Elation
Elation is my first attempt at a photography project, which has germinated from a ridiculous idea I had back in 2023 to visit every single one of Melbourne’s 380 or so suburbs to take photos. The plan at this stage is to publish this project as an ongoing series of zines.
This project documents (and dare I say celebrates) my attempts as a struggling neurodivergent person to find solitude and do what I love at a remove from the noise and the mess that is humanity, in places I can identify with. ND people are not, to my knowledge, well-represented in the photography community and it means a lot to me that I play a small part in putting this right.
This project has taken me to places that don’t welcome many photographers, but I’m drawn to the unloved parts of town and I enjoy taking turns onto roads I’ve never taken before. I’d happily go anywhere to take photos, particularly if it’s where everyone else isn’t.
I don’t intend for this piece of work to form a narrative or make a grand statement about how we live (I admit I tried, but my heart wasn’t in it), but the end result will hopefully paint an honest, humble portrait of this sprawling metropolis, include many sights that go unseen. Some of them are shiny, bland, and new, escaping our gaze through their anonymity and wilful lack of charm; others are faded, neglected, taken for granted, and they go unnoticed now but we’ll miss them when they’re gone.