To get us in the mood for Alex Fry and Jamie Nimmo’s Stereo Portrait Project opening at Oh Really Gallery this Thursday, we approached this article in a stereoscopic kind of way. Lucy, the “right eye” interviewed Alex and Jamie about the art and form of 3D portraiture. Roslyn “left eye” [Lopez] asked Alex and Jamie about what would happen if we had three eyes instead of two.

Alex Fry has spent the last decade working in motion picture visual effects. His current obsession with photography has grown out of his love for both the aesthetic and the technical. Jamie Nimmo has worked in visual effects and advertising for 7 years. He is also curator and photographer of Oh Really Gallery in Newtown.

Alex and Jamie have worked together on films such as Lord of the Rings, Batman Begins, Harry Potter, 300 and the upcoming Legends of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole, set for 2D and 3D release later this year.

++

+ So how do you take a 3D photograph?
> Jamie: Two cameras spaced roughly the same distance apart as the human eyes, that’s it…

Well, sort of, there are a bunch of issues beyond that, [such as] how do you trigger them? How do you maintain focus with two cameras? How do you ensure flash equipment syncs with both cameras reliably? How do you sort the photos using software not designed with 3D in mind? What sort of display technologies do you use and when? But the short of it is two cameras with two matched lenses, or one camera with 2 lenses built in.

+ What are the advantages of 3D portraiture? Why are people so fascinated by it? After all, don’t we see real life in 3D? And what are the limitations?
> There are a lot of advantages, both near and long term. The first is related to how we perceive faces. Everyone knows the old adage “the camera adds 10 pounds”, but with 3D photography this isn’t really the case. In 2D so much of our mind’s interpretation of the geography of someone’s face is based on the way the shadows fall, that’s why people with highly defined bone structures always photograph well, and why we all know people who, whilst looking a little plain in real life, look stunning on film and vice versa.

In 3D this is less of an issue, as your perception of a person’s face shape is directly connected to its actual contours rather than just shadows. You pick up on the subtleties of the relationship between objects. Someone wearing glasses all of a sudden becomes more dramatic, you start noticing things like an ear being refracted through the lenses, and it all still has depth.

Secondly you simply capture more information about whatever it is you’re looking at, subtle textures, specular properties, as well as a lot of more precise geometric information about a scene, how long someone’s nose is for instance. This additional data allows for all kinds of things in the future well beyond what were presenting with this series. As display and stereo image analysis technology improves we can find new ways of displaying and interpreting the images that we have shot so far…

As for limitations, there are a number of issues relating to both capture and presentation. You have limits on what you can do with foreground and background objects. Limits with presentation size, display technology, and even the way you frame the scene needs a little re-thinking. But we think it’s worth it (and it’s only getting easier).

+ One of the hallmarks of portraiture is that the sitter knows they are being photographed, and this becomes as much a part of the photograph as what they are wearing or how they look. As a result they have a certain control over the end result. Do you think portraits are therefore ‘performances’ or do they get to a deeper truth of a person? Do you ever feel like you are taking a photograph of a person’s ‘celebrity’ rather than the person themselves?
> I think it’s a pretty grey line, some people are more used to having their photo taken than others. The more experienced ones definitely have a game face, the others not so much… We tend to shoot pretty high ratios, so the editing process is as much a part of the shoot as pressing the shutter… We have a lot of choice as to the moment we choose to represent the person, and often the frames we like are the ones in between them actually posing… You’re only ever able to capture what they choose to show you, regardless of who they are.

+ Who were you most excited to photograph? Why?
> Alex: Everyone. The whole process excites me, the fact that you cant view your images properly until hours later gives the whole process a darkroom-esque sense of excitement that I’m not used to in digital photography…
> Jamie: Richard Neville for me was pretty exciting to photograph, he has so many wonderful stories to tell and it was a pleasure to meet such a cultural icon.

+ Richard Avedon took portraits of accomplished people, rather than ordinary citizens because he loved the marks of obsession on a face. ‘I seldom see anything very beautiful in a young face. I do though, in the downward curve of Maugham’s lips. In Isak Dinesen’s hands…Because they are obsessed. Obsessed with work of one sort or another.’ Do you agree? Why did you choose to take photographs of, for want of a better word, celebrities?
> Taking photos of accomplished people gives it some automatic context for the viewer, having a connection to the audience through the person they are looking at gives it more personal relevance. Most people prefer to look at pictures of people they know, whether they are public figures, inspiring people, friends or their kids.

+ Have you tried to portray your subjects in any particular way or was it more of an organic process?
> Jamie: It’s pretty loose, we had them come in, take a whole bunch of photos. The photos that we end up picking come out of what we got from that session. We don’t usually go in with a clear idea of how that person’s going to act in front of the camera.

+ Did anything come out of it that you didn’t expect?
> Jamie: Yeah, I mean some people sort of had darker moments that you didn’t really notice when you were doing it, it’s only later, going through the images that you actually see them properly…
> Alex: Yeah, there’s one of Michael Grace where he’s just wiping some sleep from his eyes or something like that but it’s an image we really like.

+ Although some photography seems to be taking a turn back to film (with Holgas, disposable cameras etc), do you think that the immersive, multi-dimensional-ness of 3D photography could be that medium’s future?
> I think as always, photography is going to continue to become more diverse. You have some people mucking about with Holgas and other people producing multi gigapixel panoramas. You have serious work being done on digital compact cameras, or amazing monsters like the Hasselblad H4D. You have people shooting TV shows on Canon 5Ds and people shooting magazine covers on Red One movie cameras.

I don’t think 3D is going to become mainstream in photography in the near term. Not in the same way that it is in motion, but I do think it’s going become more and more common as commercial work demands it. I don’t think it’s going to be mainstream in print until the display technology catches up. But as we consume more and more photos on screen rather than on paper it will become easier… Its going to be a lot easier to make an iPad support 3D than the Sunday paper, notice how YouTube has 3d support today. The question is what are we going to expect of a photograph in the year 2030? My feeling is there will be a lot more high resolution multi dimensional stuff going on than film Holgas.

As a side note, I do have a problem with a lot of the photography courses I hear about, where they insist that students use fully manual film cameras. People should be learning on manual capable digital SLRs. The feedback loop between taking a photo and reviewing it is much tighter, making the learning process a lot faster. Mistakes that take hours or weeks to make on film can been seen and corrected in minutes. There’s a perverse notion that photography is somehow realer and truer on film, but it feels too much like role playing the 1970s.

+ So – do you have any idea what would happen if we had three eyes instead of two? Like, do you think the perspective would be more… panoramic?
> If you had the brain to interpret the data that was coming back from three eyes, then you’d probably still see it as being one image, you’d just have more stereo detail. Like if you had three eyes arranged in a triangle rather than in a row, then you’d still receive stereo information in two dimensions.

+ What is the impact of working in a collaborative model with Jamie? Photography is often such a solitary pursuit, Man With a Camera Observes World – how did working with another artist change your artistic decision-making?
> Alex: I think we’re used to working on collaborative projects. In the movie world there is no such thing as a solitary pursuit, everything is collaborative. It’s a second set of eyes, and a motivator, you must do your best so you don’t let the team down. Some days you are an executor, some days an organizer. Frankly I don’t know how to work any other way.

+ What is your connection to Oh Really gallery? You must know the gallery space so well, did knowing the potential and limitations of the space influence your photographic process?
> Jamie: Dan O’toole, Max Berry and I own Oh Really Gallery. We started it in September ‘08, it was intended as an office for our other project Oh Really Magazine, but we felt we could support artists better by opening it as a gallery. There was a hole in the gallery scene for places exhibiting street art as a serious genre recognised within the gallery scene. Our idea was to open the doors to a community that found it hard to exhibit and to help embrace those artists if they wanted to push into other areas, fine art, sculpture, etc…

I used to paint and do paste ups, and its great that everyone I used to paint with are diggin’ my photography work. I wanted to do something different with my first show at the gallery. Organising and documenting over 30 events as the gallery photographer gives me a good idea understanding on how exhibitions are presented, the way the audience interacts with the space and the artwork. I’m always looking for unique ways to document the same space over and over, and I guess I wanted to do something that will make the gallery new for me again.

+ The exhibition is moving to a booth at the MCA in June for Creative Sydney – how will that work? SPP will give everyone the chance to see themselves in 3D – but don’t they see themselves in 3D all the time anyway?
> They do, which is why they often don’t like how they look in 2D photos, it’s a little bit like how nobody likes their own voice when they hear a recording. The photos will be pushed to Twitter over the course of the night so people can grab them later, or view them during the night on their phones.

+ And do you think that we are obsessed with capturing ‘the real me’ on film?
> And yes, I do think it becomes an obsession for some people. I think the single biggest change mainstream photography over the last few years has been Facebook tagging. People are now, whether they like it or not, their own PR agents, everyone now has to make a decision about what kind of photographic record they present to the world. For some people that means carefully controlling what photos they allow to be tagged, for some its simply blocking everything, for some its always pulling the same face whenever a camera is within 50 feet, and for others its simply a unfiltered feed. But whatever they do it’s a decision, I think its impossible not to care about it one way or the other.

[Stereo Booth will] give us an opportunity to get lots of different types of people, especially at the opening event to take their picture, put it on twitter, display it – and it’s a way of engaging the audience not just looking at images but participating and being part of the creation of the image as well.

++

Stereo Portrait Project is opening Thursday 27th May 6pm-9pm, til 8th June @ Oh Really Gallery, 55 Enmore Road. Stereo Booth will be happening on June 4^th @ Creative Sydney opening night, MCA.

This Friday, everybody’s favourite art-zine-turned-magazine-that-also-now-has-it’s-own-artspace, Oh Really on King Street, is celebrating the first birthday of its gallery and the fifth issue of its publication. Featuring work by Ben Frost, Beastman, Ape7, Claire Nakazawa, Creepy, Max Berry, Mini Graf, Phibs, Syke, Teazer, Yok and about fourteen hundred other local and international artists, the group show is an exhibition of handpainted book covers. A few are in the pictures above.

Hard Cover No Jacket is a double whammy too; it also celebrates the launch of Issue Five of Oh Really Magazine – 1000 limited edition magazines that themselves have hand-screened covers. We asked Jamie Nimmo, one third of Oh Really, about being one years old again…

—++—

+ Happy Birthday! You’re one years old! I haven’t been one years old in ages. What’s it like?
> Well after being birthed into the gallery scene it’s been an interesting year; learning to crawl, eating solids and not spitting food on ourselves was a breakthrough. After taking the pelican bib off, and wiping the apple sauce from our cheeks, we feel great.

+ Keeping on this somewhat tenuous theme of infancy, what’s the biggest teething problem you guys have had since starting up the whole Oh Really mag/gallery venture?
> Tax…. Figuring out the right GST to charge and who pays the GST was one of the hardest challenges.

+ If Oh Really gallery could pick any birthday present, what would it be? (You can’t ask for unlimited presents.)
> Studios, preferably a warehouse for our artists, which would double as a place for more events. We hear from so many artists that they need a place to paint and talk amongst other creative people.

+ How are you celebrating your birthday?
> With a group show, magazine launch and a shit load of beer. We wanted it to not just be about us but about the space, the people that come to shows, and the artists that have helped us so much over the last year.

+ Talk us through Hard Cover No Jacket. What’s the concept? How did it come together?
> We’ve been trying to get Oh Really Issue Five out for about six months. We’d find time, then a couple a shows would hit the gallery and it would take a back seat. The amount that needs to be done to run a gallery really took us by surprise, and now we have some systems in place we finally decided to get dirty, splatter a whole bunch of front covers with paint, and screen them. Yep, it was pretty ambitious making 1000 copies with hand screened covers.

So with all this printing to get the issue out, we thought we’d make the show fit around the publishing theme. By the time we had done enough copies, our first birthday was around the corner, so we asked everyone to paint a hardcover book without its jacket – Hence Hard Cover No Jacket for our first birthday celebration.

+ What’s in store for your second year?
> Well, there’s talk about having an international artist show, and definitely Issue Six of Oh Really. More Culture Jams, and you never know, we might actually get our birthday present. Fingers crossed.

—++—

Hard Cover No Jacket launches on September 4th, 6pm-9pm at Oh Really Gallery, 55 Enmore Road Newtown. It closes on September 6th. Buy a magazine too, quickly, because their last issue sold out.

The idea of the Lock-In is to take artists out of their usual habits, processes and environments and see what comes of it. They might work together, they might work separately, they might feed off each other creatively, they might just eat each other. Jamie Nimmo is one of the trio behind the Oh Really collective, who are always trying new things to widen the walls of the creative minds they work with. He just called me up to tell me a bit about the Lock-In and accidentally found himself being interviewed while he was supposed to be at work (sorry Jamie Nimmo.)

The four artists are Joe Wilson from N.A.S, Chris Bennett from the College of Art, Joe Purtle who is tall, dark and apparently handsome and Claire Wieland, who graduated from N.A.S in 2008. “Joe [Wilson] and Claire have been to one of our culture jams before.” The culture jams are monthly nights run by Oh Really which combine improvised music with live action painting. “They tied their hands together and dipped them in these different coloured Indian inks and then drew on the walls, wearing these black big plastic bags cut up and designed in a way which made them look like this big, black, feathery entity drawing on the walls. A world music band was playing live as well.”

So I guess virtually anything could come out of the experiment? “Basically. This is the first time we’ve run the concept; next time it will be with a new group. The idea is to start mixing and matching different sorts of artists – we figured it might be cool to mix abstract painters with street artists, or landscape people with 3D artists… The main thing is to just sort of throw four different artists into the room, and let them have free run of the walls and the tools and anything they want to bring and use.”

The best part is you can go and watch them do it until 5pm Saturday (tomorrow), at Oh Really Gallery – 55 Enmore Road, Newtown.

If you miss out, head to the next culture jam, on Thursday July 9.