Delighted to receive an email in October 2019 from Evelyne Baeten, Director, Visual Merchandising, Oceania Louis Vuitton to say the visual merchandising team had viewed my web site and would like to commission some artworks from me to theme their new outlets in David Jones new Australian flagship high end retail store.

My new exhibition, the Art of Navy, running at the Australian National Maritime Museum from Oct 3 – 30 has allowed me to explore totally new concepts and outputs in my art practice. The full story behind the genesis of the exhibition is told in a new film, the Making of the Art of Navy that is showing as part of the exhibition and can be viewed here.

The people I have to thank for this wonderful project and not necessarily in this order are Rear Admiral Mark Hammond who had a hunch; Malcolm Moir, a long time friend and Head of Foundation and Development, Australian National Maritime Museum; Alexandra Gaffikin, Head of Design and Interpretation who smiled when I showed her the original works and told me the reason - "not at all what I was expecting and I love it..." An absolute delight to work with Alex.

I have known Ralph for 40 years now and been a keen follower of his journey into photography since its inception. This is, in fact, the second catalogue essay I have written on his work. But Ralph’s images of Dubai are profoundly different to his images of Sydney. In these shimmering reflections of Dubai arising from the depths of its own ingenuity, Ralph seems to have reinvented himself as an alchemist – transforming all that he sees into pure gold