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THE NOCTURNAL TOURIST
54 DIGITAL PRINTS & VARIOUS RUMOURS

IASKA Kellerberrin, WA, Australia, June 2001. This project is part of the ongoing Migratory Projects 2000-2006.

These images attempt to operate as a set of whispers. Taken as if they are a set of forensic archives or stills from an unknown movie set, each shot is a secret, a rumour on display. The images are intended to imply and work in unison with the living stories and narratives present within the town’s community, as well as communicate the odd detail to the passer by.

Each shot also functions as a document of the town’s design, history and social activity. A set for dramas to occur or a mute reminder of things long since gone: are they sites of significance, the mundane dramatised, or uneasy sinister scenes?

Nocturnal Tourism might be seen as an alternative to the sunny clichés often gathered when passing through a place. A town devoid of it’s people, everything becomes highly acute. Things appear to be models, perfect scenes in which lives can take place. Bricks, doors, pools, cars, living rooms, trees, toilets, water tanks, shop windows, buildings, towns and cities become scaled- up monsters.

I may have only talked to six local people during my short stay, but heard stories of millions of dollars being made off the land, fickle seasons, kids making bombs, teenagers moving on, the risks of wheat and sheep, the transition of shop owners, beauty in the landscape, hangings in trees, and houses built and inhabited only for a small time by local newlyweds.

Thanks to Donna Dransfield, Sophie O’Brien and Tony York.

THE NOCTURNAL TOURIST 54 DIGITAL PRINTS & VARIOUS RUMOURS

THE NOCTURNAL TOURIST
54 DIGITAL PRINTS & VARIOUS RUMOURS