Givenworks Photography&Publishing

Mal Austin Photographer

Givenworks Photography&Publishing Pty Ltd (Givenworks Publishing”) is an Australian company which exists

to sell the work of photographer Mal Austin.

Directors Mal and wife Jennifer operate the company from

128 Stoney Creek Rd

Beaconsfield Upper

Victoria 3808

Australia

Phone and fax within Australia (03) 59 444 145

Internationally (613) 59 444 145

Mal’s email:

On this site you may purchase:

hundreds of Givenworks’ products, all featuring Mal’s images

stock images for your own or your company’s publications

custom products featuring Mal’s images to your own specifications or designed by us to your requirements

MAL IS ALSO AVAILABLE ON INDIVIDUAL CONTRACTS FOR YOUR PHOTOGRAPHIC ASSIGNMENTS

MAL AUSTIN began professional photography formally in 1981 with a newly formed company titled “Mal Austin Photography Pty Ltd” under which he would proceed with work from his Melbourne suburban shop-front studio. He had reached this position with the 7 years of teaching as his first profession making way for the photographic assignments that became too numerous to be handled part-time.

Mal’s interest in photography began purely as a means to an end to record his passion for riding the last few operating steam engines in Australia around 1970. He wasn’t interested in photography, just the subject. However, he quickly found that, for him, the satisfaction that an image brought, was directly related to its quality as much as its subject. This began a steep learning curve into the technical and artistic sides of image capturing aimed at increasing this quality. A vast new world opened up. As this grew, along with much time and money spent on better cameras and learning in his own darkroom, photography took over as the main interest and the course for the rest of his working life was set.

It is a common story of many professional photographers that they are self-taught and began to move slowly into the profession by being recognised as a ‘better than average picture taker’ by family and friends who then exploit these skills at every important function such as weddings. This was exactly the same with Mal. Knowing that no living could be earnt chasing trains, and with a diminishing interest in teaching, he threw himself heavily into learning and practising all he could about people and product photography culminating in 18 years of successful commercial and wedding filming from his studio. Mal has vast experience gained by tackling almost every kind of photographic assignment.

650 weddings, thousands of portraits and hundreds of commercial and advertising assignments filled those years with plenty of interest and experiences but quietly, lurking in the background, two things began to have a changing influence. On the down-side was stress, overwork and subsequent physical ailments; on the good side was an increasing love for landscape photography.

Mal had bought an old battered panoramic film camera to use in a hobby sense on days away in the country and although he could not see how it could become an income earner, the satisfaction he obtained from the resulting stunning large-format transparencies was too much to be ignored. When the stress and workload of the studio finally asserted the need for change, there was little need for debate about the desire of plunging into this risky area even though very few photographers in Australia are successfully able to earn enough income from it.

It was not long before Mal and Jenny realised that those who do, often do so by taking the risk of publishing and distributing their own work. As he had learnt to do in years past, Mal first began to objectively assess his work against the few landscape photographers who could be termed successful, and whose work he admired. He was encouraged to find that already his work was shaping up well in comparison, if not experience.

Leaving “Mal Austin Photography” behind both formally and, in the studio’s case, physically, he completed his last few wedding bookings and changed his company name to “Givenworks Photography&Publishing”. This name reflects several things. His desire always to be a photographer first and publisher by necessity. Mal and Jenny are active Christians and felt guided to change the emphasis of their work from purely income-earning to acts of service. They formed the Givenworks Vision and chose the name “Givenworks” as a simple description, belief and hope that they would be “given” “works” to do to achieve this vision.

Givenworks is 10 years old and our products can be found nationally and in NZ, UK and USA. Mal has had a book contract with Howards Books, a division of Simon & Schuster, but now has a publishing partnership in Australia with Ark House.