urban Archives - s2z Photography Blog

Wordless Wednesday #11 2022

A a car whizzes past, on a cold wintery night in Seddon, Melbourne, Australia.

Wordless Wednesday #3 2022

Maribrynong river with EJ Whitten Bridge in the background

New Photobook & Sundry Upcoming Events

A selection of books made since about 2004 to 2022

I am in the end stages of a new photobook. It’s titled Not Landscape. I am hoping the print run of 20 copies will be here in time for the photo 2022 weekend photobook fair 21st and 22nd of May. This book came together relatively quickly. After discovering a website of obscure avant garde art UbuWeb, I watched a rare video by John Baldessari, titled “I shall not make any more boring art”. Baldessari had also made a series of photographs in the 70s that poked fun at the “rules” of photography, seen here on his website. Also here.

Concurrently I had been mulling over how I made an earlier book using Blurb. ‘What’s the ugliest part of your body?’. When making it. I had decided to compromise on its layout and not crop the images resulting in a book that few people handled correctly as it was landscape orientation. As a consequence it had lots of wasted white space. I feel this didn’t add anything to the idea. This time I decided that I would print full bleed, and use pictures that were portrait in orientation. I also wanted to add some text to engage the reader. So after perusing my library and searching the internet I found of series of snippets of text and quotes that posed pointed questions about landscape, landscape art, and landscape photography. With these two ideas in mind I collated as many images as I could that were portrait in format, ie Not Landscape, the book’s title, printed out a set of them. Then started editing them into a book.

A spread from the first draft of my 2022 book, Not Landscape.

I have some copies of my ‘What’s the ugliest part of your body?’ left. These are $15.00 each, and after making them now consider it unlikely I will make a second edition.

The cover of my 2017 book, What's the ugliest part of your body? — The cover of my 2017 book, What’s the ugliest part of your body?

I have one copy of my book Contact for sale as well.

Contact my Pandemic inspired photobook from 2020/2021

So pop on down to the Melbourne Art Book Fair this weekend 17th to the 20th of March, to purchase a copy of either ‘What’s the ugliest part of your body?’ or Contact. Hopefully Not Landscape will be on offer as well. Our stand is Melbourne Photobook Collective.

Alternatively the Photo 2020 is running a photobook weekend there will be some of my books there too, 21st May [12 to 7pm] and 22nd May [12 to 4pm] at PSC 37-47 Thistlethwaite St, South Melbourne.

Summer 2021-2022

For the second year running the skies in Melbourne have been far more photographic and overcast than I remember in summer.

I really exploited this in the quiet period from when I started my holidays to the new year. Many construction sites are closed at this time of year. This makes it even easier to photograph these places. I have shot more than 3 rolls of 120 film and about 20 sheets of 5×4 film. The results at this point seem pleasing.

This year I didn’t borrow a digital DSLR from work so the only digital files I’m making are using my iPhone.

These are the images I’m adding to this post. I also used the quiet time to scout a few possible locations moving forward. I’m very interested in the infrastructure projects going on right now all around Melbourne. In particular I’m interested in the ones that are close to me ie the inner west.

These are going to change the fabric of these suburbs. For better or worse I don’t know. But change they will and I’m trying to capture as much as I can, while I can.

Melbourne Docklands, 2022-01-04 12:33:53

Melbourne's Infrastructure is booming — Docklands Melbourne 2022:01:04 11:52:0

Melbourne Docklands 2022:01:04 11:38:27, looking east over the former wholesale fruit market

Footscray Road and construction 2022:01:04 11:31:35

Footscray Road facing east, 2022:01:05 16:33:31

West Melbourne Facing east 2022:01:08 16:37:43

West Melbourne, near Dynon road facing east, 2022:01:08 16:28:47

West Melbourne train yards facing east, 2022:01:08 16:37:31

Flânuering during lockdown 5.0

Melbourne was recently placed into its 5th lockdown since the pandemic began. I found this one more taxing the previous ones. By about the 7th day I decided I needed to get outdoors. I decided to walk aimlessly. Walking aimlessly is harder than it sounds.

So I decided to walk into the park adjacent to our house. Then once on the other side of the park wander in the direction of some incongruous land. This land runs between a rail siding and the medium to light industry either side of it. This gives me access to places that are inaccessible any other way. Carrying a large camera (and tripod) in this instance may not have been permitted by the lockdown rules I suspect. So I carried my small Canon point and shoot as well as my iPhone 12.

I walked for about one and a half hours. I took approximately 6639 steps. Sadly I forgot to run my mapping software as I walked, so I’m using other software to trace my route. In this instance Aperture. I took very few iPhone pictures it seems, anyway. I manually added these images to Aperture’s map feature.

screengrab of map of walk taken 23-07-2021 — The place I walked, 23rd July 2021

All up I took 189 pictures. Below is a small selection of them in chronological order.

Parsons Reserve facing South East 2021-07-23 14:51:59

Abstraction of urban forest Parsons reserve 2021-07-23 14:49:40

Trees and silos at the Western edge of Parsons reserve 2021-07-23 14:53:52

Wright Street Sunshine facing West with Silos in the background — Wright Street with Silos in the background, 2021-07-23 14:59:00

Linda Street Sunshine, facing South West 2021-07-23 15:04:47

Looking North from the Freight Rail siding in Linda Street Sunshine, 2021-07-23 15:08:13

Melbourne Container Park, from the rail siding. 2021-07-23 15:10:15

Looking North from the freight rail siding 2021-07-23 15:11:50

Track along the freight rail siding looking North with Melbourne Container Park in the background 2021-07-23 15:29:28

Facing South West overlooking the old 'Huntsman Refinery Site'. 2021-07-23 15:35:30 — Facing South West overlooking the old ‘Huntsman Refinery Site’. 2021-07-23 15:35:30. Soon to be a major infrastructure site.

Melbourne Grand Prix infrastructure storage 2021-07-23 15:40:36

Pile of stone used as filler 2021-07-23 15:41:23 — Texture, of a pile of stone used as filler 2021-07-23 15:41:23

Atop a rail siding overlooking Melbourne facing south east 2021-07-23 15:36:47

CBD Skyline with Melbourne Grand Prix infrastructure in storage 2021-07-23 15:48:00

Stony Creek and Environs looking West 2021-07-23 15:58:56

Wright Street, Sunshine. Facing North East. Sunbury Train line in the background. 2021-07-23 16:04:52

The whole experience was definitely one of heightened senses, visual, aural and olfactory. This in my mind made the journey one that was entirely psychogeographic, even if only partially aimless.

Some changes are occurring in this area also. I have walked this area on and off since moving to Sunshine in 2000. When I next walk it, who knows? The ninth picture is about to undergo a major infrastructure project. This is one of the reasons I walked there. I shall return and use a film camera soon hopefully.

Walking in odd places.

Sunshine North, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. 2020-09-29 15:24:54

Walking during the pandemic allows me on occasion to capture rare moments in odd places. This is no exception. We have been confined to our homes and a 5 kilometre radius for what feels like an eternity now. Most of the time I have been busy working from home. The school term break was slightly different. I think these last two weeks I have walked more kilometres than in the last 2 years combined.

These freight trains a regular sight in Sunshine, however this is North Sunshine a section I rarely wander. As is often the case all I had with me was my Phone so I snapped off a handful of pictures, after processing them in Luminar 4, I chose this one.

I have Luminar “partner” account code. Clicking the above link helps me with some rewards. It’s a great replacement for Photoshop in my opinion.

Footscray Competition Outtake

I am considering entering the annual Picturing Footscray competition this year. This is an outtake. I’m still consider the brief which is, “to capture the essence of this great location during this tumultuous time, with the added challenge of respecting physical distancing and self-isolation requirements. ”