Blondie
 |
 |
In a moment of symbiosis and alchemy two great things happened when James Alcock (Blondie) quit his job as an aircraft engineer for Qantas Airlines in the early months of 1991. The airline was able to continue its enviable safety record until this very day and Blondie discovered, after landing a job as a copyboy at the Sydney Morning Herald, that it indeed felt more ‘right’ to have a camera in his hand than continually taking the skin off the knuckles of his 'two left hands' with an open-ended spanner. After three years of toil (read in- making hundreds of coffees and beer runs to the pub) Blondie was ‘shooting anything that moved’,completed photography studies at TAFE, and had served a cadetship with the paper. He continued there until the closing years of that decade.
Traveling and having accidents became a continuing theme for the next few years, in an unquenchable desire for self discovery and enlightenment (that’s a cliché for wandering around, surfing, skiing and socializing). When the money ran dry and his body could take no more punishment and trauma, he returned to his beloved beach of Maroubra in the Southern suburbs of ‘Syd City’. He embarked on a highly successful ‘part time career’ as a freelance photographer only usurped by his even more highly successful sun-tanning career on the previously mentioned beach.
In between stints working for the Sydney Morning Herald, and assignments with various NGO’S including Greenpeace, Blondie wont answer his phone as he is immersed in salt water, or he cant hear it ringing because he’s at a hip-hop show.The enduring theme of the ‘urban arts’ has been the basis for much of his life inspiration and photography, the vehicle to convey this passionate interest in Australian hip-hop and street culture. Blondie continues his mantra of ‘working to live’ and to this day his photography reflects his enthusiasm for many contemporary forms of individual expression.