Interview with Kane Alexander for 2021 ILFORD CCP Salon
Photography by Kane Alexander
Kane Alexander is a Melbourne based artist. Kane has entered Salon a number of times, winning the Patrick Corrigan AM Acquistive Award in 2010 and the Modern Times Best Architectural Work in 2019.
Bofill
What's your name and background?
Kane Alexander: I'm a Melbourne based artist working primarily with photography and sculpture. I seek sublime landscapes from remote places around the world. More recent work shifts focus to structures of human intervention and architecture that appear surreal. Many works are inspired by and reference paintings.
Is this the first time you have participated in Salon, and what is the story behind your submitted works?
KA: I've participated several times in the CCP salon, it's a unique exhibition that gives anyone the chance to exhibit.
In 2010 I won the Patrick Corrigan AM Acquisitive Award
and in 2019 I won the Modern Times Best Architectural Work.
What inspires you to take photos?
KA: I've always been interested in visual mediums. My Oma/grandma was a fossicker and jeweller. My Opa/grandad and great Opa were painters, so there were many art and photography books in our home when I was growing up.
I've travelled to over 50 countries. Certain places invoke emotion through the awe of nature or the creative intervention of man. Other times there is a specific image or feeling seen in the minds eye that must be found or created.
There is so much more to photography than a technical understanding. It is a form of connection, communication and moment in time.
Walking in the Shadow of a Cloud
How do you prefer to shoot and using what genre of instrument?
KA: Cameras are a tool, I found digital cameras to be highly practical and good for rapid learning, but over time, I became bored of the sterile nature of the images they produce.
My preference now is mechanical film cameras. I have many, and I'm not married to one. After mastering a camera, I'm looking for ways to manipulate it, such as imperfect multiple exposures, affecting the film plane, altering a dark slide or embracing and exaggerating the camera's faults to help paint the image.
I prefer to use Kodak or Fujifilm slide films.
Cameras loded and in current use are:
Pentax 67
Hasselblad 500cm
Rollei 35
Has your use of social media changed or influenced the way that you create, share and view your work?
KA: For my work, social media is separate from the work and extension of a website folio. I know it's a powerful tool, but don't put a lot of energy into it.
Wild Flowers
Which is stronger to you the influence of people or the influence of place?
KA: The influence of place is more impactful to me than the influence of people.
If you could quiz one photographer about their method, who would it be?
KA: I look across mediums for influence in photography and would love to meet and enquire with Australian painter Rick Amor.
Kane's work is available by contacting him directly, or through Jardan Furniture, Format and Exhibitions. For more of Kane's work visit (link: http://www.kanealexanderimages.com/ text: www.kanealexanderimages.com or follow him on Instagram @kanealexanderimages.
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The Silos
