dsdn 144 | a little bit of inspiration

This is a quick nod to a photographer whose blog I follow because of a mate of mine in Sydney. She recommended Tom Williams (no relation) via Facebook and I've followed his blog ever since. The areas he shoots in most are very familiar to me - Redfern in Sydney and greater Wollongong (south of Sydney). Interestingly, these two places are also forever linked in my own personal history.

Redfern 

I have lived in Redfern and passed through it almost every day of the 14 - 15 years I lived in Sydney. I have fallen in love there and have been mugged there too. Literally the best and worst of times. This photographer shoots portraits of everyday Redfern people that colour its streets. The real Redfern (whatever that is). There are some interesting urban street-scapes among the images as well. Empathy and respect are evident in all the work of his I have seen. I do not find any of it condescending or judging. It is raw and intimidating and it is exactly what you see when you go there.

These are the images among his recent postings that effectively summarise how I feel about this part of Sydney.

Bleak and threatening high-rise public housing in neighbouring Waterloo that reminds me of les cités in Paris.

...contrasting with the sense of community and belonging that is evident in this image taken in the same place

Wollongong

I have a very complicated relationship with this city and its various suburbs. For me it represents my very complicated family history. Even though I grew up in the Snowy Mountains this is where my parents met and married before I was born. I have family on both sides that still live there and I have been reminded on many occasions throughout my life that I am related to 'half Wollongong'. Still I don't know it all that well and really only got to find out a bit more about the city when my parents retired there in the nineties.

My lord, I loathed taking the train to my parents' house when they moved there. The whole experience left me feeling sad and depleted. It is not a very dynamic place to be (though I suspect this is more apparent to the outsider than the locals) and when my mum recently moved away, my sister and I were collectively relieved. 

But it is not a one-dimensional place and neither are my feelings about it. It is where my beloved father is buried. It is where most of my favourite cousins and sole aunty still reside. It is where some of my fondest childhood memories were made - learning to body-surf in the clean, clear waves of North Beach with my dad. Playing in my grandparents' back yard with my extended family at Christmas...

Anyway, Tom Williams is really good at showing us the people we'd rather not look at in Wollongong. This image is the 'space' version of those people. Even the fact that it is in colour de-romanticises the subject matter. (Rendering it in black and white would have somehow disguised the area's undesirability). I know exactly how this place smells and sounds. The smog from the steelworks' chimneys mixing with the clouds. The red tiled roof. The Holden ute in the driveway.

It is extremely evocative of this strange city. 

The omnipresent Port Kembla steelworks