My friend by Murray
My friend was a rover
a Viking in a van,
sometimes he spoke like a pirate.
Hear him -
‘Ahoy, me hearties.’
But his mission wasn’t marauding
it was benign - he took nothing,
just photographs.
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My friend loved those vans,
first a Combi then a Hi-Ace,
like a hermit crab upended
it carried him, a tidy mobile shelter,
a carapace and kitchen on wheels,
driving to explore the timeless gardens.
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My friend loved cameras,
Hasselblad, Kodak disposable,
Widelux - he was a composer
in celluloid, paper and darkrooms,
he worked with precision and panorama,
calculating depth of field
and breadth of vision,
articulate with the press of a button.
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My friend loved the camp,
its situation was chosen with care.
In the early years
I came with tools and intentions.
He calmed me with a spliff,
and as we sat inside the smoke he said,
‘It’s not what you do to the bush,
it’s what the bush does to you.’
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My friend loved the Italiano,
he made fun of the lingo
with his own expressive sprezzatura.
Vino, pasta, grappa, antepasto de berinjela de forno.
He was rustico fino, gastronomico, simpatico.
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My friend loved the Japonaiserie,
especially Zen,
the meditative gaze, the empty centre
of a master’s brushstroke,
in the calligraphy of bush twiggery,
at the silences between Monk’s melodic fingers.
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My friend was quite discerning -
that also means opinionated,
judgemental, discriminating,
interrogative, particular, critical -
he hated rocket salad, he loved
prawn heads and leather jacket liver
to flavour a sauce.
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My friend appeared dishevelled -
unruly hair and beard,
loose clothing of worn and warm
muted tones and textures
that disguised his attention,
which drunk or sober, could be forensic,
seeking evidence of beauty and grace,
or merely confirming an existing prejudice.
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My friend loved his friends,
‘me hearties’ he called us.
Generous with pictures, books, handwritten letters,
he relished communication, across his interests,
but barely by phone and not by computers.
He had a dignity that could shift
to prickly, his caustic observation
could return to tenderness.
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My friend loved intoxication,
spliff, whiskey and wine -
the primary effects
could be enlightening,
but the cumulative effects were not.
The poetry of wine, as a metaphor
for the beloved,
couldn’t be found in a bottle.
Toward the end, my friend’s skin,
the colour of a plucked chicken,
was stretched across a near skeletal frame,
so much of the body withered and in pain,
but his hands remained capable
of gripping my fingers -
a reminder of his dexterity,
ingenuity and precision
with a fish hook, camera shutter,
corkscrew, kitchen knife and pen.
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My friend had a certain fierceness,
my last sight of him, nearly prone,
the white hospital gown
had fallen from one shoulder
and draped like a toga,
his head turned toward the light,
hair and straggles of beard
like a nimbus of smoke,
in profile his nose a prow
under the high forehead
like the visage of some notable Roman
on an ancient coin.
​
My friend was melting
into the arms of Morpheus,
a fatal spell, dripping
inexorably in precise doses,
designed to extinguish pain
and in that process extinguish his self.
As the body decayed,
each half-life a little quicker, shorter,
each breath a return
to some primordial time,
past, present, future
collapsing to a dot
that punctuates the end,
or not.
​
Till we meet on the next bardo
my dear friend.
Manuela Furci
Wesley Stacey was a great photographer with great sense of humour to match. Sometimes I wondered if he was stuck in the 70s; he dressed like a hippie, lived in his tent in the bush for decades on the South Coast of New South Wales and loved the 70s lingo. I can still hear him saying “Groovy!” He also loved my Mamma’s grappa which he described as was “fire water for the soul”.
Stacey was one of Australia’s most important photographers. Together with Rennie Ellis they photographed the glitz and guts of Kings Cross in 1971. His work has been exhibited widely here and abroad and is included in most significant public collections in Australia. In 1973 he helped establish the Australian Centre for Photography along with David Moore.
I am glad that through his body of work, Wesley will live on and be acknowledged for the contribution he has made to Australian photography.
Robert Ashton
Thubbul
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The camp was the maestro’s masterwork
Where philosophy was articulated in design and performance.
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At the end of the hidden track, where everything was carried in by hand or barrow Sitting so lightly among the casaurinas on the edge of the cliff
Wabi and Sabi for sure
Open to the wind and rain and the crash and ripple of the ocean
We sat in the sun and the moonlight
While the master performed firetricks
And created culinary miracles from seaweed and mullet from the mouth of the Murrah
No plastic, no phones, no news
Just rustling in the undergrowth and birdsong
Off the grid In the real world
Where the rat (and the wallaby and the goanna) ruled. Salad greens in birdcages
Jars on shelves all packed together to close the rodent highways Everthing edible or chewable locked in an iron box Crumbs swept to the floor as an offering
Where we learned to sit and look and listen Where we learned to take care (or else )
We were instructed by everything around us, even enlightened.
The master photographer was the great teacher
Ewa Sek-Sekalski
Wesley taught me to look at the world and truly see it. He had a heightened sense of perception and of the aesthetic. He loved beauty in nature, in the arts and in humanity.​
Quite a character, he was deeply profound, with a mischievous sense of humour, and had a finely-tuned sensitivity. A rare gem indeed.​
The world is a poorer place without him, and I miss him enormously.
Jenny Ellis
In January 1986, my siblings and families from Melbourne embarked on a camping adventure holiday with Wesley, Narelle and the Kombi at Bermagui and Wallaga Lake.
After a magical holiday, Wesley presented us with three superb black and white panoramic hand printed photos of our camp and the lake that that we treasure to this day.
The Brolga has flown.
With eternal love to Wesley and Blake.
From our family to yours,
Jenny Ellis
Phillip Cox
It is hard to recall early life in Sydney without Wes as an integral part of the art world especially photography. I met Wes through Gary Shead when both were working at the ABC and was installs taken by his enthusiasm and great love of all the arts including architecture .
We were instant friends and as a result collaborated on three books on Architecture, Rude Timber Buildings, Australian Homesteads, and Country Towns of Australia.
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It was a glorious period of our lives when both of us travelled throughout Australia exploring Spaces and places and collecting material for the books , however the most important thing was the deepening friendship and the sharing of ideas and life philosophy.
The result of our friendship saw the acquisition of Thubbul at the Murrah bought jointly with Dr Fergusson and Louise Cox, hence cementing our association and relationship.
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Wes and I shared a total passion for Thubbul which resulted in Wes living there. It was his spiritual home and a place where he united with nature creatively. There are lots of stories I can tell about Wes and his association with Rene Ellis in Melbourne , of his love for various women in his life resulting in books and amazing photographs.
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Our lives in recent years drifted apart although the Murrah was our unifying force. We loved him as a friend and colleague and he will be remembered as an important milestone in the history of Australian photography.
THE ROAD
The Edge, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne and Coventry Gallery Sydney and Australian Centre for Photography (ACP)
My late brother Errol Beau Ellis, a fine art publisher, admired Wes and collaborated with him on a book of The Road, 1973–75 featuring 269 chemist-shop snapshot prints made from Wesley’s Kodak Instamatic camera document his criss-crossed journey across Australia.
Wes and Errol combined their vision and expertise to design and produce the layout and artwork for a dummy book. However due to circumstances at the time, the book was not completed.
Graphic Department, ABC TV, Sydney And Melbourne
Wesley Stacey and Graeme (Gus) Cohen
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Both Gus and Wes worked at the ABC TV Gore Hill Sydney as senior graphic designers in the 1960s during the heady experimental years of Australian television.
The visionary Head of ABC Graphics sought artists, with the skills and vision capable of achieving real quality, assembling an extraordinary pool of talent over years including John Coburn, Tim Storrier and photographer Wes Stacey - who with Gus Cohen from ABC Melbourne, went on to make their mark in the wide world of Australian art, photography and graphic design.
Social activities enjoyed by Wes, Gus and mates from “Graphics’ intertwined with work included necessities such as lunch at the pub, wine-sipping under the Harbour Bridge, and photographic explorations in the nearby cemetery of Gore Hill where Wesley took some wonderful avant garde b/w photographs of Gus which we have in our collection.
I met Gus when we both worked at ABC TV in Melbourne in the early 60s. We started our new life together in Sydney around 1966-67. First to welcome us were Wesley, Barbara and baby Blake.
Surf International, Chance and POL Magazines
Gareth Powell Publishing, Sydney, 1966-67
Wes and Gus (affectionately known as Gusso and The Brolga) blazed a trail in the magazine publishing world when Gus left the ABC to become the first art director for three magazines Surf International, Chance International and POL magazine for controversial Welsh publisher, Gareth Powell. Richard Walsh, founder of Oz Magazine, was the first editor of POL.
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Wesley joined Gus as part of the design team, collaborating on the first editions of Chance magazines, followed by POL that rolled off the presses in the 1960s.
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With three monthly magazines, a lack of resources and tight budgets. the open briefs provided almost total creative freedom. Wes and Gus were in their element.
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Gus designed the first editions of Chance International, a quality men’s magazine, featuring Wes Stacey, Rennie Ellis and some of Australia's best young photographers of the late 1960s and early 1970s.
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Robert McFarlane (1968) wrote - Wes Stacey’s sensitive, strongly felt pictures of women have been one of the highlights of Chance's entree to the Australian magazine market and established new standards (of photography) for other magazines to follow.
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It is true that Wes and Gus were “inspired by TWEN and NOVA, that captured the spirit of London’s ‘Swinging Sixties,’ at a time of unrivalled creativity and sexual and artistic revolution. POL featured the work of Wesley and many other great Australian photographers - Grant Mudford, Graham McCarter, Anthony Browell, William Yang and Rennie Ellis to name just a few.”
In 2003, the Australian National Portrait Gallery Canberra held a retrospective of POL magazine named Portrait of a Generation in which Wesley and many other photographers were featured.
Celebration of an Australian photographic pioneer
@Powerhouse, Sydney
My fondest memories and recollections of Wesley Stacey and Gus Cohen and their creative collaboration on POL and Chance Magazines. Their enduring friendship began in halcyon days when Wes and Gus worked together in the Graphics Department of ABC TV in Sydney in the mid 60s .
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To Blake and family, thank you for sharing your father’s life and celebrations of his extraordinary talent and lifetime achievements today at the Powerhouse. Blake, I, too, can’t even imagine how to sum up a life like his! We are, and always will be, family.
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When Wes, Barbara and baby Blake returned from overseas around 1967, Gus and decided to live in Sydney. Gus returned to the Graphics Department at ABC Gore Hill and we became best friends, establishing our careers and living the dream in the swinging sixties!
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Gus and Wes were trailblazers with their versality and technical expertise - taking risks, crossing boundaries, and revelling in the creative freedom. Both Wes and Gus independently exhibited their own work in galleries in Sydney and Melbourne, driving all night to Sydney or Melbourne for an opening or social event.
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Way back then, Rennie (Ellis) said “these were the fledgling years of Australian television and publishing in the 1960s, before the digital era, where Letraset was used for graphic design and artwork, original transparencies were sent direct to the publisher, and b/w photographs printed by hand in the darkroom.”
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Wes and Rennie undertook many road trips between Sydney and Melbourne to Grattan Street and Brummels.
Blake Stacey
I’d like to make a more photographic and artistic tribute to Wesley…
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When I recall the first works he did, I was about 8 years old, about 1972, and I recall The Road exhibition. Lots of small chemist type photos all lined up, from all over Australia. These were taken out of the window of the Kombi, with the Kodak Instamatic, the one with the sliding part to focus. I recall us driving along and, like a cowboy, he would draw it out, and in one smooth movement, look through it, focus it and shoot! Usually with a whoop of ‘whoa groovy!’
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Ahh the heady days of being driven to interesting places around Sydney, and looking at Aboriginal art and wonderful cliffs. This was usually in the two main national parks, or the Blue Mountains. It was obvious to me from an early age that he loved the bush, the history, and going to far flung places to enjoy nature. But there was more, he wanted to capture on film both the natural beauty and also convey the appreciation of being there.
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Wesley then moved to a house in Annandale, with Elanor Williams in about 1975, and together they started work on the bush camp near Bermagui.
At this time Wesley started working with the Yuin Tribe at Wallaga Lake to save sacred sites from being closely logged. The book Mumbulla Spiritual Contact came from this. I recall being in the plane going over the mountain and Bega Valley, the Cessna door removed and Wesley sticking his camera out and getting blown around. I also recall lovely times with Koorie kids my age as we went to the sacred sites.
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A set of prints from this book was donated to the Canberra Art Gallery.
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Wesley and Elanor travelled around Australia working on a book called Timeless Gardens. This project went badly at the printing stage. I really enjoyed the pictures and garden concept, but the disappointment over final printing was terrible. This also coincided with the fire at the bush camp, and Elanor leaving. It was 1980. This was all in the space of about 6 months, and Wesley said later that this was the very bottom of things for him.
The small picture book with instamatic photos he made of the Annandale house has been donated to the NSW State Library in Sydney, along with other news clippings and interesting things.
Then with the arrival of Narelle, ‘The Groover’, he was happiest he’s ever been. They travelled overseas, with Landscapes For Peace being a feature in Japan and Korea in the mid 80’s. These photos are spread around various friends, all in bamboo frames. These were impressive large panoramics and probably the start of his move into large negatives and the use of panoramic cameras, like the huge Tomyama. These huge panoramics served to convey the expansiveness of the landscape around so much better than rectangular or square format.
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I recall Wesley in the darkroom, like a magician, hands waving over the enlarger to make areas on the print where he wanted it darker. It meant that often no print was like another, and this craft on an enlarger seems to be lost! He really didn’t like digital cameras and computers. “Digital Smidgital!”
Its interesting that Wesley did a lot of work early on in Architectural work, with Philip Cox and others. The man-made world of shapes, towns and people. With many books attributed to this. They have been in many architects’ collections! Then Wesley moved onto the natural wonders, of bush, cliffs, sunsets, waterways, deserts and rocks. This transition to take photos of nature’s beauty was a progression that one could say was always in his soul, always going to happen. He really loved capturing nature and watching people not just enjoy his photos, but being impressed by the natural world.
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Narelle and Wesley travelled extensively, camped, and got to places many of us only dream we could go. Going there and sitting to wait for the right light was an important part of his work. Wesley also wrote poetry. Narelle is an accomplished artist in both photography, painting and pastels, just to name a few!
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Wesley did many exhibitions over the years, and his works can be found in various galleries. It’s been hard to keep up with them all, and I’m sure to have missed many.
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In the few years before he died he collected and printed 40 photos, and called the collection Dreamscapes. He would display one every few days and have it sitting there to enjoy for a while, usually with an Irish whisky or a shiraz, and a visiting friend to rave with. This collection is in the archive and is very special to me. I think of it as the distilled set of all his work. He also printed around 100 panoramics in black and white which are to me like another subset of his chosen best works.
I want to add lastly that I’m thankful for Narelle and his close and dear friends, especially Clayton, Lyndal and Ewa, and also Karl. These are my extended family in Bermagui who cared for Wesley in his final years. There are many others, like Murray, long term mates of Wesley that have also become my dear friends too.
Please contact me if you'd like to write something here.​