The Boomer Legacy

Accidental monuments

Civil Engineering 101: slap it together as cheap as you can and then completely rebuild it later to solve issues you should have addressed the first time

Zigzag Railway upper viaduct, Clarence [Jul-2019 596kb]

Remarks

Landscapes are hard. You not only have to be in the right place, at the right time with the right gear, but you also have to work with the prevailing light AND come up with an something more substantial than just “eye-candy”

Eloi wonderland

We gathered by the harbourside, sipping infused agave nectar and nibbling on sweet fuyu persimmons, and were amazed by the vast contraptions built by our distant ancestors

Sydney Harbour sunrise kayaks [Jan-2019 197kb]

Remarks

The 135mm TEM (11861) can be an amazing lens under the right conditions. Particularly when shooting into a low sun, it makes everything go an intense orange while still retaining sharpness and resisting flare. Unfortunately it is also 100g heavier than the current 135mm APO (11889), but it does have a greater focus-turn to make fine-tuning easier, and of course is much more affordable

Temporary respite

Spend all morning crawling over truck-sized boulders, before having a break and doing it all over again on the way back

Glenbrook Gorge, Lapstone [Aug-2021 608kb]

Remarks

At Darks Common lookout a few days earlier, noticed a family with small children wandering around in Glenbrook Gorge far below. Figured that if they could take their children in there, then it shouldn't be too difficult to walk in. Yeah right. Humping it over boulders for almost an hour and then slipping into the river with $Ks camera gear was not anyone's idea of easy. N.B. the “beach” in the image no longer exists, washed away by extensive flooding in 2022

Epistemic insouciance

Full speed ahead for the fly-in fly-out money-launderers high-rollers in the sky (ABC News, 2020)

Crown casino construction, Barangaroo [Jan-2020 212kb]

Remarks

Taken during the erection of Packer's Pecker. It's difficult to exaggerate the thrall in which gambling wagering was held by politicians, most of the general public and the advertising-revenue-hungry media

Bubble watch

Rising property prices were carefully manipulated to create more economic winners than losers

Spectators on the steps of the former CBC Bank, Martin Place [Apr-2006 278kb]

Remarks

One of the most significant impacts of the Boomer generation was the proliferation of asset bubbles. For this shot, taken during the 2006 Anzac Day march, everyone on the bank's steps looked up suddenly to watch planes fly over. What made getting the shot difficult was not just the timing, but also using a film-based Hasselblad, mounted onto a monopod and triggered by a mechanical cable release

Cut-through messaging

Make your mark, repeat, move on

Vandalised rail-car at the Zigzag railway, subsequently destroyed by the 2019 summer bushfires, Clarence [Jul-2019 325kb]

Remarks

Photography as a time capsule. Found this abandoned rail-car while walking along the decommissioned Zig Zag rail line at Clarence in the Blue Mountains. Despite being extensively vandalised it was still scheduled for restoration. A few months later another wildfire swept through the area, and this time the carriage was completely destroyed

Stakeholder

One could either use General Relativity equations to derive the Schwarzschild metric in n-dimensions, or else go shopping

Supermarket freezer aisle, Katoomba [Dec-2003 98kb]

Remarks

Again a custom Leica candid rig had to be used, with the added complication of having a supermarket employee discreetly following me around to ensure I wasn't taking photographs

Lifelong entanglement

We would have followed you anywhere

Bethesda Terrace, Central Park NYC [Oct-2017 658kb]

Remarks

Noticed a family having portraits taken among the Central Park crowds. Most of the poses were overtly formal, but one set-up produced this arrangement while mother and child waited for the photographer to adjust his gear. It was only a fleeting moment, but it struck me as being something deeply emotional from everyone's childhood

Cargo Culte

We lounged about in ill-fitting uniforms, languidly pressing buttons on small screens… waiting for the day He would return, bearing great gifts

Palm tree outside the abandoned St Mary & St Mina's Coptic Orthodox Church at Sydenham, near Sydney airport [Sep-2012 355kb]

Remarks

A lot of patience was required here due to the timing and positioning of the aeroplane(s), who would often approach from slightly different angles and thus spoil the composition. Or you would get a small turboprop when what you really wanted was a thundering 747. Either way, when shooting digital it wasn't an issue, but Hasselblad A12 film backs could only give you 12 shots to get it right…

Ghosts of the CBD

Governments had to resort to upbeat slogans, pleading and bribes to entice voters to return to the city

Commuters at the new Central station concourse [Jun-2022 281kb]

Remarks

Candid people photography is a much riskier business today than it was twenty years ago. Luckily people are so accustomed to mobile phones being used today that when they see someone walking around with an actual camera, they assume it's only being used for mundane things like flowers or grandchildren

The tallest tombstones in the world

Arithmétique Macabre: 9 / 11 = 2977 + 60 000

Church spire beneath a flight path, at Rockdale in Sydney [Dec-2013 149kb]

Remarks

The impact of the September 2001 Islamist attacks cannot be overstated. It has seeped into our culture in numerous ways, not least the vague apprehension that another random event was coming to smash things up again

What mean these stones?

We were at the beginning of a mass extinction, and all we could talk about was money and fairytales of eternal economic growth (Thundberg, 2019)

Iron slag at the Blast Furnace Park in Lithgow [Aug-2012 331kb]

Remarks

Another early Hasselblad 120-film shot, but one which turned out to be the main instigator for this project. Had always wanted to buy a V-System 6×6 camera, but could only afford it when they started being dumped onto the second-hand market in 2010. The project at the time had been somewhat aimless for 18 months, even if some of the shots were okay. Then this image at Lithgow changed everything

Lambos to the moon

It was an era of unending optimism. Families prospered, inflation was beaten (until 2022) and credit was easy to get at near-zero rates (until 2022). Average mums & dads were flipping investment properties, collecting NFTs and betting on cryptocurrencies. Stock markets inexorably kept rising, while house values soared to what looked like a permanently high plateau…

Living statue performer at Circular Quay [Jul-2017 253kb]

Remarks

A simple, almost throw-away candid shot acquired sinister meaning when you notice the children were prodding a stuffed crocodile

Spirited formalism

Everyone benefited from our unwavering commitment to certain kinds of inclusion

The waterfall entrance to the NGV, Melbourne [Apr-2019 618kb]

Remarks

Shots through the “water wall” at the National Gallery of Victoria entrance are, unfortunately, a photography cliché. Consequently, great care is taken to avoid these things. Not this time though, as the juxtaposition between the seated mother and exterior family was too strong to ignore

Back in the CCCP

The centralised command economy disintegrated almost immediately

Street vendors on the day the Belavezha Accords were signed, Tverskaya St Moscow [Dec-1991 248kb]

Remarks

Moscow at the end of the Soviet Union. A lot of patience was required to capture this image. Scores of people were milling around the vendors, checking out the items being offered. So you had to wait a long time (45 minutes, in the freezing cold) for the crowd to part just enough to clearly reveal the sellers. It turned out most of them had lost their jobs in the post-communist dislocation, and were trying to hawk their valuables to supplement their incomes

The carnival is over

The market faithfully rewarded those who took a long-term view

Luna Park Hair Raiser ride, in the rain [Jan-2019 126kb]

Remarks

Night photography is difficult, especially in the rain. Here it was persistent enough to penetrate my 35mm LUX (11144) lens, necessitating a round-the-world trip to have it disassembled, cleaned and recalibrated

Community standards

Our suburbs were broadly strewn with eye-popping enticements

Dulwich Hill skate park [Sep-2015 98kb]

Remarks

The “sneakers thrown over power-lines” meme was comprehensively addressed by TikTok™ contributors: Some people do it just to be annoying. Some people do it as a memorial to a dead friend. Some people do it to advertise a drug dealer territory. Some people do it because they've seen it done and just think it's funny (Daily Mail UK, 2020)

Malpractice with impunity

The very first document, among more than a hundred in this folder, is a written admission by our client that he mixed up his patients and accidentally performed a full hysterectomy on the 36-year-old plaintiff. Correction — our client is [redacted], not the surgeon, who is merely a policy holder of our client. Okay, the surgeon admits, in writing, that he sterilised the plaintiff by doing an unauthorised procedure. No one disputes this — so why is this dragging on for years with requests for interrogatories, updated medical reports and dozens of discovery hearings? Well, it is our firm's policy to fully test all claims to discourage frivolous ones. The surgeon has freely admitted negligence, so it cannot be “frivolous” and, frankly, our stalling borders upon unconscionable. I'll say it again: it is our firm's policy to fully test all claims to discourage frivolous ones…

The ghosts of lawyering among the tombstones at Camperdown cemetery, Newtown [Jun-2015 407kb]

Remarks

It took a long time to find a scene which reflected our two-tier third-world health system. The accompanying blurb is a paraphrased version of an April 1992 law-firm conversation between the author and a medical-litigation partner (in italics)

Race Day chic

Ladies in the public enclosure would enjoy themselves in the Cup aftermath

Rosehill Racecourse, Melbourne Cup hairdresser's picnic [Nov-2005 270kb]

Remarks

Another Hasselblad film image, using my usual 3kg set-up of 501CM, Distagon 50 FLE, PME45 viewfinder, Metz flash, cable release and monopod. Taking candid photos with such a rig could at times be challenging

Through an augmented sky

All the atmospheric particulates ensured a golden hour for everyone

Sunrise over Bourke Street, Melbourne [Apr-2019 57kb]

Remarks

The 135mm TEM (11861) in action again. While on holidays in Melbroune, looked out the balcony just after dawn and noticed hot-air balloons being launched. A few 40mm shots looked okay, but the 135mm pointed into the sun did the trick

Consumer karoshi

A culture had to be created in which our customers were driven to self-sacrifice

Market Street escalators at Centrepoint, Sydney [Jan-2016 260kb]

Remarks

A side-benefit of being treated for amblyopia as a child was that you learned to really use your eyes. Here the escalators bore an ironic resemblance to a Japanese Samurai Kabuto

Late for the sky

The air was eaten, promise crammed

The final blast-furnace at BlueScope Steel, in Port Kembla [Sep-2014 97kb]

Remarks

“Scheduled Trackwork” meant having to catch replacement buses between Wollongong and Port Kembla. The problem was that they were infrequent and unpredictable. So had to instead catch a wildly indirect timetabled suburban bus, which went up and down every side-street before eventually arriving at the final destination. Meanwhile, during the slow-motion journey, the weather clouded over and completely trashed the light. But what the hell, after such a l-o-n-g trip you may as well walk out to the steelworks anyway. And then, as if on cue, the clouds parted and steam started billowing from the blast furnace chimney…

Golden sunlit uplands

Import alien species to remind you of home, then watch helplessly as they spread throughout the environment

The invasive plant species Common Gorse spreads along the Taieri Gorge, NZ [Dec-2017 818kb]

Remarks

This shot was taken while hanging out the door of the Taieri Gorge tourist train. Had actually wanted shots of the train taking a curve, but looked around and saw the weed-covered gully (next time it might be an idea to stay safely inside inside the carriage and just point the camera out the window). There might not be a “next time” however, as the line was closed in 2020 due to COVID related financial pressures, and the reopened line now only runs to Hindon, well short of where this photo was taken

Memories of what's to come

The last thing we wanted was to extirpate all the large vertebrates (WWF, 2018)

Deceased sulfur-crested cockatoo, Warrimoo [Dec-2017 149kb]

Remarks

The cockatoo — which had died overnight — was lying in a neighbour's front yard. What was fascinating was watching the ants explore the corpse. Used the 100mm APO (11352) to get in close to bring out the details. And yes the Dali references [1] [2] were deliberate

In the days of the citizen journalist

Broadcast-quality equipment was no longer required to craft good stories

Media-workers at the Sydney Opera House [Jul-2014 210kb]

Remarks

Legacy-media had to adapt to a new environment for which they were mostly unprepared. How were reporters going to survive in an increasingly interconnected world, where you had to not only be proficient in delivering content, but also in using the increasingly complex tech which made it possible?

North to Avoska

Before mobile phones, perhaps-bags accompanied us everywhere

Totes diptych at Hornsby and Wynyard, Sydney [Apr-2005 248kb]

Remarks

Behind the Iron Curtain during the Cold War, people always carried shopping bags in case goods become available. Here in the west there were rarely any shortages, but people carried similar bags nevertheless

Tourism added value

Tourism contributes towards complete growth and development of a country: one, by bringing numerous economic value & benefits; and, second, helping in build country's brand value, image & identity (Market Width Blog, 2018)

Christmas Day tourists at the Sydney Opera House [Dec-2001 296kb]

Remarks

An unexpected afternoon at the Sydney Opera House. The “2001 Black Christmas Fires” had flared again in the Blue Mountains, so the western sky turned dark red. Most people were staring at or photographing the smoke-obscured sun, but this particular couple were much more interested in each other

A crown of ashes

Every Christmas we would gaze up at the pyrocumulus sky, exchange Bushfire Survival Plans and kiss beneath the epicormic shoots

Woodford bushfire aftermath, Blue Mountains [Dec-2019 736kb]

Remarks

Panoramic sequences have become commonplace after phones and cameras started to include built-in “panorama mode” options. Nevertheless, shooting high-resolution panos still require lens entrance-pupil aligned mounts and supports. Used to do this stuff professionally 1996—2006, and occasionally it's fun to get the gear out to shoot some scenes, for instance the aftermath of yet another Blue Mountains wildfire

Keeping interest rates low *

No matter what happened, cheap debt could not be blamed
(* until 2022)

Used car-yard at Parramatta Road Granville [Apr-2017 206kb]

Remarks

Global interest rates were kept artificially low for decades to encourage economic growth. Finding metaphors for the corresponding deterioration in lending standards + mountain of consumer-debt turned out to be surprisingly easy

Stack trace

International trade agreements led to enormous economic benefits

The concrete base of the demolished Port Kembla copper stack [Sep-2014 349kb]

Remarks

The Copper Stack was an Illawarra landmark since its construction in 1965. After standing derelict since its closure in 2003, it was finally demolished in Feb 2014. A few months later this image was obtained by scaling a security fence, along with risking arrest by waiting around for the sun to peek out between clouds to light the stack base

No map and a broken compass

Cheap goods and MTV proved to be more effective than détente and ICBMs

Stall on Tverskaya St, Moscow, beneath a memorial plaque to the soviet artist Pyotr Vasilyev [Dec-1991 244kb]

Remarks

Moscow December 1991, a couple of days before the end of the Soviet Union. The command-economy had collapsed, while early attempts at market capitalism stalled because consumers didn't have enough money to buy anything more valuable than soft-drinks or bric-a-brac.

Day-tripping

The greater our impact on nature, the more we wanted to see it

The Waterrun, Royal National Park NSW [Aug-2019 411kb]

Remarks

Many people liked to travel for hours just to take photographs of themselves. In the background you can see one of the cliffs mentioned earlier

Delivery apps were so convenient

HungryPanda, Foodora, Uber Eats, DoorDash, EASI, Menulog, Deliveroo, Hey You, GrubHub, goPuff, EatNow, Yelp… We imported an underclass of temporary-visa holding independent contractors to zip around on bikes to deliver burrito bowls, bubble-tea and authentic pad thai

Online food delivery rider at Haymarket, near Chinatown [Apr-2020 135kb]

Remarks

In 2020 home delivery riders were suddenly everywhere. Most were third-world “students” on temporary visas, who would tear through plazas and along inner-city footpaths at breakneck speeds. During the lockdowns their numbers multiplied to the point where, at certain locations, there were more of them zipping around than there were pedestrians trying not to get hit (ABC News, 2020)

Peak oil

Rapid obsolescence was just around the corner

Motorcycle parking at the top of Hill Street, North Sydney [Oct-2020 343kb]

Remarks

A disadvantage of panoramic cylindrical projection is that horizontal lines will always appear curved. You can partially compensate by using Mercator projection, but often you just have to live with it. If the budget allows, you could print the image and mount it onto a concave backing, and then stand inside the arc to see the horizontals straight again, a truly mind-bending experience! (Here the master image is 15340×7670 pixels, which if printed at 150 dpi would end up being 1.3×2.6 metres)

The one sure bet

One of the interesting things about the years 1982—2023 was that markets always boomed, no matter what. By the early 2020's many commentators and economists agreed that equities were irrationally overpriced, yet the bourses still kept on rising…

Financial reporter at the Sydney ASX [Oct-2018 152kb]

Remarks

The original intention was to get photos of the predicted market collapse for that day — presumably the same reason the financial reporter was there. Unsurprisingly, the crash didn't happen and the market rallied, again

Gone a million

The rich were always with us

Abandoned Rolls-Royce automobile at Hiles Street in Alexandria [Jun-2015 289kb]

Remarks

This Rolls Royce was “parked” in Alexandria for years. When Leica Australia held a launch event in Nov 2019 for their SL-2 camera, four years after this photo was taken, they used a converted warehouse in the same street. After the presentation, went outside to see if the Rolls was still there — it was

Crucify your mind

I really thought that love would save us all (Lennon, 1980)

The exterior of the Greek Orthodox church of Saint Peter & Paul (since repainted), at Petersham [Sep-2012 463kb]

Remarks

As mentioned elsewhere, one of the most enjoyable aspects of this project was finding unusual scenes in random places. You would walk for hours and there it would be, almost as if had been waiting for you

Precipitous descent

Decades of wandering through a hostile terrain, only to flounder in the sea

Ocean cliffs south of Little Marley, Royal National Park NSW [Aug-2020 544kb]

Remarks

This is a hand-held multi-image sequence, which had to be taken by carefully rotating the camera around the lens entrance-pupil for each shot. With a calibrated pano-mount it's relatively easy, but had to use my bare hands here as the mount was left at home to keep the hiking weight down. Nevertheless the shot came out reasonably well, although significant stitching errors in the foreground and ocean horizon had to be fixed in post

We were the memories we created

How and why will people remember us?

Tree growing in the old Fosters brewery wall (since demolished), at Broadway in Sydney [Apr-2014 552kb]

Remarks

Had photographed the tree growing in the brewery wall a few times earlier, but got lucky this time when a couple of pigeons inserted themselves into the shot. A few months later the wall (and tree) was demolished when the Central Park development neared completion

PETM reloaded

Nine-month summers, super El Niños, category-five hurricanes, wildfires, methane fumaroles, acidified oceans, cubic-kilometres of eutrophication and rivers awash with millions of dead fish. Years of drought followed by months of flooding rain. 1000-year events every five years. Every decade and season among the hottest on record. The sixth mass extinction. Aim low for +1.5°C and overshoot by at least 100%

Truck exhaust pipes at Woolloomooloo, in Sydney's east [Oct-2012 115kb]

Remarks

We lived in a world where roads were filled with 2-3 tonne petrol-guzzling vehicles, racing each other to their own demise

Forging a new deal

The transition from manufacturing to a service-based economy was completely seamless

Derelict Ford truck at The Grounds of Alexandria [Apr-2018 652kb]

Remarks

How do you depict the systematic dismantling of industries, with their associated well-paid employment for working-class people, without being blatantly didactic?

What this little black rock could do

We have to make sure this economy works. We have to export dollars. We have to realise we have a moral responsibility to other people in other nations to keep their lights on (Joyce, 2017)

The Steelworks and Coal Loader at Port Kembla harbour [Sep-2014 66kb]

Remarks

Port Kembla, along with Newcastle, featured some of the largest coal handling facilities in the world. Unfortunately it was difficult to shoot interesting views of generally ugly industrial locations. Sunsets helped, as did telephoto lenses and silhouettes

Some semblance of community

Democracy turned out to best serve those who were most invested

NSW election voting centre at Town Hall [Mar-2019 543kb]

Remarks

One of the great themes of the last forty years has been the gradual unravelling of western democracy. One could say it started with Watergate in June 1972, but you could also argue it began much earlier in November 1963 with the assassination of JFK

Look back in covfefe

Part of being a winner is knowing when enough is enough. Sometimes you have to give up the fight and walk away, and move on to something that's more productive (Trump, 1987)

Trump impersonator on Broadway, NYC [Oct-2017 335kb]

Remarks

The 2016 election of the 45th US President unleashed a wave of anti-populist invective. Progressive activists, academics and news-workers incessantly railed against “Trumpism” for years and years, as if all the op-eds and impeachment attempts and special counsels and house select committees and pussyhats and “Stormy Daniels” imminent-indictments could reverse what happened

Magic sponge

During mass at our spiritual home in St. Bernardino, the archreferee would hold aloft the Sacred Sphere and bestow unto us His most holy blessing: Kind friends, VVIPs, WAGs and Ultras, we are gathered here on St Totteringham's Day to drink beers and throw flares. To give 110% when sports-washing the unsaved. To rise up and throw sardines into the sea from the back of the trawler. To find the back of the net, a little with the head of Maradona and a little with the hand of God. So please take a knee and raise your Vuvuzelas for the national benediction: Our Footy, who art in heaven, hallowed by Thy game. Thy Kingdom score, thy bets be more, on phones as it is in Qatar. In nomine Blatter, et FIFA, et Spiritus Alea… You may now invade the pitch

Sports promotion at Olympic Park [Aug-2017 188kb]

Remarks

St. Bernardino

Patron saint of advertising, communications & compulsive gambling wagering

Sacred Sphere

A hollow spherical object made of suitable material, with an external circumference between 680—700mm and mass of 0.41—0.45kg, and inflated to an interior pressure of 60.795—101.325 kPa at sea level

VVIPs

Very — very — important people

WAGs

Highly accomplished Wives & Girlfriends of players

Ultras

Highly accomplished association football fans noted for their black hoodies, self-restraint and civilised behaviour during pitch invasions

St Totteringham's Day

The day celebrated by Arsenal fans when Tottenham can no longer outrank them in the League table

110%

The First Law of Thermodynamics shall not apply to sport

Sports-washing

The role of media-workers when reporting large sporting events

Throw sardines […] trawler

King Eric's 1995 epigram

Hand of God […]

Unjustly criticised goal during the 1986 FIFA World Cup

Vuvuzelas

The national wind instrument of South Africa

Qatar

A Gulf petro-state that has denied any wrongdoing, ever

Blatter

Highly accomplished 8th President of FIFA from 1998 to 2015

FIFA

Federation Internationale de Football Association

Alea

Latin: “game of chance”

Defenestrate your livelihood

We mortgaged the future and bet it all on there not being one

Waverton Coal Loader wharf [Feb-2022 672kb]

Remarks

Although epic ruin porn is a photography cliché, sometimes you cannot ignore it. Here a barbed wire fence had to be scaled to obtain the overhead shot. The 19mm ELMARIT (11329) lens appears to suffer from pincushion distortion, but the foreground planks show that everything is as straight as it should be

Meaningful social interactions

Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, TikTok, WeChat, Instagram, Snapchat, Tumblr, LinkedIn, 4/8Chan: elaborate frameworks were created to ensure you could never be alone

Stargazer lawn at Barangaroo Reserve, Sydney [Aug-2016 563kb]

Remarks

Another scene found completely by accident. Had revisited Millers Point to re-shoot the clothesline crucifix image and then eventually ended up on the “Stargazer Lawn” to find this installation, with people walking around and through the wooden scaffolding. It required a couple of dozen shots to land another “keeper”

The apotheosis of Curators & Gallerists

A point was reached where the only way to truly appreciate contemporary art was in complete blackness

Adrián Villar Rojas' “The End of Imagination”, AGNSW [Dec-2022 82kb]

Remarks

We were given plenty of opportunity to celebrate the Reductio ad absurdum of Art Practitioners

Unknown knowns

The systematic destruction of the environment was an event so terrible that even mentioning it became a taboo

Hornby Lighthouse gun emplacement, South Head Sydney [Dec-2014 203kb]

Remarks

South Head turned out to symbolise the end of the line in more ways than expected

Outwardness within

The world was only as small as you wanted it to be

Sightseeing at The Balconies, Royal National Park NSW [Aug-2019 634kb]

Remarks

The northern part of the Royal National Park tends to be overrun by day-trippers on weekends. Most of them stand around posing for selfies, but occasionally you can also find people reflecting on what they see

We were here

Passing paths that climb halfway into the void (Yes, 1972)

Royal Coastal Track, near Wattamolla [Aug-2020 911kb]

Remarks

Roger Dean everywhere, although without the tarns or waterfalls. Instead in Australia we have lots of burnt scrub, in this case scorched by yet another deliberately-lit wildfire

The well-stamped passport

Take another selfie and move on, criss-cross the world to only find yourself

Tourists scrum at Sydney Cove [Aug-2014 165kb]

Remarks

Like most western economies, there was an enthusiastic shift in the 1980s toward relying on tourism as a foreign exchange earning and local jobs boosting “export”. Then came the pandemic…

A fit country for heroes to live in

With a place for everyone and everyone in their place

Unhoused on Pitt Street Mall, Sydney [May-2016 450kb]

Remarks

The Sydney CBD was overrun with panhandlers who would position themselves strategically throughout major thoroughfares and doorways to maximise their earning potential. Noticed this particular juxtaposition in a busy outdoor mall and then came back a couple of days later to photograph it. Was amazed that neither council rangers nor police had asked them to move on

One-way journey

On a sailing ship to nowhere, leaving any place (Yes, 1971)

Ovation of the Seas cruise-liner at the Sydney Overseas Passenger Terminal [Dec-2017 108kb]

Remarks

Two years after this photo was taken, 22 passengers from this ship died during a shore excursion because of the White Island volcanic eruption in New Zealand

Braving the abyss

Despite challenging market conditions, and a negative return for your superannuation this year, we continue to deliver strong long-term returns. […] Significant market falls can be worrying, but staying invested remains vitally important. […] When we invest your super, our approach is focussed on the long term, to help maximise your retirement savings. But it also manages short-term risks in times like these. I want to reassure you, our members, that we remain committed to investing to help you achieve your best retirement outcomes. Bulk email from the CEO of Aware Super, 2022-07-08

Waterrun cliff-side, RNP [Aug-2020 668kb]

Remarks

Waterrun is a dramatic rock-shelf in the Royal National Park. Due to unstable geology, the narrow river valley is surrounded by 50m cliffs, the tops of which allow an overhead view. So far so easy, but you have to climb out to the very edge of these things to get the best shots. Have done it twice, there won't be a third time…

In the thrall of Schedule 8

A considerable number of people spent their lives up the Cross

Fitzroy Gardens in Kings Cross [May-2003 418kb]

Remarks

Taken when using a Leica rangefinder was the only relatively unobtrusive way to do candid photography. Have subsequently used cameras triple the size, sometimes even mounted on a tripod. So it's really just a question of confidence, timing and discretion, and not the brand of camera or whether the logo has been properly taped over

Taming animal spirits

There is something more systematic about the way people behave irrationally, especially during periods of economic stress (Greenspan, 2013)

Lunchtime in a George Street amusement arcade, Sydney, demolished a few years later [Sep-2003 326kb]

Remarks

Having worked in high-pressure corporate environments in the 1990s, it proved difficult to find suitable metaphors outside. But then sometimes you get lucky

The customer was king

Everything you could ever possibly desire, at your fingertips

Supermarket checkout, Nepean Village Penrith [Apr-2003 119kb]

Remarks

Taking candid photographs in supermarkets was not easy. You were constantly monitored by staff and management, who were worried you were going to steal commercial information about their pricing and product displays. Consequently, a special candid rig had to be developed which, although it had my rangefinder camera clearly visible, looked like it was merely transporting the camera instead of being used for photographs

Brett's armchair

The same music in completely different hands

Sixteenth floor, Harbourside Apartments [Jan-2019 275kb]

Remarks

Lavender Bay, visible through the Harbourside Apartments' windows, was one of Brett Whiteley's favourite subjects. The book on the table is Whiteley on Trial (2017), about the forgery of a handful of Whiteley's works and how the Australian legal system couldn't find any grounds for malfeasance. Aside — in 2021 the apartment building was sold to private owners and is no longer available for bookings

The shadow workforce

The solution to mass unemployment was as simple as redefining what was meant by “unemployed”

Red flags at the Circular Quay promenade [Jul-1992 475kb]

Remarks

Taken from the Cahill Expressway, looking down on the paving at Circular Quay. What appears to be a huge knife was actually the shadow of a banner flapping in the wind

Life under the occupation

The Fragmented was turned into the Harmonised by encouraging our staff to compile their own dossiers

Revolving doors at the ANZ bank building, in Castlereagh Street [Aug-2014 143kb]

Remarks

It was assumed when capturing this image that it would probably end up a discard. When back home, however, an hour spent in image editing programs changed things considerably

The efficiency dividend playbook

A land full of equal opportunity, where respect for property, hard work, fair-play and fiscal self-restraint guaranteed a good life

Darling Point ferry wharf, Sydney [Jan-2017 283kb]

Remarks

A pleasant walk on a summer afternoon turned into an object lesson in social stratification. It appropriately happened at the ferry wharf to one of Sydney's wealthiest suburbs

Think small

A charismatic and perfectionist architect; Workaday engineers hamstrung by 1960s tech; A meddling public broadcaster; Conservative politicians out for revenge… The Sydney Opera House looked magnificent from afar, but up close it was riddled with problems caused by years of indecision, controversy, compromise and bickering

Domestic fountain at Church Street, Croydon [Sep-2016 481kb]

Remarks

It required seven years to force Jørn Utzon out of the country in 1966, supposedly due to his ineptitude during the design and construction of Stages I & II (the podium and shells). It then took the Minister for Public Works and his team another seven years to complete Stage III (the performance halls and windows), resulting in a 3× cost blow-out and some of the worst acoustics and sightlines in the world. These were finally rectified by the 50th anniversary renovations, completed in 2022

Potemkin Prosperity

The central irony of the financial crisis was that while it was caused by too much confidence, too much borrowing & lending and too much spending — it could only be resolved with more confidence, more borrowing & lending, and more spending (Summers, 2011)

Fields of green shoots at the Westpac plaza in Sydney [Jan-2014 520kb]

Remarks

This image is actually a composite, with two shots joined via a false horizon. Although always fascinated by the glibness of the expression green shoots, it took a lot of scouting to find a corporate environment which actually had them

Ponzimonium

Jeffrey Keith Skilling (Enron Corp); Walter Forbes (Cendant Corp); Richard Fuld (Lehman Brothers); Bernard Lawrence Madoff (Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC); Satoshi Nakamoto (Bitcoin); Ruja Ignatova (OneCoin); Markus Braun (Wirecard); Sam Bankman-Fried (FTX); Kwon Do-Hyung (Terraform Labs); Changpeng Zhao (Binance); Sergei Panteleevich Mavrodi (MMM Global); Elizabeth Anne Holmes (Theranos Inc.)

Wedding Cake Rock, RNP [Jul-2019 211kb]

Remarks

Wedding Cake Rock was a social-media hotspot at the northern end of the Royal National Park. Simple fences were erected to stop people from posing on the rock's edge, not only to prevent them from falling to their deaths (there had been a few), but also to preserve the geological structure as long as possible. The irony was that selfie-lovers were still climbing over and through the obstructions to get their snaps. So a few months later a higher, reinforced, cliff-edge to cliff-edge impenetrable barrier was finally installed

Forget your past

Architectural awards counted for little when it came to prime development sites

Darling Harbour Conference Centre demolition, Sydney [Apr-2014 238kb]

Remarks

This image is a classic example of the importance of always having a camera with you. Being a bit of an architecture nerd, it was ironic to discover that a collection of Darling Harbour buildings which were lauded in the 1980s for their innovative design, should thirty years later become yet more fodder for redevelopment

A two-speed world

The landscape was altered to better reflect our social order

The remains of Lawrence Hargrave Drive beside the Sea Cliff bridge, near Coalcliff [Dec-2016 780kb]

Remarks

Most people drive over the Sea Cliff Bridge and don't notice the abandoned Lawrence Hargrave Drive. It was decommissioned in Aug 2003 due to numerous rockfalls from the escarpment along its western side. The road still remains open to intrepid walkers, and the kiosk-sized boulder which finally closed it is still visible

Driven by unceasing mobility

Remember the physical-distancing rule and only travel when essential

Waiting for the Cronulla Ferry at Bundeena Wharf [Aug-2020 305kb]

Remarks

During the lockdowns we were subjected to continual messaging about social isolation and avoiding “unnecessary” travel. This image was taken at the end of a 28km Royal Coast Track walk, and the commuters' weariness mirrored the photographer's fatigue

From lab to stage

What was once esoteric technology confined to a research lab, was now routinely used for entertainment

Stage technician, Campbells Cove Sydney [Jan-2019 234kb]

Remarks

Had been wanting for years to capture an image which not only celebrated the amazing capabilities of modern technology, but also hinted at the alienation it could cause

Keep us from harm

Every potential hazard was fastidiously identified and ameliorated

Drink bubbler at Erskineville Public School, Sydney [Aug-2019 293kb]

Remarks

Having taught at a high school since 2009, it was always strange to witness the lengths that some risk-averse adults would go to. This drinking fountain at an inner-city primary school illustrates it beautifully. Here the irony is that (1) most small children cannot now reach the water and (2) the hazard-area has been vastly increased, negating the purpose of having safety rails in the first place

Nothing's gonna change my world

Imagine no Holden Morrisey Caulfield

Strawberry Fields, Central Park NYC [Oct-2017 445kb]

Remarks

The weekend circus attracted by Lennon's memorial in Central Park. Peace had little chance when it came to the epic jostling for the best selfie positions, while in the background numerous versions of St John's simplest tunes were played by panhandlers hoping for coin donations

It just works

Release now, patch later

Jensen Avenue at Dover Heights [Nov-2016 306kb]

Remarks

One of the most irritating things while working as a web-developer in the 1990s was having to release feature-bloated software when it was still nowhere near ready. Go-go management had made wildly unrealistic promises, which fell upon us coders to somehow deliver. Unsurprisingly the software always ended up half-baked and bug-ridden. This often turned out to be fair however, as many clients only wanted to brag about being dot-com entrepreneurs, despite lacking any tech skills or capacity to pay invoices on time