About Julian (jules) Tennant
Born in South Africa, I emigrated with my parents to Australia in 1980. After completing high school, I joined the Australian Regular Army and 'played' soldiers for almost a decade before deciding on a career change. After leaving the army I undertook tertiary studies in photography, graduating in 1998. Since then I have worked as a writer & freelance photographer, specialising in fine art, documentary and editorial photography, although I still undertake some commercial photographic commissions. I also work part time as a photography lecturer at one of Australia's premier photography teaching institutions, the WA School of Art, Design and Media, Central TAFE.
My work has featured in numerous lifestyle magazines & specialist periodicals and I am the co-author of the book "ANZAC ELITE". I am also the founder of the Undeclared Customs photographic exchange with photographers from Thailand and am represented by the Pikture Gallery in Bangkok. In addition I maintain a regular exhibition schedule (details of which are at the bottom of this page) and am working towards a coffee table type book featuring images & text from my travels around the South East Asian region.
I have also undertaken studies in jewellery making and also Industrial Design which has allowed me to develop my skills using various media and in creating 3-D works. However the main body of my artwork remains photographic based and I am an organizing committee member for the FotoFreo international photography festival, which is the largest festival of its type in the Southern Hemisphere. I continue to resist the change to digital images and manipulation, preferring film based emulsions and the 'wet' processes undertaken in the darkroom. Each image that I produce is hand crafted, rather than spat out by a printer or a lab. My preference is for archivally permanent fibre-based silver gelatin prints or alternative photographic processes such as cyanotypes, lith prints, bromoils, gum bi-chromates etc.
If you would like more information or have any comments about the site or the images, please contact me, I look forward to your feedback.
About the Photos
The prints
All B&W prints are toned silver gelatin prints, hand-printed by me, to museum conservation standards, on archival fibre-based paper. B&W Prints are limited to an edition of 50 in each size.
The toners that I regularly use are Selenium, Sepia and Blue toner. When toning, I sometimes use a technique known as 'split-toning' which involves two toners resulting in a two colour 'duotone' effect. When doing this, I usually partially tone the print using sepia toner. Sepia toner effects the highlights first and gradually tones the shadows. Before the print has fully toned, I will remove it from the toning bath and thoroughly wash it. The second bath comprises blue toner, which works on the shadows first before toning the highlights. Once again, the print is only partially toned before being removed from the chemistry and thoroughly washed. The resulting print will show colder slightly blue green colours in the shadows and warmer sepia tones in the highlights.
The postage stamps
You will notice that many of my B&W photographs feature postage stamps attached near one of the corners. The postage stamps reflect the country depicted in the image and have been affixed using acid free archival adhesive. My intention was to make the images look like postcards of the kind sent in the colonial days of the early to mid 20th century. As I traveled taking these photographs I also search out old postal stamps to complement the images that I had in mind. As you can see most of the stamps are well over 50 years old, the Lao, Cambodian & Vietnamese photos feature stamps of the pre 1954 French Indochina period, whilst the Cuban stamps date from the 1930's & 40's. As such, each photograph in a series may not show the same stamp as these are themselves become quite scarce and are subject to availability.
Cyanotypes
The Cyanotype process was invented by the astronomer Sir John Herschel in 1842. It predates the photographic emulsions that are used today. A light sensitive material is produced by mixing two simple iron compounds. The resulting print is Prussian blue or cyan in colour. It was used to make accurate reproductions of botanical specimens and was also found to be a cheap form of ‘photocopying’ which resulted in it being used to reproduce architects & engineers drawings, hence the name ‘blueprint’.
I think that the blue/cyan tones aren't always suitable for the types of images I produce so I have developed a technique of bleaching back the chemistry. The resulting prints exhibit a mustard yellow in the highlighted areas, whilst leaving some blue grey in the shadows. Employing this technique adds another variable to the cyanotype process and so despite limiting my cyanotype prints to an edition of 20, each print in the series will differ to some degree from the next.
For more information on the cyanotype process, go to my Links page
Gallery Viewing
The Pikture Gallery - 47/1 Sukumvit Soi 49
Klongton Nua, Wattana, Bangkok 10110
Some of my other work can be seen on my flickr page and I also am a contributor to the Roving Eye travel stock library.
Current & Recent Exhibitions
May 2008
April 2008
- Salacity (FotoFreo) – The Kurb Gallery – Northbridge – Western Australia
- Chasing Apsaras (FotoFreo) – The Kurb Gallery – Northbridge - Western Australia
April 2007
March 2007
February 2007
March 2006
- Eastern Approaches - FCC Angkor - Siem Reap - Cambodia
December 2005
November 2005
- Diverse Exposure - Code Red Gallery - Western Australia
- Sex! The Adultshop.com Invitation Erotic Art Award – Breadbox Gallery – Northbridge Western Australia
September 2005
- 2005 City of Joondalup Invitation Art Award – Joondalup - Western Australia
August 2005
- Foto Fuega: Vision de Cuba – Perth Centre for Photography - Northbridge - Western Australia
February 2005
- Turista Photografik! Photographic Explorations with Mark Coddington & Neil Wallace – The blend(er) Gallery, Joondalup
December 2004
- Wanderlust! Images from off the Beaten Track – The blend(er) Gallery, Joondalup - Western Australia
October 2004
- The Iris Award – The Photography Gallery - Northbridge - Western Australia
September 2004
- Inside The Square: The Art of the Polaroid – The Photography Gallery - Northbridge - Western Australia
