Former Coles Mowbray Supermarket - Launceston

This was the former supermarket at Mowbray in Launceston and my photographic documentation of this building. I also photographed the subsequent demolition and development of a new Coles building on the same site.

The original Coles Supermarket in Mowbray. It was briefly a Dimmys store and in this picture on the wall there is a council demolition notice for the building of the new store.

Documenting for me often includes photographing the demolition and rebuilding process so as to provide context to the evolution of the site over its lifetime.

The original design dates from the circa late 1960s/70s and was typical of supermarket construction during the mid 20th Century. Supermarket chains in Australia often began as more humble affairs located within the central business district. In Launceston both Coles and Woolworths were located in Brisbane Street Mall. After the Second World War population boomed in Tasmania as did suburban expansion which pushed housing out like never before. Couple this with the boom in car sales the design and locations of grocery store chains took on an entirely new design to support this new suburbia.

The Coles Supermarket in Mowbray was one of these new building designs and some other examples in Launceston included the original Coles in Kings Meadows (since demolished) as well as the Kmart shopping Plaza on the edge of the CBD off Boland Street. The supermarkets were often designed with sun filled glass frontages and ample parking, often the parking being many times larger than the store itself. I really enjoyed the design features of the Mowbray Coles with its large awnings typical of the era, the tiles as well as the textured brickwork on the street front. The security grills in the upper windows were a delight too, and similar designs can be seen on domestic fences and interior balustrades of homes from the era. If you look up at the Myer building in Launceston there used to be a café on the top floor, the original railings still remain and are designed in a similar style to this period. I remember photographing the demolition of the Mowbray store and there was the security grill bent and skewed, I wish I could have salvaged it!

The process of documentation of our built environment is so important to me, so that there is a record for posterity. I often look at the works of photographers who I admire such as Stephen Shore and they mention that what they were photographing themselves in the 1960s and 1970s was everyday, decades later it takes on new meanings to new generations as well as a sense of nostalgia. I often think about people who when I am out and about look to say why on earth would you photograph *insert building here* but we are but specs in time and I believe the places and buildings we see and experience are part of what shapes us and our memories. Collectively as a series and as a larger body of work documenting the built environment I feel a sense or duty and urgency to document out built environment before its lost and if not captured just a memory that fades away.

The security grills in the upper windows were a delight too, and similar designs can be seen on domestic fences and interior balustrades of homes from the era.

This perspective of the rubble from the demolition of the original supermarket provided a visual end to the building with all the rubble but the original period mid century grill in the foreground made this photograph for me, a direct connection to the aesthetic of the building amongst the random strewn pieces of building material

The redeveloped Supermarket

The Inspiration that travel provides for the Tasmanian Art Deco & Modernism Project

I recently undertook an interview with the the ABC on the Tasmanian Modernism and Art Deco project and how the project is now nearing 20 years. I’ve been reflecting on my travels documenting our built environment in Tasmania. I was reflecting on how much travelling and being inspired by what I found around me, not just in Tasmania, but on mainland Australia and overseas. I remember early on in my photography when documenting the now demolished 10 Murray Street Government offices I became good friends with the Architect, Dirk Bolt. I remember sharing my photographs with him of his design and his words of encouragement really inspired me to carry on documenting not only 10 Murray Street but the built environment at large. I remember documenting his other buildings in Tasmania as well as going on a roundtrip throughout Australia documenting as I went from Melbourne up to Far North Queensland as well as a list of buildings Dirk Bolt designed in Canberra from residential, university and commercial buildings. I still love travelling and documenting the built environment, the buildings may be physically removed from Tasmania but the connections in terms of design styles, architects and history all come together to inform my photography.

ABC National News Feature for Tasmanian Art Deco & Modernism Project!

I recently had an interview with ABC Hobart about the The Tasmanian Art Deco and Modernism project, my photography and what next for the project. Happy to have head the online feature which also made the national online news today! View the interview here

10 Murray Street Government Offices prior to demolition

This capture I made of the now demolished 10 Murray Street was close to the end of its life. The hoarding had already starting going up and it wouldn’t be long before the crane would be raised and the building demolished. I can remember driving in the dark to capture many of my last photos as the light on 10 Murray was amazing and had the streets to myself. I had been inside the building documenting the spaces as they were, the next time I would go inside the building would be in the process of being demolished, it was an impactful and emotive photo project. I had spent over a decade documenting 10 Murray Street getting to become friends with the Architect Dirk Bolt. His correspondence about the building and his design were invaluable and inspired my photographic journey as an architectural photographer. For the first time this photograph is available as a limited edition fine art print in various sizes and printed on archival cotton rag paper, signed and numbered. Check out the website for this print and many more from the project www.tryanphotos.com/store