1st December - 2020
I was deeply saddened today to hear the news of the passing of fabled Queensland surfing photographer, Martin Tullemans.
I’ve know Marty Tullemans since 1971. That was the same year I was shooting my first 16mm surf movie ‘In Natural Flow’ on the Gold Coast. Earlier in that very same year, I had struck up the beginning a life-long friendship with Peter ‘PT’ Townend. PT and I had frequently spotted Marty perched on the rocks at either Kirra, Rainbow or Snapper, feverishly snapping away with his slightly under-powered Takumar 500mm telephoto lens. One sunny day, we both walked up and introduced ourselves to Marty – and that was where another long friendship took off like a Space-X rocket. It was dear Marty who wrote the review for my second movie ‘Ocean Rhythms’ for Tracks Magazine in November 1975. Marty attended a screening at the old Alhambra Theatre in Stones Corner in Brisbane, which, back in the day, was the flea house where we screened all the surf movies. Marty was originally a Brisbane boy from Indooroopilly. |
| Two of Marty's most exemplary Tracks Magazine covers. |
Marty was from the era of emulsion, read: 35mm film. Black and White negatives or colour slides. That was his medium - that's what he shot. He never crossed the digital divide to emerge into the deep world of computative photography. Yes, he was old school, but this also lent his work, at best, to an inordinate richness of purity. A freelancer and self-taught, there was no motif he would draw on, no wave set line-up he could not adapt to, and above all, no fear of failure. Always short of a dollar, it bred in him a case hardened adaptability. Martin’s photos were admirably received by surf magazine photo editors and readers alike. To me, two of Marty’s most enduring shots each earned the front covers of Tracks Magazine. These two cover shots here, firmly affix PT and myself to Marty now for eternity. By a small freak of nature I happened to be in the foreground of one of those shots.
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| Martin Tullemans |
Marty snagged the cover of Tracks Magazine with his shot of Butch Cooney competing in the ‘74 Australian Titles at Burleigh Heads. With me in the foreground shooting with a 16mm movie perspex housing. Marty’s second Tracks cover is of Peter Townend in 1976, soul arching into the Coolangatta Beach shore-break. Taken from the Kirra groyne and capturing PT in a religious moment of ascension. Martin also captured a staggeringly good representation of Gold Coast surfing during his period of continuous shutter high. Crisp work which brought on none of the catcalls from the Sydney, Northside-based surf media of the time – who would normally decanter such work from outer fringe dwellers like us. He shunned mainstream commercialism and that would eventually lead to become the hallmark of his work. He produced a large body of work over his time. His photos were never high-end art, or all that surfing photography can give, but they were never disagreeable either. Marty concentrated on the Gold Coast, strictly on his own terms, and eventually becoming one of its senior social photographic record keepers. (for the time).
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| Marty's awesome Burleigh Heads image of Butch Cooney and me, also made the cover of Albie Thoms Australian book: Surf Movies |
Steve
