Photographing Civic Station to Steel St, Newcastle West
Never before have I seen so many signs informing me where I can not park, or that the area I am in is under 24 hour video surveillance. This section of Newcastle West is the epitome of our city - thriving businesses contrasted with vacant blocks and run-down buildings. Last week I heard Newcastle artist Trevor Dickinson speak at Look Hear. He described his imagery of Newcastle as a documentation of the truth of the city rather than presenting it as a glossy magazine holiday destination, and that resonated with me a lot. That isn’t to say that Newcastle doesn’t have some beautiful locations, but there is always the other side of the coin. There is a certain aesthetic quality to the dilapidation, but one can only hope it is not destined to be like that forever. I suppose we can always fill the empty blocks with more KFC.
Each week “The Grid” features photos of a selected area of the Newcastle & Hunter region, capturing moments that might otherwise go unnoticed.
The guys from the sour dough bakery did a good appraisal of the state of Newcastle west in their blog http://sourdoughbakercoop.blogspot.com/2011/07/mainstreet-evolution-in-west-end.html, I would love to see some of their suggestions taken seriously.
Hi Ben, great photos of a difficult area. It was great meeting you on friday night at NFW. Looking forward to seeing some of the shots you got. Cheers, Laure.