anyway, back to the subject. I think we are a bit of a backwater when it comes to professional photography, but that is inevitable as there are few paying customers here. Given the numbers, I think we manage pretty well overall. As for the total world of photography, pro and amateur, I think we stand up pretty well really. Of course there will be many more great photographers from the rest of the world, but then we only have about 0.4% of the worlds population. I suspect we have more than 0.4% of the best photographers, though I couldn't name them.

[Speedway]

Just to put an often used motor sport quote on this "You can't win by following the leader" and as Rick said 250 million v 25 million gives the US 10 times the photos to choose from, when you look at it that way maybe were not that far behind, if at all. Add to that we are used to seeing images from home which lessens the impact of these and makes the unusual from OS even more unique adding to the impact.
Cheers
Keith.

[Bear Dale]

same for landscape photography really, if not more so.

Are we drowning in images? Are there any truly unexplored territory left undiscovered at least with the technology of today?

[JM Tran]

Are we drowning in images? Are there any truly unexplored territory left undiscovered at least with the technology of today?

pretty much I cant really see any new frontiers with photography, maybe in videography.

[ving]

we are not any better or any worse...

[ameerat42]

we are not any better or any worse...

...nor Richard, nor Porter...

[ricktas]

Twisted.

Are the rest of the world really that much better that they can yell from the mountains 'Aussie photographers suck'?

So many are using the 'canned' processing options these days, with Nik Software, Lucas Art, Imagenomic, Topaz to name a few. Everyone seems to be jumping on the plugins that exist, and using them (or over using them) to create a style, or effect for themselves. However they are all basically copying each other.

Originality worldwide has been replaced by plugins and opacity adjustment layers, not just in Australia.

[zollo]

i'm not sure anyone is shouting at aussies from high places, as such.
but plugins can be used creatively or straight out the can, devil's in the details.

[Bear Dale]

After seeing a lot of before and after PP'ing threads on o'seas forums, it makes me wonder if 'our' PP'ing skills are as skilled as well.

[Mark L]

After seeing a lot of before and after PP'ing threads on o'seas forums, it makes me wonder if 'our' PP'ing skills are as skilled as well.

That could have been a new thread.
Think it's been mentioned, but it could be a numbers game. We are only a small % of everywhere else.
Maybe Oz people don't post their best work on o'seas forums (or any forums)??
And does it matter if we're not good photogs as long as we're happy with some of the photos we take?? (another new thread missed!)

[Bear Dale]

Mark, I'm not sure if it's because our population is smaller. We do ok in sport and we did take the America's Cup off those yanks once

And you're right, it doesn't matter. As long as we enjoy doing what we do and we do!

It's just interesting to discuss if other people feel the same as I do.

[sunny6teen]

I spent a year in the States a couple of years ago and I can't say that there's much difference.
On the commercial scene, the U.S. does seem to be luring the best art directors...we're falling behind in that regard I think.