19 - Bowlarama

The Bondi Bowl-A-Rama is a skating event held at the Bondi Beach bowl every year in February. It brings to Sydney the best current professional skaters and also well known and loved skating veterans with plenty of prize money to be won.

I first attended it in 2012 and have been to the event every year except for 2014. Over the years I have taken a number of photographs of the skater spractising and also during the competition itself. I’ve shot 90% of the images on black and white film with a mixture of 35mm and 120 film.

Bondi Beach - Sydney, NSW (2012 - 2015)

02 - Bikes of bondi

I’m gonna take it back a couple of years to 2013. I had been living in Sydney for almost a year, residing with a relative in Vaucluse. It was a good place to start but I needed my own, proper space. So after looking around I decided that living in Bondi would be my next step. Eventually I found a free room in a two bedroom apartment living with one other girl. It was a great location; 10-15 minute walk to the beach, same distance to Bondi Junction plus close to plenty of buses. I then proceeded to spend most weekends heading down to the beach and enjoying the benefits of living so close to the ocean.

After a few weeks I noticed the amount of people riding bikes around Bondi. They were everywhere and in all shapes, sizes and makes. Then one day while admiring the view of the beach from the esplanade I noticed how nice the bikes parked along the railings looked with the sun, sand and water in the background. I took a couple of photos and thought nothing of it. When I eventually got the film back from the lab, I realised the combination of the different elements made for a good photo. So that was how Bikes of Bondi started. A fun series that captured numerous bikes with the amazing background that is Bondi Beach.

Shot on a Mamiya 7, 80mm f4.0 lens and Kodak Portra 160 and 400 film. Developed and scanned by Richard Photo Lab in Los Angeles, California.