Saturday, October 18, 2008

Sydney Life

I had a fabulous afternoon this afternoon with young master O'Brien. He'd booked us in to take part in the curated walk of the "Sydney Life" photographic competition exhibition, part of the Art & About public arts festival that is on around Sydney at the moment.

The entries in the competition have been printed as a series of 22 huge outdoor canvasses, and mounted between the beautiful giant fig trees of Hyde Park. A wonderful setting for a public exhibition, particularly on a beautiful summery day. The curator spoke about each picture, and the photographer, and a number of the photographers were on hand to discuss their works. Fantastic! It was quite inspiring and really made me consider putting an entry in next year. Nothing ventured, nothing gained and all that.

The Setting (And The Cute Extra That Walked Into Frame):

The Setting (And The Cute Extra That Walked Into Frame)
The lovely avenue of old figs (some sadly to be replaced because of disease), and the cutie patootie in the pink tee with the hot pecs. Both of which make for a nice photo.

The Lighting:

The Lighting
The giant Chinese lanterns have been added recently, for the night noodle markets currently being put on in the park Mon-Fri evenings.

The Subjects, The Photographer, The Curator & The Other Photographer:

The Subjects, The Photographer, The Curator & The Other Photographer
One of the most striking photos in the exhibition was a birth photo, taken about 15 seconds after birth. The subjects (left) and the photographer (centre) were on hand to talk about the picture.


The Documentary Film Maker:

The Documentary Film Maker
This cute bearish guy was shooting footage for a documentary, as I heard him explaining to one of the photographers while arranging to shoot an interview.

The Happy Accident:

The Happy Accident
I love the way the elements in the picture, the wires and the foliage, and the elements in the setting are echoed in each other. And Centrepoint Tower is the third landmark that instantly marks a photo as a Sydney photo (aside from that bridge and that opera house).


The Audience:

The Audience
Quite a crowd gathered by the end of the walk, as well as 4 or 5 of the photographers who participated by talking about their photos.

Afterwards James and I grabbed a bite to eat, walked around the city for a while, sat in the park and chatted, visited another gallery exhibition by a gay artist held in a decrepit public lavatory (true!), dodged a brass band (also true!), and then found ourselves having a couple of afternoon beers at Sydney's Leading Bisexual Bar (the Gaslight)... at least, that's its reputation. (I'm not sure we spotted any real live bisexuals. But, who can tell?)

Sydney Life, indeed. I love it here.

[Check out the great post James has written about this afternoon!]

3 comments:

Tom said...

Sounds like a great afternoon!

You know I agreed with your verdict on the pink t-shirt man... until I clicked through to see him bigger on your flickr... Pecs or man-boobs? I think further investigations might be required and the subject might have to remove his shirt for the jury! :P

jason said...

Wow....it looks so lovely there!
(and you should totally submit a photo there)

The Other Andrew said...

Tom, it was a great afternoon... and trust me, those ARE pecs. Very nice ones.

Jason, it is. Hyde Park is lovely, and in the heart of the city. Kind of like a much smaller Central Park I guess. It was a gorgeous warm day too. I had 30+ sunscreen on and still got a tiny bit of sunburn, but them I'm pale and burn easily.