www.cosshall.com
I’ve been around photography a very long time (35 years) and digital imaging all my adult life. I received my first camera at 14 to put on the telescopes I loved. From there my photography gradually came down to earth and I started shooting many other subjects. I started working in the darkroom at 16. I also painted. At university I did a computer science undergraduate degree and got into computer graphics in 1978. From then on I had two strong imaging passions: photography and the digital image, along with my other big passion, teaching. Along the way I also picked up a post-graduate electrical engineering qualification. I have spent my whole adult life teaching at the university level. A 17-year stint as a Senior Lecturer in Computer Science and running a computer graphics research group has been followed by teaching digital imaging, photography and web design at various institutions, as well as running my own workshops and seminars.
My photography and image making went through the normal ups and downs and changes that are part of life. I got back into darkroom work after a 12-year lull with dedicated color and BW darkrooms at home. It was in this period that I started exhibiting both my photography and digital art, and also writing about photography. My work has changed in character substantially over 35 years, but constant threads have been abstraction and experimental imaging, such as astrophotography, infrared, pinhole and photomicroscopy. I closed my darkrooms finally about 10 years ago and went all digital in my printing, getting my first large format printer and printing on watercolor paper. In this period too I started writing much more seriously, writing for all the major Australian photography and design magazines, as well as several US ones, plus editing some of them.
I now concentrate on photography that has two strands: highly manipulated multiple image constructions and the virtually unmanipulated single image. I am shooting a lot of digital infrared and loving it. I also make digital art with mathematically generated images. I publish my online magazine, The Digital ImageMaker, publish my blog Digital ImageMaker World and the new, developing site Experimental Digital Photography, conduct workshops and administer (and teach) the Photo Media major (as well as also teaching the graphic design and visual arts students) at the Australian Academy of Design. I also have a number of other writing projects underway, including blogging for HP on photography. I am currently doing a Master of Arts (Photography) by studio practice at RMIT University.
My photography and digital art has been exhibited nationally and internationally and is in many private collections. I currently print my work on two HP large format printers, a 130NR and a Z3100, as well as several smaller Canon and Epson printers. I use a mix of fine art and photographic papers, depending on the image and end use, as well as canvas and films. I also use outsourced printing for special purposes. I am experimenting with a number of alternative processes for printing my work, including a return to some of the older photographic printing processes using digital negatives, digital printing on unusual substrates and working over the top of digital prints with traditional art materials.