Sailors Waltz

"It was the 75th anniversary for the Royal Australian Navy, and many Australian and international sailors were in town to celebrate. Many girls caught trains in from western Sydney to the CBD to join in the celebrations. The last dance of the night was a waltz. No one seemed in a hurry to go home."

Biography:
Peter Solness is a multi-award-winning photographer, artist, educator and writer, who began his 40-year photography career contributing surfing photos to Surfing World and Tracks magazine in the 1970s.

From the early 1980s, Solness worked as a photojournalist for the Sydney Morning Herald and the National Times, and later for national and international magazines including TIME Australia, The Good Weekend, The Bulletin and Australian Geographic. With the advent of digital photography in the mid-2000s, Solness became a pioneer of the photographic technique of light painting.

An enthusiastic teacher and exponent of light painting as an art form, and a vehicle for storytelling, Solness has run workshops and presentations at the National Art School, TAFE colleges, and the Head On Photo Festival, as well as mounting large-scale public light events for community celebrations such as Science Week (2015 and 2018).

Recently, Solness has developed specialist light painting workshops for secondary and primary school students as way to inspire younger audiences.