In 2010 I took an Australian road trip that saw me with no real plan but to drive to as many places I could to capture architecture from the Art Deco and Modernist period. The road trip took me along the Eastern seaboard from Melbourne to Cairns and I spent 5 months documenting. I took my time, travelling and documenting for many months stopping along the way to explore. Sometimes I would have places I wanted to see but so often it was about getting out of the car and walking around and coming across gems like this. It’s interesting looking back now its been 12 years since I made this trip. It brings back memories of how wonderful and inspiring this trip was for my journey as a photographer. I’ve got so many projects on the go and the road trip is one of them that I have been slowly editing. I’ve recently edited these two wonderful shop fronts, which sadly are no longer with us. The Walter David shop (closing just a year after I captured this photo) in Ballarat has had the beautiful typeface removed, whilst Pettifers that was in Kyabram has been so dramatically altered that no visual trace remains. It closed its doors after operating for some 75 years in 2015. For me this change makes the project even more relevant as time goes on as I wonder how many more buildings on this road trip have been altered or even demolished. I am sure many remain but so much changes over our lifetimes and it reminds me of how nothing is constant and the pursuit to document must carry on as an important record for posterity. I feel a real urgency to document the built landscape that surrounds us as it may seem everyday and with us right now, but inevitably things will change and all we have are photographs to remind us of what once was. I will be adding more memories and photographs from my 2010 road trip here. Once I have edited some more I will add a project gallery too.
The importance of photography and the role it plays in memory are so important to me. These two shop fronts on my 2010 road trip have seen been altered. The photographic record provides an invaluable record for how things once were. The Walter Davis store operated for over 90 years in Ballarat, Victoria
Pettifer’s store operated for some 75 years and closed in 2015. The beautiful typeface and Art Deco lines have all since been removed. Pettifer’s Store - Kyabram