CreatorJohn WitzigTitleButch Cooney at Bells – 1969Date1969MediumC-type printDimensionsH. 509mm x W. 617mmArtist StatementThis was shot from Flossie Neylan’s boat, and I felt as secure as anyone could with someone from Torquay in charge. That’s a joke incidentally, but that generation were risk-takers. Flossie knew Bells, so it really was safe… pretty-much anyway…
Butch Cooney joined a roll-call of good surfers who placed second to Wayne Lynch. Butch did it in the juniors at Bells in 1967, and was in the same position behind Kevin Brennan in the NSW Championships two years earlier. That was the year when the 15-year-old Brennan won both juniors’ and mens’ divisions. I have no doubt that the rules were quickly changed to stop THAT from happening again. It was an offence against the order of things… and like amateur officialdom anywhere, the surfing variety liked order more than anything else.
I’m guessing that this picture was shot with something like a 105 or 200 mm lens on whatever SLR I had at the time. If you could just hold the details of this shot in your mind, compare it to a Nikonos shot of Paul Neilsen that I’ll post a little later in this series. The difference in the texture of the water in the foreground is striking… and the cliffs and the sky are more dramatic in the Neilsen picture. The advantage of shooting with a lens like this from a boat though is that the wave doesn’t look AS flat. Photographs from the water don’t do Bells justice… well, mine don’t.Accession NumberG2024.1.11Credit LineDonation by John WitzigAccess AdviceFor research purposes only. No reproduction without permission of Yarrila Arts and Museum.
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Black and white photograph of Butch Cooney surfing at Bells Beach in 1969.
