David Malin
Until July
2001, I was a photographic scientist-astronomer
working at the Anglo-Australian
Observatory (AAO). I am also Adjunct Professor
of Scientific Photography at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT),
specifically the Faculty
of Art, Design and Communication.
I retired
from the AAO to run my own business, David Malin
Images (DMI). Essentially this is the AAO image collection upgraded,
enlarged and outsourced, but I have also included
(on a separate web site) the work of
two other splendid photographers, Akira Fujii who specialises
in wide field constellation pictures, and David Miller, whose
night-time landscapes are unique. This site also
has some of my own optical
photo-micrographs, from a previous life.
I was born
in England in March, 1941 but have lived in Sydney
since 1975, when I joined the AAO. Before I moved
to Australia I had another 18-year career as a chemist,
specialising in optical and electron microscopy,
X-ray diffraction and other techniques for exploring
the very small. One of my main interests at that
time was photography, both from the scientific perspective
and also as a medium for personal expression. That
interest has been reinforced in astronomy, and I
still enjoy using powerful images to reveal unsuspected
aspects of the natural world.
Along the way I have devised novel ways of extracting
more information from photographs. These techniques
have led to some interesting astronomical discoveries
as well as being useful advances in photographic
science. They have been incorporated into a method
of making a series of unique three-colour
astronomical photographs, many of which reveal
some hidden aspect of the night sky. There's a nice
video about this
(
The Man who Colours Stars). I was delighted
to receive the Lennart Nilsson Award
for this aspect of my work in September 2000.
The colour
photographs attract thousands of queries a year
from around the world and certainly keep David Malin
Images busy. For many years I have had a full lecture
schedule, mostly in the form of 'popular' public
talks, which continues, but at a less frenetic pace.
I don't keep this page up-to-date anymore. I also
have a series of travelling
photographic exhibitions and increasingly, exhibitions
in art galleries (as opposed to science museums).
I live on the northern ourskirts of Sydney with
my wife Phillipa. Our three 'children', James, and
the twins Jenny and Sara have long-since left home.
We have our first grandchild, Mia Wilson. In our
free time my wife and I enjoy music, travelling,
exploring Australia's beautiful coastline and working
on and around our house, which overlooks one of
the arms of Pittwater in Sydney's beautiful Northern Beaches area.
I often
get asked about the photographic techniques I have
developed, so here is a brief
overview of some aspects of it and a more detailed
illustrated
technical description which is a tour of some
of the ideas involved. I have also put together
an illustrated
bibliography which points to some of the key
photographic publications.
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