Ian Darling
Inside the Mind.
Below the Surface.
[or Under the Surface.]
…with the volume at 11
CCP asks Ian Darling the questions about his craft
1.What gets you out of bed every day?
I love telling stories and making films. I also enjoy refining and learning new skills - photography being one of them. While I can call myself a documentary filmmaker after 25 years in the game, I’ve always taken photographs but I certainly haven’t earnt the right to call myself a photographer yet. Maybe one day.
2. Who is the photographer/artist that has inspired you the most?
That’s a hard one to answer. Many photographer’s have inspired and influenced both my filmmaking and photography along the way.
I guess Henri Cartier-Bresson is at the top of the list, with his incredible eye and mastery of composition. Ah, that decisive moment! I love Arnold Newman’s environmental photography, where he places his subjects within their occupational settings. His work has been a major influence on my current exhibition, THE VALLEY PORTRAITS, which is part of the Head On Photo Festival 2025. Annie Liberwitz’s bold settings and innovative lighting create depth and evoke great emotion — they tell a story! Australian photographer Stephen Dupont’s conflict photography is among the most powerful I’ve seen. He gets in close, making you feel as if you’re right there. So inspired, I’m making a documentary film about him at the moment.
I have a real fondness for colour, and being quite nostalgic I’ve long been inspired by William Eggleston's innovative approach to colour photography. Slim Aarons also resonates with me - with his vibrant colourful images. Our recent film THE POOL was an homage to the pallet of Slim. Throughout my filmmaking journey, other photographers have entered my consciousness. For instance, Sally Mann’s image of her young daughter smoking a fake cigarette inspired a pivotal scene in my docu-drama POLLY AND ME.
The first photographic book I vividly remember devouring was KARSH Faces of our Time in the early 70’s. The texture in those incredible black-and-white images was unforgettable. There are brilliant portraits of Churchill, Picasso, Georgia O’Keffe, and Alberto Giacommeti. I really wanted to take photos like that one day - but I never came close!
Several exhibitions have a profound impact on me. I remember seeing Robert Frank’s THE AMERICAN’S at the Met in 2009. I was transfixed for over four hours.This was my first experience of a curated photo exhibition, and it opened my eyes to the incredible power and storytelling potential of photographic sequencing. Kerouac’s quote from the catalogue: “He sucked a sad poem right out of America” said it all - and it has stayed with me ever since.
Another favourite was Gary Winogrand’s COLOUR exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum in 2019. The large-format images on screen transported me to the ’50s and ’60s like no other. Having never seen a William Eggleston exhibition, I can only imagine their power en masse, but at this show, Winogrand used colour to perfection.
Cartier-Bresson’s exhibition, The Man, The Image & The World, at the Brisbane Art Gallery in 2011 was possibly the greatest collection of images I’d ever seen. The exhibition revealing the remarkable depth and breadth of his work - spanning decades - each image a carefully considered masterpiece. I furiously scribbled down all of his quotes from around the walls, and they continue to inspire me to this day.
On my first ever visit to Paris in 1984, I visited the Musée d'Art Moderne for Helmut Newton’s Mode et Portraits exhibition. This was so exciting and bold to my young and impressionable eye. I’d never seen images of that scale before. Fifteen years later, I saw several of these images in Newton’s apartment in Monaco when discussing the possibility of a documentary with his widow, June Newton. Seeing them again in person was like a beautiful extended dream. Although the film never happened, the memories remain. Just last month, I was back in Paris, visiting the Musée Maillol for a Robert Doisneau retrospective. It was one of the finest photographic exhibitions I’ve ever experienced—350 images capturing a wide range of his life: 'childhood, artists, writers, cafes, the Vogue years, and the harsh realities of life in the suburbs’.
3. What current camera are you shooting with?
I’ve recently created a photo essay to accompany our feature documentary THE VALLEY, featuring 50 images of the locals in Kangaroo Valley (now part of the Head On Festival 2025 Open Program). These images were all shot with a Leica SL. Such incredible quality and resolution. However, my favourite and only camera now is my Leica Q2. It’s such a workhorse and never lets me down, especially in street and documentary work. I love the challenge and flexibility of working with a 28mm lens - it pushes me to think more about composition and the environment around my subjects.
My old favourite, which I always took with me into the mountains in the '80s and '90s, was the Olympus XA 28mm manual camera. It was perfect for cold environments—small and ever reliable. The 28mm lens didn't compress the vastness of the mountains, allowing me to capture the grandeur and the intimacy of those scenes. The colour it captured on film was spectacular.
4. When you are on a shoot do you play music? What other essential items do you have with you for a successful session?
Music? Nah, I prefer to keep my ears and eyes open and focus on the moment. I like to keep things as simple and real as possible. For my latest photo essay with the 50 local folk in Kangaroo Valley, I aimed to replicate the solitude and silence they experience during most of their working days. Inspired by Arnold Newman, these were environmental images. I work quickly and deliberately, embracing the discipline of our approach to documentary filmmaking. We keep it straightforward, real, and highly efficient. Interestingly, in many of the images, the best shot was the very first one I took. Sometimes, I knew immediately when I’d captured something special.
At times, it takes a little patience for the subject to warm up and become comfortable. But my favourite ones are those where the sitters are just natural from the start — no need to pose, no forced expressions. They’re simply being themselves right from the beginning, and that authenticity really comes through in the images.
5. In the digital world how important is the print?
I still love a physical print. I grew up meticulously creating albums since the 1960’s - folding back the clear film sheet and sticking in the photos. I miss that process. My dad was a very keen amateur photographer and he would fill a whole album every year. I grew up looking through those albums regularly. They told the best stories! After he died I digitised about 50,000 images he’d taken. I’ve classified them by subject and year, and I still find myself referring to them often. He always printed photos he’d taken after events and sent them promptly to friends, with a hand written note. The joy and appreciation it brought were immense. It still gives friends great pleasure when I send them snaps he took over the years - especially the ones from their parents weddings back in the 60’s or 70’s. Physical prints still hold a unique emotional value and storytelling power that can’t be replaced.
From a more professional perspective, I experienced the importance and skill of the printer with my first large-scale image of adventurer Jon Muir. This photograph was part of the National Photographic Portrait Prize at the National Portrait Gallery in 2009, and is now part of the permanent collection. Warren Macris expertly printed this massive image (100cm x 125cm), capturing to perfection the magic hour’s light during that unforgettable evening on Lake Amadeus.
More recently i’ve seen the incredible skill of Iain Anderson at Charing Cross Photo (CCP) in printing an entire collection of 50 images for my first photographic exhibition. His expertise in blending an individual feel to each photograph, while maintaining consistency across the entire collection is truly remarkable.
Printing is such an important and essential skill in photography. I hope it is never lost!
6. B/W - Colour - Analogue - Digital.
Put these words in your order of preference and tell us why.
I love colour! While B/W photography really speaks to my soul when viewing thew work of others, I just love working with a rich colour palette personally. I grew up using colour film, never black and white, and that was what motivated and engaged me in photography. Colour brings me alive. Its warms the senses. It’s so pleasing to engage with. And brilliant colour disguised many sins. I’m really drawn to colour in my documentary filmmaking too. Few people really know how to ‘talk' with colour in both mediums, and it's an area I’m always trying to develop and perfect. I’ve tried going back to analogue, but the quality of digital now just blows me away. I’m too lazy to work with film these days. My daughters are all intrigued by it, and father's old Contax film camera had produced some incredible images for them. It’s exciting to see.
7. Have you exhibited your work, and other than the print, how important was the framing process to you?
A few of my images have been exhibited the major photo competitions - the National Photographic Portrait Prize at the National Portrait Gallery, the Moran Contemporary Photographic Prize, the Sydney Life Photography Prize, and the Head On Portrait Prize. In all instances the framing played a crucial role. I’m not always sure I got it right - sometimes I experimented with more elaborate framing, such as floating images, or using jagged paper at the edges. I don’t think it always worked as intended. I’ve since learnt to keep it simple and elegant, and let the photograph speak for itself. For the latest Head On Photo exhibition, in consultation with Iain Anderson at CCP, I selected 50 simple black frames, with no border around the photos, measuring 600mm x 400mm. For the display at the Old Store at Kangaroo Valley, where they will be exhibited, the earthy organic feel will complement their natural surroundings perfectly.
8. What defines a great image?
So many elements can catch my attention—the composition, the expression, the story, the truth, the colour, the freshness, the originality, and especially the simplicity. Yes, simplicity. It’s hard to explain, but when an image truly speaks to me, it does so in ways that a painting can't. I feel it deep inside my soul. In a gallery, I’ll always be drawn first to the photographs.
9. What is your favourite photo? Why?
My favourite photo is a portrait of Jon Muir (JON) that I captured in 2008. I had been on a long walk with Jon and three friends across the desert of Central Australia. After a strenuous day, we decided to do a night crossing of the dry salt lake—Late Amadeus. We set off late in the afternoon and were soon immersed in the magic of the soft evening light. I had my Sony camera with me and took several photos of Jon. He was fully present in the moment, at one with the environment, surrounded by the pure beauty of the evening. I distinctly remember taking what became the key image. I thought to myself, “That’s the one,” and believed it would soon be hanging on the walls of a major photo competition. Nine months later, it was displayed in the National Photographic Portrait Prize and hung in the National Portrait Gallery. It became part of their permanent collection and, more recently, was featured in the 2019 exhibition THE LOOK, showcasing 68 contemporary figures from the NPG collection. It was very special to meet Jon at the Gallery then and see his excitement when he saw his portrait on the wall. We filmed a fun interview, talking about that night on the lake and the portrait, which now sits on the NPG website.
10. What is the best photography advice you have been given? Tell us by who if you can or want to?
I think it was Robert Capa who said “If your pictures aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough”. I kind of agree with this.
11. When you are not taking photos, what are you doing?
When I am not behind the camera capturing photos, I dedicate a most of my time to directing documentaries. It's a passion that keeps me constantly engaged and creatively fulfilled. Recently, we've completed our most ambitious project yet—a three-hour epic titled THE VALLEY, set in the stunning Kangaroo Valley. This film pushed our limits, particularly because it is a silent film with sound, blending traditional filmmaking techniques with creative storytelling. The process was both challenging and rewarding, allowing us to explore innovative ways to convey emotion and narrative without relying solely on dialogue.
In addition to THE VALLEY, I am also directing a compelling documentary about Stephen Dupont, a renowned Australian war photographer. This project, titled Confessions of a War Photographer, aims to delve into his experiences, capturing the raw reality of his work and the complexities of documenting conflict.
High Point
I think the premiere of THE FINAL QUARTER at Sydney Film Festival. The months leading up to the film's release were incredibly intense, and we carried a lot of expectations with this project. The screening turned out to be one of the most vocal and emotional sessions I've ever attended—audience members shouting, cheering, and jeering. After the closing credits, the entire 2,000-strong audience at the State Theatre rose as one and gave a rousing standing ovation. That moment felt like our 15 minutes of fame. They stood for Adam Goodes, and they stood for the film. It was profoundly humbling—and this energy carried through at every subsequent screening
Photographically, I was thrilled to have my photo of Jon Muir included in the National Photographic Portrait Prize. Honestly, I felt a bit like a fraud! It was such an honor to have my image exhibited alongside so many brilliant photographs, and to be in the same room as an incredible group of photographers at the opening. It was equally rewarding when the photo was exhibited as part of The Look exhibition with other portraits from the NPG collection.
Looking ahead, I am incredibly excited about my first full photographic exhibition, The Valley Portraits, which will be part of the Head On Photo Exhibition 2025 Open Program. It’s a huge honor to be selected, and I can’t wait to share this new body of work with audiences.
Low Point
It’s always disappointing when a film falls through or doesn’t come to fruition. After 25 years of making documentaries, I’ve come to realise that more ideas - and even projects I’ve started - fall by the wayside than actually get completed. Rejection is also a constant emotion we have to manage. Whether it’s a film rejected by a festival or a photograph overlooked in a competition, it can be disheartening. I understand that these decisions are often subjective and influenced by many factors, but even after all these years, when you truly believe in your art, rejection never becomes easier to accept.
Ian Darling
November 2025