Blender Gallery is proud to present “THE WORLD THROUGH A PLASTIC LENS”, an exhibition of photographs shot entirely on Plastic Cameras.

This exhibition features work from 4 professional photographers; Don Brice, Alex Craig, Tim Gibbs and Tim Hixson, who choose to shoot on Holga or Diana Cameras.

These chunky cameras made entirely out of plastic will reawaken your vision, fill you with joy, make you see beauty when you thought it had disappeared forever, and bring out sunshine on a cloudy day.

TS Eliot said, ''Humankind cannot stand too much reality''. And like it or not reality is always a big part of the photographic process.

So Don Brice likes to rub off some of the edges. Use a bit of blur, or do away with some of the colours. Brice lets the world keep moving while he snaps away quietly.

“These toys encourage me to switch off the planning, logical part of my mind and help me work more intuitively. I rarely set out to make deep statements with these shots, but I do hope that people identify with the emotions or thoughts stirred up by the images.”

Don Brice lives and works in Adelaide. He is a lifelong photographer.

Brice is an Australian Institute of Professional Photography (AIPP) “Master of Photography” and served three years on the Advertising, Commercial and Media Photographers of Australia (ACMP) federal board.
Brice’s work has been regularly honoured at the AIPP Australian Professional Photographers Awards.

“My pictures have been made with the simplest of plastic cameras. They are uncluttered, untechnical and can produce unexpectedly dreamlike results. The images feel more like memories than a record of reality. My images catch hopes, dreams and impressions of life. This is the dream world I’d sometimes like to escape to” – Don Brice

Alex Craig is a commercial photographer who came to photography late, after buying his first camera while traveling 16 years ago.

Craig has been shooting on Diana cameras for 9 years of which he was inspired after seeing Tim Hixson's show, Beach, at Byron Mapp Gallery in 1998.

In this exhibition, Alex Craig’s images are all taken in Varanasi during a trip to India in 2006.

“I love to work with the Diana as it is a more emotional way of shooting. There are limited choices for aperture & focus. Shutter speed varies depending on how hard you press the lever. It's not quite point & hope but there are always surprises & disappointments on every roll of film. It's the funnest!” – Alex Craig

Alex Craig is represented by Legge Gallery.

Tim Gibbs’ career spans over 25 years and across many creative disciplines: as a photographer, film maker, advertising director, radio broadcaster, writer and publisher.

His work is renowned and diverse: with a portfolio that includes numerous short films and documentaries, pro-bono work for the United Nations, the EPA, St George Foundation and Medecins Sans Frontiers among others and high profile advertising clients such as Procter & Gamble, Unilever, Masterfoods, AIA, LG and General Motors.

To Gibbs, the Holga is ALL about simplicity. A plastic lens, two settings, a bit of push and pull in the processing and the faith that each roll will take hold of a magic moment or two.

“It’s the imprecision that’s exciting, the individuality of its character, its wild unpredictability and the challenge of taming it just enough to get an image that so perfectly reflects the mood of the moment”. – Tim Gibbs

In an age where most photographers frame up, make the exposure and then tilt the camera down to see the image there on that silly little screen (and snap again if they’ve somehow got it wrong) it feels even more important that the basic joy and craft of photography be pulled back to feeling for the moment, finding the target and letting go, having faith in an intuitive judgment and experiencing the excitement and nervous anticipation of waiting to see the result once it’s processed. I just love it.”

“My selection of work represents a compressed history of his life with numerous Holgas (I still have two favorites and they’re my first, but will admit that I’m guilty of dating others over the years). Most of these images reflect the joy of the overlap. Every one is completely unchanged since I opened the shutter, as the frame numbers are my witness.
There’s no ‘stitching’, no Photoshop beyond selective colour correction; they are as the day they were born.

Why so purist? Because I can be, because it turns me on to deliver that quiet narrative sequence and because it looks good on a long wall”.

Gibbs is currently involved in a major multi-media project for Reconciliation Australia to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the referendum for reconciliation, comprising a full length television documentary program, web content, photography, TV Commercials and a traveling conversation piece.

Tim Hixson has been working as a professional commercial photographer for the last 27 years, and first shot with a plastic camera in 1969.
Hixson, was voted Top Art Photographer in “Capture”, ”Australian Creative” Magazines ‘Australia’s Top Photographers’ Awards’ in 2006.

He has a Bachelor of Science degree in both Cinema and Photography, and currently works out of a large commercial photography studio in McMahons Point, where he works for clients like Sony, Telstra, SA Tourism, The Heart Foundation and Kia just to name a few.

“As plastic camera photographers, we never really know what our cameras will reveal.
There is a magic that happens when the light falls just right and textures are created by the confluence of plastic lens, focus and film, and we surrender control of our picture making to these nuances and to the unknown”. – Tim Hixson

In “Summertime”, Hixson has selected images shot over the past three summers which suggest a sense of dreaming and change.

Hixson divides his photographic time between his professional photography and his personal work of which he exhibits across Australia regularly.
He also self published a book on plastic camera photography called ‘BEACH’ which can be found on many coffee tables nationally.
Last year Tim had three solo exhibitions and was part of seven group shows in Australia.