A Long Extended Blue Phase; © Gary Cranitch, Brisbane, 2015.

When you are a long term public servant working in a technical environment with highly qualified scientists and your technical photographic skills call for a similar sense of commitment and attention to detail; it is possible that you might be side-tracked (visually) if you start mixing with other art inclined photographic practitioners.

Such is the case with Gary Cranitch. Working at the Queensland Museum for 30 years, Cranitch has co-authored books like The Great Barrier Reef - a Queensland Museum Discovery Guide; and is well respected in his fairly technical genre of photography. Traveling up and down the length of Queensland and staying at less than five star hotels/motels, Gary quickly needed some light relief. The Government of the great State of Queensland is not noted for supplying high end accommodation!

An Ironing Station is Provided Should you Require it; © Gary Cranitch, 2015

Hence this series.

What started as a light hearted way of killing time whilst away from his family in Brisbane, soon developed into a project of some interest and value. Motels and hotels are well spaced along the coastal Bruce Highway between Brisbane and Cairns, and have had various rises and falls in their popularity and usefulness as a night’s accommodation. On showing his resultant images to other photographers Cranitch was encouraged with their support for this documentation.

Broomstick welcome; © Gary Cranitch, 2015

He quickly discovered that the advertising brochures sometimes spoke in terms a long way distant from the reality of Cranitch’s photography. It was from these sources that most of the titles for the works were drawn. Whilst all the photographs have the hallmark trappings of a visual technician, it is the whimsy behind their creation that is the strong point of this Exhibition.

Opening at Gallery Frenzy on Friday 1 May 2015 at 6:30pm, Hotel Series, read the fine print will be an interesting, if slightly tongue in cheek documentary observation of the Queensland tourism industry.

Also attend the Artist’s Talk on Wednesday 13 May at 6:30pm and hear how a photographic technician moved via boredom through cynical documentation to fine art and a gallery exhibition. This could be a perfect way for you to discover how to refine your own photography with a view to showing it to a wider audience.

Each Room is as Individual as You Are; © Gary Cranitch, 2015