Our Sunshine

I was up until 3am working on this — some pictures simply take a long time to “nut out”.

The whole process in general for making this image was overly complicated, which is something I’m very good at bringing on myself!

I started by using a torn cardboard mask to create an in-camera half-frame in my Holga, following Ed Wenn’s instructions at Toycamera.com.

Then I walked around Goomalling, a tiny wheatbelt town in Western Australia, where my parents have a house, looking for close-ups. The main street is a long, wide avenue, with a pub, ramshackle shops and industrial yards on one side and a railway and park full of relics from the pioneering days on the other. I also nipped out to the cemetery (I can never resist a wander through one) and the restored Slater Homestead, built in 1856.

A little planning and big dose of good luck resulted in a series of meaningful juxtapositions that will hopefully turn into six portraits of the town.

“Our Sunshine” contrasts a vintage Sunshine harvester with a statue of a “digger”, the nickname for an Australian soldier, to comment on our national pride in those who serve Australia in wars.