Original Tribes, Indigenous contemporary artwork in a class of its own, my artist is name is JDHampton I am a contemporary Indigenous artist with ancestral links to the Northern Territory and East Kimberley, my tribal family connection links to Marra (Borroloola), Ngalakan/ Milwaripra (Roper River) and Gurindji (Wavehill/ Inverway/ Mistake Creek) country of Australia. I also acknowledge family who went through the Stolen Generations (x 4 generations). And I also need to acknowledge my European and Afghan (cameleers) ancestral family heritage = hard workers. My Jaja (grandmother) is from Gurindji country, west of Kalkaringi, a remote community that was formally known as Wave Hill in the Northern Territory of Australia. My grandfather’s country is Roper River, Limmen Bight and down towards the McArthur River region of the Northern Territory, which includes Ngalakarn/ Milwaripra, Mara and Bundiyarng country.
I am a contemporary Indigenous artist from the Northern Territory of Australia and I have developed my own design style by combining contemporary art with new media art technology, also known as multimedia.
My Artwork is about Stories for Country, Australian Wildlife, Elders and Healing.
::: Inspired Story :::
In 2016, I took an interest by chance to start doing fashion designed polo shirts for Aboriginal mens group for Darwin Town Communities. This led to me trying to explore a new business venture in the areas of fashion and I applied for Northern Territory Aboriginal Business Development to start up the business idea in 2017.
My fashion product designs are created by paintings, hand drawn images of Indigenous Australia animals combined with computer generated graphic designs (multimedia or new media arts).
I would like to briefly share my story for how I got into photography, because its good story…. One day about 25 years (around 1996) ago, I went out hunting for wild pigs near Marrakia countryAdelaide River in the Northern Territory of Australia with my uncle, its about 80km south of Darwin, it was a hot and humid morning getting close to 11am, we seen wild boar sitting in the water, crystal clear water, nice small creek flowing into the Adelaide river, near Marrakia/ Acacia country. From the distance it looked like that pig was alive, just sitting in the water near this small dam and it was minding its own business and taking it easy, we continued to sneak up slowly to that little creek were that pig was sitting in the water.
My uncle started to get ready to shoot that pig, 30 – 30 Winchester, I said hang on quite way, I will trytake photo, let me get this camera ready first. I had borrowed this SLR old 35mm film camerafrom my step father, flash one back in them days,
I used to put it on auto settings but on thisday I felt brave and put it into manual settings. Just as my uncle was going to shoot that pig asalt water crocodile jumped out of the water and it tried to jump up and over this small damwall (made from tin iron) in the little creek were that wild boar was sitting in the water. Big sudden fright, biggest splash and the tough pig dogs took off flat out back to the 4WD, Itried to take photos, maybe I got 5 or 6 fast photos, I later found out that I had the SLRcamera on the wrong settings, that big crocodile photo turned out like a big black crocodile shadow – my camera setting were incorrect: aperture was set on 22 / shutter was set on 500 I thought they were good numbers, they were terrible settings for photography in that particular environment. That wild boar just sat there, didn’t even move as we got closer to it, after me and my uncle realised it was already dead, crocodile chopped that good size boar in half. That day out near Acacia/ Marrakia country that inspired me, that crocodile give me a spark to make changes in my life to go to university and learn about artwork and photography.
Here are some of the no good photos due to wrong camera settings
I found out I was pretty good with my creative skills, I been taking photographs and further developing my skills in new media arts for the last 27 years, I have strong passion for creating images in to works of art. I have exhibit my artwork and attended art conferences and workshops on anational and international level. These blurry photographs here is one one the reasons why Idecided to go to university (Northern Territory University – now called Charles Darwin University) to learn about photography and get in to artwork. Wrong camera settings, wrong apperture settings, wrong shutter speed settings, the photo of the big crocodile shadow. These photograph above is what it looks like on 35mm film, this mistake made me want to learn how take good photos.
My graphic design work and hand drawn image of crocodile jumping is titled: Inspired – this is my tribute back to that day we went out pig hunting and the incident that happened with a big crocodile that created a spark to make want to learn about photography and digital media, Inspired. Now I am working on applying my art skills in the area of fashion – Original Tribes. Designing fashion products and setting up online eCommerce fashion business.
Copyright notice: Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part maybe reproduced by any process without prior written permission from artist Jason Davidson Hampton – Original Tribes. Requests and enquires concerning reproduction and copyright should be addressed to artist Jason Davidson Hampton via email: jd.hampton@originaltribes.com
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