Pixels and Grain and C-SCAPES: the legacy of coronavirus

During coronavirus and the Sydney lockdowns in 2020 I had two additional artistic releases for my creativity.  Being stuck at home, with kids and homeschooling, while trying to work, do research and other duties was a huge drag.  Photographically, it was incredibly hard to get out there, mingle, or feel motivated to do anything at all!  Thankfully, I made some discoveries that really helped invigorate my creativity and productivity!  Exercise, treasuring family time, learning to bake bread, were all essential escapes.  Also, I decided to collaborate and coordinate (with new gear of course!) with two zines. Both occurred organically over the year, in very different ways

The first was the covidsweats project, a collab with the fantastic and talented graphic designer and organizer of Photographers_anonymous Sydney Jackie!  Please do check it out on Instagram and also buy a zine when it’s available!  It’s a collab of 55 artists with 110 images all over the world documenting their experience of COVID-19.

https://www.instagram.com/thecovidsweats/

Being isolated at home, I also was itching to go out to shoot.  BUT having nowhere to travel, and social distancing rules, meant this was almost impossible.  However, there was a time/place that you could shoot with a small number of people, with good results.  The early morning light of sunrise was beckoning, and I soon found a bunch of like-minded locals who wanted to explore with me! Those first may/June winter mornings at 5-6am were a magical time of discovery, magic, and amazing light.  Each time we went, even if it was the same beach, felt like an adventure to a totally alien landscape of crashing waves, sand, rocks, and light.  We discovered the beauty of sunrise landscapes, something I previously thought would be the most boring form of photography ever.  And we shot on film, digital, pinhole, instant, even 110! 

Over these outings, our little group of 7 bonded and became friends.  Bill would always wow us with his amazing large format shots, and skills in composition and lighting.  Adam would bring a different new camera each time and take amazing shots from them!  Adrian brought soft toys, shyly hidden in a plastic bag, something his wife ‘made him do’…..  Vince would produce artistic abstracts with amazing talent.  Will brought his xpan and leicas, making us drool, or some weird panoramic device.  And Chris bought a sony….

We were a ragtag quirky bunch, and ended up becoming a artistic collective Pixels and Grain, although my original name was the ‘Bill Thoo Fan Club’. Producing a zine together gathered our favourite shots for the year, and is an amazing testimony to the great scenes we witnessed together, and everyone’s talent.  It’s hard to believe we were all shooting the same places, with such variety in format, composition, and interpretation of the landscapes.  We also started this website, Instagram and twitter, and there will be more!!! We’ve also been joined by Chang who is a youtube superstar, one of the best family photographers I’ve ever seen, and vintage camera nerd, who will no doubt bring us further fame and fortune.

Please do check out both zines, and buy them!! 

Covidsweats will be available soon, and C-scapes you can buy through this link at magcloud

Alan Ma @thefilmsweats