Alick Wickham has inspired the naming of this site with an amazing feat he achieved in 1918.
Alick completed a world record dive in 1918 in front of 70,000 people. The site is situated in Fairfield, Melbourne, Australia about 10 minuted walk from my studio.
Read MoreSo it would seem that the saying ‘Use and Abuse’ is a fair assessment of how we often experience relationship. The purpose of this piece of writing is to question if we can use relationship in a way where we all benefit.
An avenue towards such mutual benefit could be achieved by engaging in a deeper exploration of relationship. Perhaps we need to accept that we all likely use externals and that this can potentially be okay. For example I believe that parents frequently choose to have children as they believe a child will add value to their lives. I also wonder that if there is a God why he or she would have created relationship if not with the intention of improving his or her experience of existence?
Read MoreMy parents stimulate my writing so much. They live a long way from me but i often talk with them on the phone. This morning my father really got me thinking and feeling. He has always been a very deep feeler but due to hurt early in life tries to use his head to protect himself from being hurt.
Often Dad chooses to avoid people and activities that may touch his emotional buttons. Further he often closes his mind to certain conversations in case he is seen to be lacking in intelligence. At school he had dyslexia and was often punished by teachers who back then had no awareness of the condition.
The thing is my father can be so intuitive when he is relaxed and allows himself to feel and speak. Ever since I was little I could sense the inner wisdom and strength of my father. However I also felt his pain when he was placed outside of his comfort zone. As an adult I have gained an understanding of why he has carried such fear in certain circumstances.
Read MoreThere are many stories that we hear. Some we believe others we don’t. However I believe we can learn from everything that comes to our minds. The Bible talks of The Garden of Eden and Adam and Eve. Perhaps this is a true story or perhaps it is a story from someone’s imagination.
There is another story that is gaining some interest and it is the story of Lilith. The story claims that Lilith was the first created woman and like Adam she was formed from the soil. That she quiet naturally thought of herself as Adam’s equal and demanded of Adam to treat her as such.
Read MoreI have just read a reference in a book about the tsunami and how the wild animals were not killed. The author suggested that the animals sensed the energy approaching and travelled to higher ground. He then suggested that it would not have been a conscious decision and that they would have just acted without thinking.
Read MoreI watched a video the other night titled 'The Sacred Prostitute'. It was a fascinating programme and resonated with many things I feel deeply about.
Evidently in Egyptian times there were temples where women with Goddess qualities were available for sex. However this sex was not even closely associated to what we deem sex these days. They were highly skilled at their craft and were very passionate and humble in their duties. Their role was to bring people closer to the Divine Being within themselves.
Read MoreI believe that the things we ignore or resist not only persist but grow and in a destructive way. In my own life I am becoming more aware that as soon as I feel discomfort I tend to rush into judgment. That I have been conditioned to be precious with so many aspects of life that trigger me to feel vulnerable.
I think our society in general is not good at handling discomfort. That we are increasingly looking for quick fixes to any sort of pain or discomfort. We seem to want to bury much of what we feel so deeply that it becomes out of mind. I wonder if much of our physical pain and stress is related to this quick fix mentality.
Read MoreThere seems to be an increasing level of conflict and stress within relationship. Whilst there are likely many factors I believe that our lack of transparency is a big issue. As individuals we are conditioned to resist our own vulnerability and to do all we can to hide it from others.
Read MoreRecently in Australia there has been a spate of dog attacks. The government is looking at legislating to eliminate certain breeds. I believe that these attacks have a deeper message for us all to listen to. Just recently on a trip to Sydney I was bitten by a dog for the first time.
The dog was owned by a friend. He was a Rhodesian Ridgeback and very large. It was the first time I had met the dog and I played with him very happily for the first 20 minutes.I had another friend with me and we all went into my friend's room which is where the incident occurred.
I reached down to the dog and was nose to nose with him when he growled and savagely bit me just above my eye. He opened up a deep cut on my eyebrow and then went back to being his previous peaceful self. My reaction was shock followed by a strange calm. I didn't get angry and was more intent on making sure that everyone else including the dog were ok.
Read MoreI think that we live in a society that puts far more energy and effort into appearances than truth. That most of us are insecure within ourselves but are not open to accepting this. As such we put up fronts to protect our inner state of being.
However to my mind this is just manifesting a deeper and more dangerous level of insecurity. It is much about loving appearances rather than loving people and ourselves. The more we do this the more we are manifesting an intimidating and competitive world.
Read MoreI am regularly running workshops helping photographers to photograph the female nude. In one workshop the theme for the day was about not being competitive in a cold way. The concept or philosophy being that we humans tend to compete against each other in a need to protect ourselves and also to have control. This is also very apt for women with bodies and faces like the model I photographed in this particular workshop.
Read Morenb; The following piece was written a few years ago in follow up to another piece I had written about an Australian photographer who was in the news for photographing people under 18 years of age.Mr.Rudd was at the time Prime Minister of Australia and had made some strong comments in the media about Mr.Henson.
In writing Child Pornography my motivation was not so much about Bill Henson and his photos as it was about beauty, freedom and innocence. I am 44 yet I still so believe that the world can be a beautiful and pure place. When I heard of Mr. Rudd’s comments I felt a deep passion to open up discussion about what had transpired.
Read MoreI believe that emotional sensitivity is a true gift. Sensitive people I believe have a heightened ability to feel the emotions of other people and also have a heightened ability to project their feelings and emotions to others.
As such I see them as potential leaders in the community. Many sensitive people suffer with their gift. They feel weak and frustrated for their emotional roller coaster. Some experience depression and some even give up on life. These people seem to struggle with reality and can think of themselves as delusional or crazy.
I actually believe that sensitive people are perhaps on the verge of being the most real people in the world. I believe that our world is dominated by fear and false personalities. Most of us at some time pretend to be more confident or stronger than what we feel inside. We protect our emotional state by appearing to be happy and fear free.
Read MoreWhy have I chosen to photograph women on this site and not men? The first reason is that women are my passion. As a photographer I love photographing women whose aesthetic beauty I find to the most captivating of all God's creations.
I don't find the shape of mens bodies to be perfect in an artistic sense and further I am just not passionate about their looks, they do not inspire me to be creative.
Read MoreThese photos mean a great deal to me. Like most females, I have struggled with my appearance since I was about 13. However I was actually severely depressed for several years and admitted to hospital following a suicide attempt. No- one needs to hear about the pressure on girls to look good in society, it's pervasive in every aspect of our lives. Our insecurity is an excellent marketing tool, enabling the cosmetics industry and plastic surgeons to make millions from us every year.
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