2022-10-09 - small moments of clarity in the Western Lands.

On Friday arvo I hopped on a bus and then another bus in order to visit an old friend’s photography exhibition.

This one was out in the Western Lands of Deer Park, which hold a level of interest for me given that we’d pass through it on the way to Bacchus Marsh airfield on many a Saturday morning, long before the ring roads and bypasses made for a shorter, less interesting journey. Much as this friend has often done over the years, I had one of those moments on the bus where I saw a great photo opportunity out the window, and madly wrote down a reminder to come back and take it on film at a later date, when the sun’s in the right place. In this particular case, it’s another small moment of emptiness encapsulated in a wall - where the blank realm leaked out in to the everyday. I’ll get back there this week, for sure - these moments haven’t happened often lately, to the point that I wonder if either I’ve lost the “feeling”, or that I just need to give up and accept that my phone’s the only camera I’ll ever really use in future. I appreciate how different cameras help you take different kinds of photos, and I hope I can maintain some level of participation in the world of film photography.

If you have time, do go and see Stuart Murdoch’s all-analogue photography exhibition, covering a little over 30 years of travels in the western suburbs, right here:

https://www.brimbank.vic.gov.au/arts-and-culture/hunt-club-community-arts-centre

Now playing:

Stareside, by Billow Observatory.

Also, you should try these “ring” buses some time, they’re ace:

https://www.ptv.vic.gov.au/route/13690/903-altona-mordialloc/