Her river meanders around the suburbs of Brisbane City a thousand times before the water reaches the open waters of Moreton Bay. Geologists say this is the reason Brisbane may be presiding over the oldest river in the world. I don’t care how old her river is. I love my hometown girl, Brisbane, despite her wrinkly edges.
I spent many years teaching photography students how to take the best pictures of Brisbane. From those century-old Banyan Figs in Brisbane’s (that crush the iron fencing) heart to the postcard sunrises along Nudgee Beach, her shape and texture are things made of wonderment and splendour.
In 2005, I stepped away from the camera and the classroom to begin an exciting new writing project. This was to become a novel. I used what I learned behind the viewfinder to develop a new narrative centred around photography. (No, it’s not another war correspondent story!)
Combining the elements of photography, the summer weather over Brisbane city, its sub-tropical thunderstorms and laid-back outdoor lifestyle, came SEETHINGS. The writing turned out to be a pleasant change and challenge but a super-thriller arrived on the pages.
SEETHINGS follows the story of a photographer with a desire to take a perfect picture of night lightning.
It sounds like a simple premise: Take a photographer, give him a camera and a storm, have him take photos of it and then examine the photos afterwards. You’d think the process would be uncomplicated. But photography is not that easy. Like life, our protagonist is frustrated by the results. The images he takes infuriate him. The perfect photo eludes his expectations every time.
Perfection is highly subjective anyway. Just what is perfect when it comes to art? In photography, there’s always a better way to compose a photograph or a better way to capture a storm’s light. Sometimes it comes down to timing and when a shutter button is pressed. The frustration of not achieving perfection turns into doubt and then silent anger.
Of course, it could come down to a flaw in the equipment or a shortfall in our artist’s skills or, perhaps, state of mind. Compounding the issue is our photographer’s private life. The drama there never seems to end. The photography project is supposed to be an escape from all that but it creates problems of its own.
Our angst-fueled shutterbug thinks he hears a low-pitched growl at the peak of each storm. No one else hears the sound and it’s barely enough to be heard over the rain, wind and thunder anyway. It raises an eyebrow but not enough for our photographer to terminate his work. After all, it could’ve been the storm howling through the trees. It’s not until a news broadcast mentions a victim’s name that he begins to suspect something and draw conclusions. There’s also a link between this and the location of the body. It’s found in an area he’s recently photographed.
So were the locations of the four other bodies that followed.
SEETHINGS isn’t about revenge.
Revenge is yet to come.
Creep you later,
