If nostalgia is a powerful drug, then John Witzig has a handle on a big stash. As surf culture rumbled through the 60s and 70s like a teenager screaming for attention, Witzig was one of the key players on hand to give it definition and form. Were they better times? Or did Witzig just know how to frame the moments? The best way to figure all that out is to go and check out his exhibition, which opens in Sydney on October 5 at Dickerson Gallery, 34 Queen st Woollahara. Below, John answers a few questions about his celebrated work.
You suggest the images are from a ‘golden age’ in surfing? Did you realise you were living in a golden age at the time?
I can’t remember exactly, but I have a feeling that the ‘golden age’ label was the work of Rizzoli when they published the book of my photographs back in 2013. Nevertheless, it has a certain truth to it I reckon. The mid-1960s running through to the end of the ’70s was a pretty terrific time seen through my eyes. And I do think that we were aware of what what happening with boards and performance in Australia from around 1966-’67.
I heard Francis Ford Coppola on the radio say artists can make time stand still. In his new film, ‘Megalopolis’, one of the characters literally has the ability to do that. Do you think your images have a way of doing that – providing a snapshot into another era?
Making time stand still seems rather melodramatic to me, but providing a snapshot of that period? Sure… and it’s interesting (to me), that collectively those pictures are seen, outside of the surfing world, as a social document… a portrait of a whole lot of weirdos who happened to be my friends.
Even if viewers are projecting an imagined or idealised past onto the images? Rather than scrupulously finding out the facts behind them? Is a little mystique and subjective interpretation a healthy thing?
Oh sure… I mean I’m as responsible as anyone for portraying this period as idealised. What’s said about Trump? That you can take him ’seriously but not literally’. I figure that most people understand from their own experience that it wasn’t six foot and glassy every day.
Rather than just providing a heavy dose of nostalgia can owning or viewing these images actually help rekindle the spirit of what was happening in those idyllic moments? Hang it on the wall and it might help you find a renewed purpose in your surfing?
That sounds like a step too far for me… but I do think that some photographs catch the spirit of the times, and for people who were there, may have value simply for that. I’d probably argue that some images are also beautiful, and that’s enough.
We tend to talk about surfing history and surfing as a subculture. However, it’s arguable that your images really capture an important part of what might more simply be termed Australian History? Particularly in the context of how surfers really pioneered much of the coastal settlement in Australia?
Did we really ‘pioneer much of the coastal settlement in Australia’? Maybe. We certainly contributed to it, and I documented some of that… mainly in northern NSW, but with occasional examples from Victoria, Cactus in SA, and the Margaret River area in WA.
What are some of the themes which emerge from this selection of images?
Truthfully? The first ten were included because they sell the best, and the next 14 because I liked some particularly, or the Dickerson Gallery happened to have them there. The original idea was just the top 10 in a show I was sharing with a landscape painter… but the show took on a bit of a life of its own.
What are some of the places and names we are likely to see on the wall?
Noosa Heads and Bob McTavish.
Palm Beach and Midget Farrelly.
Haleiwa and Mark Richards.
North Narrabeen and Michael Peterson.
Spooky and Freckles (which won’t mean much to most people).
Do you enjoy the human interaction with people when you run exhibitions – must be fun and at times flattering to witness the response to your photos?
I’m most interested I guess in trying to understand why kids who definitely weren’t there in the 1970s are attracted to the photographs. I’m not at all sure that I know why, but have been assured that some of these youngsters identify with the images. That does please me.
