Winning his first art prize and exhibiting back at the age of fifteen his path has taken some unusual twists and turns. Originally loosely trained as a technical drawer, it was in the post school period that Todd really began to take flight.
Leaving his beloved Hunter Valley where he had won places in most of the local art prizes and had experienced the thrill of having works published, he was accepted into Australia’s premier art institution, Sydney’s National Art School. Here he trained under some of the biggest names on the Australian Art scene and developed a keen interest in the moving image as an artistic medium.
Todd has been a finalist in the National Emerging Art Exhibition – ‘the churchie’ – and won the Lloyd Rees Memorial Youth Art Award for painting, drawing and printmaking with a hand drawn film. He has also exhibited with the National Art School’s Library Stairwell Gallery, Sydney Harbour Federation Trust, Pine Street Gallery, Gosford Regional Gallery, University of Newcastle’s Watt Space Gallery, Newcastle Art Space (NAS), Back to Back Galleries and the National Art School. Todd has taught drawing and cartooning all around Australia and is also represented in many collections throughout the country.
He is currently very much inspired by re-activating the artefacts and historical treasures the State Library of New South Wales holds within its vaults.
from Exhibition of war photographs by Capt. F. Hurley, late Official Photographer with the A.I.F.
Hurley, Frank, 1885–1962
Sepia toned photograph (composite image – combined negatives)
Purchased August 1919
PXD 26/79
A child of the Photoshop generation, image manipulation is as normal to me as reading, writing and arithmetic. This considered, it was Frank Hurley who was ‘photoshopping’ long before Photoshop itself. Even more miraculous is that he was doing it before computers, by hand and in treacherous environments like the Antarctic and the battlefields of war. In our current world of highly saturated imagery and imaging technology it is easy to forget that the photograph was once not as easily accessible or convenient.
Through re-creating and researching the Hurley composites I have come to not only understand and appreciate Hurley as a master of photography, but been inspired by his skills and vision. His work speaks to me on a compositional level, you come to realise the strong understanding of aesthetics and subtle nuances which underpin his work making them not only amazing as historical documents, but as highly resolved creative interpretations of an overwhelming experience.
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