Contemporary Photographers Australia: Robert Imhoff, A life of grain & pixels

Robert Imhoff, a photographer of “creative brilliance”, according to Paul Burrows, is the subject of a monograph and an exhibition running at the Art Gallery of Ballarat. Burrows, the editor of the book, says Imhoff, without the benefit of Photoshop, created “the fantastic, in-camera, using his knowledge of lighting, optics and photochemical processes to to take his images into a whole new world of visual magic.”

All absolutely beyond dispute and well worth making the trip to Ballarat, or buying the book Imhoff: a life of grain & pixels, to see for yourself. ($34.95, www.writelight.com.au/contemporary-photographers)

Imhoff, as with many fine photographers, started young. When he was 7, at the time of the Melbourne Olympics in 1956, he was given a Kodak Box Brownie E. He showed immediate promise as a determined photographer, prepared to go the extra distance to get the memorable shot, by crawling between the legs of the adoring crowd to get a photo of the Duke of Edinburgh. And because he is also a meticulous archiver, the photo is in the book.

One day an obsessive researcher will count up the number of famous photographers who got their start with a Box Brownie. The lovely thing about the Brownie (we speak from experience – we got ours when we were 12) is that it enticed children into exploring the physics and chemistry of film. Digital seems cold, compared to 620 monochrome film, with the image magically appearing in the darkroom. But that was then and this is now, and one thing hasn’t changed: any child with an interest in photography should be encouraged.