Damien Baumgart
Artist | Hobbyist | Photography

Australia

I have been living in Melbourne, Australia since January 2009 and I have travelled and moved a fair bit over the last 10 years. I was born and raised in Tamworth, Australia then moved to Sydney to complete a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. There I spent far too much money doing photography (before the days of affordable digital SLRs) and not enough time developing the skills I had as a drawer.

From there I found myself living in Newcastle, Australia (after a 10 month layover in my old hometown) where I completed my education qualifications, became a qualified Visual Arts teacher, started teaching, and began slowly beating my head against a brick wall.

After that I moved a number of times between Newcastle and Tamworth before jetting off to merry old England at the beginning of 2007 where I lived and worked for a year. While there it became abundantly clear that I really did want to do something professional with my art whereas before I had always just looked at it as something I was kinda good at.

When I returned to Australia at the beginning of 2008 I taught Visual Arts and Photo Digital Media at a high school in country New South Wales and then made the move to Melbourne once that contract was up. I'm currently working with "at risk" youth teaching them skills in film and radio production.

In 2010, while teaching, I undertook a course in 3D animation and games design. It became pretty clear that my skills and passion lie in the 2D world and that is where I'm focusing my efforts. (It also didn't help that the course I was doing was a bit of a mess.)

My wife and I will be moving to the west coast of Canada in May-June of 2012 where I shall try to create a niche for myself with my creativity. I am also looking at the possibility of starting my own photography walking tour business teaching others how to use their cameras properly while also showing them some nice sights to take pictures of.

lowmanx.wordpress.com