Since Harriet spent the last weekend of February in New Zealand, I had the opportunity to geek-out and take my camera for a ride across town. My partner in crime for all things photography-related is Philli. She has a good heart, a good eye and an excellent shutter finger. All three come in handy for a photo walk.
Our assignment for the day was to take pictures of street art. Melbourne is supposed to be the capital of street art in Australia. According to the Wikipedia:
Throughout the 1970s and 80s much of the city’s disaffected youth were influenced by the graffiti of New York which subsequently became popular in Melbourne’s inner suburbs and along suburban railway and tram lines. Melbourne was one of, perhaps the first, major city to embrace stencil art, leading to the naming of Melbourne as the “Stencil Graffiti Capital” and increasing public awareness of the concept of street art.
We did our research and found a Google Map (the Everfresh guide to Melbourne Street Art) that provided more locations than we could have possibly managed to take photos of in a day. We started at Flinders Street Station and made our way through the CBD taking lots of pictures. There were a couple of lessons that I learned along the way:
- Don’t go out shooting in mid-summer in the middle of a hot day. No matter how heat resistant you think you are, the sun will wear you down. However, since most street art locations are in shady areas, the light is typically quite good. I reckon the best days to take photos will be … as usual … overcast days.
- The better the street art, the worse the smell surrounding it. I have just a small sample, but I have to say, the best pictures were taken when my gagging reflex was just about to kick in.
- People are nice. If you ask them whether it would be OK to take a picture of them, they usually respond in a friendly way. Even if they decline the request.
In the end it was quite an exhausting day, but well worth it. Below are a couple of the pictures we shot. Since Melbourne has a lot more street art on offer, this will not be the last time Melbourne’s worst smells will assault my nostrils.
