AFTER shooting just about everything in sight in the North West and New England for the past 25 years, Tamworth photographer Jake Lindsay is on the move.
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The flamboyant shooter is leaving his loft above Peel St in October to return to his hometown of Coonabarabran to spend some time with his 79-year-old mother, Maureen.
There Jake will have to get used to being called “Roderick”, a name he hasn’t answered to since he was a little tacker, as his mother flatly refuses to call him the name most people know him by.
The move to his hometown will also bring Jake two hours closer to his employer, Central West Lifestyle, a glossy quarterly magazine with its headquarters in Dubbo.
Since the magazine’s first issue four years ago, he’s been its chief photographer and writer and has clocked up more than a country mile or two in the pursuit of great shots and yarns.
When The Leader spoke to Jake he was on deadline for edition number 15 – and the pressure was on – so our chat was reasonably brief.
It might come as a surprise to some people to learn Jake has a flair for writing, but it was his first profession, long before he picked up a camera.
As a young buck he won a scholarship with Rural Press and landed in Northam, WA, where he studied agriculture and writing.
Completing those studies in 1984, one of his tutors made the observation that Jake had a “rare gift” with his approach to photography, and particularly how he could get normally reticent subjects to face his camera.
He obtained employment with The Land newspaper and made many friends in the agricultural world – ending up as head of publicity for the Poll Hereford Society.
For a short time he flirted with the idea of living in America – and moved there to pursue a love interest – living in Denver, Florida, for six months.
The call of home – and realising his love wasn’t the love of his life – saw him return to Australia via a six-month shooting spree around England and Europe.
Eventually, the country music festival drew Jake to Tamworth, where he fell in love again ... with the city and its inhabitants, and set up his photographic studio here.
“At that stage I had absolutely no idea of business. I still don’t have much idea of business 25 years later, but I’ve met some wonderful people during that time,” Jake said.
“I came here with nothing and I’ve still got most of it.”
In more than two decades, he’s shot thousands of families, but in recent years has come to realise, with modern technology, the opportunities for professional photographers were becoming fewer.
That’s when he rediscovered his first love of writing with the now defunct New England Country Living magazine.
He then joined the Central West Lifestyle team for their first edition four years ago and still enjoys the challenge of visiting new towns and writing about some of their characters.
“It’s going to be a much quieter, more relaxed lifestyle for me in Coonabarabran, and hopefully, a much healthier one,” Jake said, tongue-in-cheek.
For the past quarter-century, he’s been an avid collector of all things old, interesting and antique, but after a succession of clearance sales, the studio is almost bare.
“It will be hard throwing out 25 years of wedding negatives and all those great memories, but nobody seems interested in old negatives these days,” he said.
The man with the distinctive black hat and sapphire blue shirts has been renowned for his parties, and he intends to have one last hurrah before he leaves in October, as a thank you to the city that’s been his adopted home.
“I’ve shot prime ministers, local members and mayors for years, but the people I really love training my camera lens on are those that struck me as a strong personality with a unique look,” he said.
“Some were shy, but most were ready to be Shot by Jake and enjoyed the moment. I love country faces, the more weather-beaten the better.
“I’m so fortunate that I rekindled my love of writing, which got me the job of a lifetime with Central West Lifestyle.
“I’ve also learnt the best things in life aren’t things. What you treasure most are your memories of people and I have a wealth of happy memories.”
He’s produced two fabulous books – Hat’s Life and Beneath The Brim – and hopes to have an exhibition for the first and only time before he departs the Country Music Capital, reflecting on the past quarter-century of images.
“It’s been quite a journey and I’m really looking forward to the next chapter,” he said.
