
Thursday, 17 April 2008
The
concluding journal entry I posted on Red Bubble about my 365 Days project has been featured in the Red Bubble Daily Wrap!
*just a reminder that this will be the last entry on my artsblog.you can keep up with my photographic adventures on my website blog- there's an rss feed if you would like to subscribe through your favourite blog reader.
Filed under: photography |self-portraiture |website | Posted by Bronwen Hyde at Thursday, 17 April 2008 10:56 AM
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Despite the B-grade horror ending to my 365 (366) Days project, you needn't fear: she won't be back for another round anytime soon.
Although I really enjoyed completing my project and I believe I produced some of my best self-portraits to date doing it, I am looking forward to having my life back. I'm not even interested in getting into a Year in Pictures or 52 Weeks project at this stage. I have my work cut out for me just trying to get images of other people and things from the past two years edited now, not to mention getting my business off the ground.
Of course, as self-portraiture has been something I've done almost from the time I started taking photographs seriously I'm not suddenly about to stop completely; but I'm looking forward to doing shoots when I'm inspired and in the mood, not just because I have a daily deadline. No doubt outtakes from the project will also find their way into my blog and website from time to time.
For the record, I only missed 3 of my 366 days and didn't cheat at all: no "I'm still awake so it's still today" or "No one will notice if I use a photo for yesterday that I took from last year / today" from this camp. Although I don't really care if others do that, for me I'd have been cheating myself so I was pretty disciplined in that. If I was shooting just before midnight and went over time those photos weren't in the running; if I missed the midnight deadline by 30 minutes I dealt with it.
The hardest one to miss was my first, but I had to forgive myself the oversight since it was a horrible day: things had gotten so bad with my anxiety and depression that I had to resign from my job.
This last year has been quite eventful as I'd expected, but perhaps not always in the ways I'd expected. I turned 30; I had my debut solo exhibition "Alternate Worlds" at Brunswick Street Gallery; I produced 10 cover images for Vignette Press' Mini Shots; I produced 9 images to accompany short stories in the Big Issue's Fiction edition; I had my first piece of writing (and a virginity haiku and some photos) published in Vignette Press' Sex Mook; I quit a job I'd hated for much of the 3 years I'd worked there and which had driven me to exhaustion; I started another job but had to resign; I learnt a new word: anhedonia; I learnt to ask for help; I visited my parents in Brisbane and a friend in northern New South Wales; I made many friends, both online and in person; I exhibited in various local group exhibitions; I was interviewed by Phirebrush, Frame Lines and had my work in various online galleries and exhibitions; I realised that after taking and posting so many self-portraits it's inevitable that people will start to recognise you in public; I completed a Certificate IV in Business Management (Small Business) and was accepted into NEIS (New Enterprise Incentive Scheme).
Photographically speaking, of the 363 images I took during my project*: 35 were diptychs, 9 were triptychs and there were 2 polyptychs thrown in for good measure; 25 featured my red ribbed-velour couch in all it's sumptuous glory; 9 had alcohol in the shot, however I lost count of how many were inspired by, taken or thought up whilst under the influence of alcohol; I was naked or at least semi-naked whilst taking 56 of them (whether obvious from the image or not), though despite my nickname my bellybutton only made 4 appearances; when I wasn't naked I seemed to be showing my knickers (26) or in a slip (40); I also further developed my penchant for wigs (I bought 5 during this year and wore them and a borrowed wig in 30 shots) and other people's clothing (14), not to mention other people's houses (27); I grew braver and took 36 images in public places, 2 in rented apartments and 13 in my backyard (not as private as I'd like); I also liked to hang out in bathrooms, both mine and other people's (16); I took 3 with alternate cameras (Mac PhotoBooth, an old-fashioned photo booth and an underwater camera); I took 12 using only alternate light including candlelight, torchlight, and computer monitor and television as light sources; I spent three days in graveyards; 69 sitting on, lying in or on my bed; and 5 in the bath; I played dead 5 times, cloned myself 7 times and invited others to cameo in my images on 15 days; 18 were direct or indirect tributes to films, 11 were tributes to other artists, 3 were titled with Dirty Three song titles and 15 were shameless self-promotions.
Tomorrow a new year starts for me: my 31st birthday and the launch of my business. I'm excited and nervous and looking forward to what lies ahead.
Thank you to those who followed and enjoyed my 365 Days journey and who inspire and encourage me to keep going with my photography.
*Numbers given are rough: it's hard to keep count when you're going through 363 images.
Filed under: photography |self-portraiture | Posted by Bronwen Hyde at Wednesday, 16 April 2008 00:16 AM
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Tuesday, 15 April 2008

Monday, 14 April 2008
So this isn't exactly how I'd planned the image to be but my local costume shop was all out of white body paint. I'd been thinking about this idea for a while but felt that logistically it was going to be almost impossible. I guess I was right.
This image has been processed to within an inch of its life and I'm not really happy with it, but I've spent far too long on it now so I'll call it finished.
Filed under: photography |self-portraiture | Posted by Bronwen Hyde at Monday, 14 April 2008 3:59 PM
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Sunday, 13 April 2008
Inspired by a suggestion from Phil: "What about a time exposure where you have moved and are hardly visible?"
Although there is one of me sitting quite still, the ghosting in the
image is me walking across my bed at different angles, and you can make
out my figure walking across in front of the blinds if you look closely.
Note: this is all in-camera long exposure, no cloning.
Photoshop was only used for cropping, and colour, saturation and slight contrast adjustment.
Filed under: photography |self-portraiture | Posted by Bronwen Hyde at Sunday, 13 April 2008 10:53 PM
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Saturday, 12 April 2008
This is my beautiful friend Zoe.
She and Daniel got married at Werribee Mansion today and she looked gorgeous :D
You may remember Zoe from
this photo on my website, taken way back in 1997 in her bathroom in St Kilda East.
She and I introduced ourselves on a dancefloor what seems like a lifetime ago (1995) because it was the third or fourth dancefloor we'd seen each other on that week and we'd seen each other so many times before over the previous weeks.
Zoe was usually still dancing at 7am when whichever club it was that night turned on the lights and threw us out. Even I had usually given up by then and would have been lying on a couch pretending to any bouncers that came by that I wasn't sleeping, I was just relaxing whilst I waited for Zoe to finish and for her to drive me home.
Filed under: photography |self-portraiture | Posted by Bronwen Hyde at Saturday, 12 April 2008 10:08 PM
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Friday, 11 April 2008

Thursday, 10 April 2008

Wednesday, 9 April 2008
The last two days were long days indeed.
I spent most of Tuesday finishing off tidying up my place for my inspection. David came by to finish off the work on my lawn and I helped out with sweeping and a snail relocation program, though it seems many of the snails had already relocated and left their shells behind.
Yesterday my business became official; I start trading on April 17. So anyone who wants portraits, now's the time to book a session :o)
And then there was my routine inspection. It all went well, but I fear that despite my property manager's reassurance, there may be more than the rent increase to worry about. Le sigh.
So after two long days culminating in an overwhelming feeling of uncertainty replacing my earlier feelings of success, I fell asleep on the couch watching 'Numb3rs' and only just woke long enough to relocate to my bed, fire off several shots, and fall asleep again still fully clothed with my camera on my bed and switched on.
About 2am I roused enough to move my camera to the safety of the dresser and turn it off and to change out of my clothes.
Filed under: photography |self-portraiture | Posted by Bronwen Hyde at Wednesday, 9 April 2008 11:31 PM
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Tuesday, 8 April 2008
telephone courtesy of karen
Filed under: photography |self-portraiture | Posted by Bronwen Hyde at Tuesday, 8 April 2008 11:57 PM
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Monday, 7 April 2008
I have an image in the current round of the Saatchi Showdown.
Please vote
(but be warned, it's not work safe).
Filed under: photography |self-portraiture |showdown | Posted by Bronwen Hyde at Monday, 7 April 2008 11:49 PM
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Sunday, 6 April 2008

Saturday, 5 April 2008
I have five images in
Phirebrush Release #60.
Three of my images are on the bottom row of the first page of the photography section, and the remaining two are in the top row of the second page.
I have a
profile on the site where you can view all the submissions I've made to Phirebrush from Release #39 to the current release; and there is an interview with me
here.
You should also check out the
Best of 2007 collection while you're there. I have an image included in that too.
Filed under: phirebrush |photography |self-portraiture | Posted by Bronwen Hyde at Saturday, 5 April 2008 1:33 PM
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Friday, 4 April 2008
According to
Wikipedia: "The CND peace symbol was designed and completed February 21, 1958 by Gerald Holtom, a professional designer and artist in Britain for the April 4 march planned by DAC from Trafalgar Square, London to the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment at Aldermaston in England."
Filed under: photography |self-portraiture | Posted by Bronwen Hyde at Friday, 4 April 2008 11:39 PM
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Thursday, 3 April 2008

Wednesday, 2 April 2008

For
those who wish to continue to follow my blogging adventures, I'm just
giving you a heads up that I will continue to post to my Artsblog
until I complete my 365 Days project on the 16th of April, however all
non-365 Days entries will be cross-posted to the new blog I've
established within my website and after the 16th April I will no longer
be posting here.I'm
doing this for a couple of reasons: I'm tired of having myriad blogs
that I cross-post to and want to incorporate my blog into my website.
http://www.bronwenhyde.com/blog/
There's an RSS feed for it too, so you can subscribe if you'd like to.
Filed under: photography |website | Posted by Bronwen Hyde at Wednesday, 2 April 2008 1:49 PM
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Wednesday, 2 April 2008