Anthony Ponzo first started in music photography, shooting for some of Australia’s biggest music festivals for 5 years, before travelling to South Africa to take shots of the wildlife in safaris and now he’s a wedding photographer “by chance” where his reputation grew through referrals. He recently came back from his Antartica trip with Aurora Expeditions late last year where he travelled with a few other photographers from all around the world to tick Antartica off his “bucket list”. This is where his passion project called the “Southern Exposure” was born.
“Southern Exposure” art gallery exhibition which goes for a week from March 19 to March 26 2015 captured the various ‘faces’ of South Georgia Island and Antartica. He captured the shots of wildlife and the different shades of the landscape, skillfully capturing them at the right moment. Anthony said he barely had to edit these photos as there was no pollution, it was “clean and crisp”.
Check out some of his best shots below:
Here are my personal favorites:
Beatrix: Tell me about the art scene in Chippendale…
Anthony: Chippendale is an upcoming city suburb that is fast becoming a creative hub for artists and photographers. In the last 6-12 months, a lot more cafes, art galleries and photo studios have opened up in the area. I know Chippendale has always been populated with a lot of artists and photographers. The biggest gallery that everyone knows in Chippendale is White Rabbit which exhibits 21st century Chinese contemporary art.
Beatrix: How is your art exhibition going so far?
Anthony: The first day that the exhibition opened, it clashed with Art Month in Redfern/ Chippendale which was a major event that brought in the influx of customers as customers were ‘gallery-hopping’ throughout the area. 500 people walked in through the front door which was something I didn’t expect. I was expecting around 100-200 people. This exceeded my expectations!
Beatrix: That’s great! Tell me more about your Antartica expedition…
Anthony: We flew to Argentina and started from Ushuaia, took a day and a half trip to reach Falkland Islands, from there we sailed to South Georgia where there was no human beings there except the wildlife and from there we took another two and a half days to reach Antartica.
On board the trip were two famous veteran photographers, Josh Holko and Andy Biggs. Josh, a renowned landscape Australian photographer and Andy a US-based photographer who has been in the business for 15-20 years is very well known for his safari shots. Josh and Andy gave us tips and we pretty much bounced off each other for ideas. When we are not shooting, we would gather around in the lounge to compare photos which would be really boring if you are not a photographer!
On the way back, we took the Drake Passage which is the roughest sea in the world and we faced 40 hours of gail force wind and the boat was rocking in 4 axis. The doctor on board had to give out an anti sea sickness tablets to make us drowsy to help us sleep that night. By the time we reached Argentina, I was ready to go home!
This was the journey that we took with Aurora Expeditions:
Beatrix: Any tips for fellow photographers / those who wanted to start out in photography?
Anthony: First, choose something that you really enjoy doing. If you are not passionate about your work, it shows.
Second, get your work out there. I use Instagram and Facebook as well as dedicated photo sharing sites such as Flickr and 500px.
Third, and this is something that every photographer should know. Morning and afternoon are your best times to shoot, 1 hour before sunrise and 1 hour before sunset. It gives you that nice golden light and long shadows as you can see in this photo below:
The next step for Anthony? Taking his art exhibition interstate. “Melbourne will be a good start” he said.
Anthony is selling his prints for $295 unframed. He will be on site tonight at X88 gallery Chippendale to chat about his work.
Tonight is the last night so make sure you pop in and see him.
Local Culture Guide 