The genesis of “urban abstracts” began many years ago when I was a student at the then Alexander Mackie College of Advanced Education, which later became the City Art Institute.

Very quickly during weekends and semester breaks when having camera at hand I’d walk around the suburbs near the college, Paddington, Surrey Hills and Redfern all the while my eyes were drawn not to overall visual elements, but fragments, appealing shapes, forms, negative versus positive spaces, colour and texture.

The last two images at the bottom of this post are some samples of images taken on my walks around Redfern with a old RICOH XR-1s 35mm Film Camera. .

The black and white photographs taken below are all around Surrey Hills and Redfern. At that time, I developed my own films and printed them with a Rollie 6x7 and 35mm enlarger in a darkroom. Even though this method of working brought another element in connecting with this subject it is now far more environmentally friendly than using all those toxic materials.