Demolition

A bright moon from right of picture illuminates this factory demolition on Albert Street, Brunswick. The pole dividing the picture thrusts up through the centre of a window like a lance goring out the disused remains of local industry. It also emphasises the picture’s perspective, which alludes to a vanishing point beyond the horizon of the factory roof. The picture leaves open the question of how far the factory wall extends, and how much is still left to tear down. The chimney and air vents on the left stand straight, in defiance or support, of a building that looks certain to collapse.

This image is from my Brunswick by Night collection. Brunswick is a suburb of Melbourne’s inner north, and the collection invites you into its quiet nocturnal character. Visit danielhouse.com.au to see all the Brunswick by Night photographs.

The Grain Tower at Anstey

A disused grain tower stands above an unfenced stretch of the Upfield Line near Anstey Station in Brunswick, Melbourne. That pedestrians may walk across the open tracks lends a rural aesthetic to this inner city suburb. However, the advertisement for a weekend factory outlet sale, electric train wires, graffiti and the two-hour parking restriction, are signs of the urban environment that surrounds this area. The still sky and warm colours of the advertisement, red-toned brick, and the tower that catches the light from nearby Sydney Road, suggest the scene is caught in a perpetual sunset.

This image is from my Brunswick by Night collection. Brunswick is a suburb of Melbourne’s inner north, and the collection invites you into its quiet nocturnal character. Visit danielhouse.com.au to see all the Brunswick by Night photographs.

“Aloha”

This is an uneasy scene despite the pacific welcome and the comfort of a church-like façade. Here, at night, the Aloha’s shadowy colour matches the bushes that obscure the observer from the windows, linking the themes of exposure and concealment operating between the fore and middle grounds. The inverted commas invite scepticism about the sincerity of this geographically misplaced word. The house, however, is square to the picture frame, indicating strong foundations and sturdy construction. It is the observer who is uneasy, a quality indicated by the oblique angle of the fence over which the house is viewed.

This image is from my Brunswick by Night collection. Brunswick is a suburb of Melbourne’s inner north, and the collection invites you into its quiet nocturnal character. Visit danielhouse.com.au to see all the Brunswick by Night photographs.

Albert Street Scene

There are few comforts like a warm welcome. Here on Albert Street, Brunswick, the glow from a window suggests the viewer is expected. Framed by casing and grilles, it radiates warmth into the street like an old heater. The illuminated chimney offers the possibility of an open fire.

The chimney and yellow brick fence, and the yellow paint and the exposed beam of house opposite, frame the central window in an implied border. The contrasting green tones of the guttering and pediment of the houses left and right, and the side wall opposite, add a cooler rhythm to the picture without disturbing its stillness, and help stretch the scene out along the streets beyond its borders.

This image is from my Brunswick by Night collection. Brunswick is a suburb of Melbourne’s inner north, and the collection invites you into its quiet nocturnal character. Visit danielhouse.com.au to see all the Brunswick by Night photographs.

Minnie Street

This image is from my Brunswick by Night collection. Brunswick is a suburb of Melbourne’s inner north, and the collection invites you into its quiet nocturnal character.

Here on Minnie Street, a streetlight washes over the rolling fenders of a Morris Minor that reflects the white fence and evergreen tree at its front and rear. The strip of road, almost as high as the tyres and wheel cuttings, gives the car body the sense of being suspended; only it is caught between the footpath and the fence line.

Above, a tree shoots its first green buds into spring. Their pointillist character at the branch tips mimics the stars scattered behind it. A dark green vine traces the curve of the car’s outline to the tree, connecting the ideas of suspension, confinement and nascent liberation.

A suburban house quietly bears witness.

Go to danielhouse.com.au to see all the Brunswick by Night photographs.

Moonlight over Albert Street

This image is from my Brunswick by Night collection. Brunswick is a suburb of Melbourne’s inner north, and the collection invites you into its quiet nocturnal character.

The night is ambiguous. It is both the absence of changeable sunlight from first light to dusk, and the presence of a more stable darkness that is lit faintly by the stars and more brightly by the variable moon.

In cities and towns streetlights shine into the same parts of the streets each night with a strength that diminishes the effect of the moon and stars. They let us see the streets the same way regardless of time. They make the night constant. They render it still. Silent. In that stillness, a collection of night time images of Brunswick, a suburb of Melbourne’s inner north, invite you into its quiet nocturnal character.

In Moonlight over Albert Street, the faded duco of the 1960s Holden, the moonlit setting and the bright light towards which the car appears certain to move, it redolent of a bygone period that is about to disappear. Just as manufacturing once replaced agriculture, residential development is now replacing industry. Yet despite the pale light, the colours remain bold and strong, suggesting long-time locals still hold to the values that crafted the area.

To see the collection – Brunswick by Night – go to danielhouse.com.au