Along with surveying for my current Tableaux projects, I’m always on the look out for possible locations for use in the “Conversations” project. Here is a possible location I spotted in my travels, of a suburban Melbourne light Industrial area. I can just picture in this scene a phone booth on the green verge with a bloke in workwear and a thermos in hand, a couple of 70’s - early 80’s model cars parked on the street, a factory worker getting out of her car, and maybe a kid riding down the street on a BMX or a dragster.

Conversations

Aimed to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the launch of the first mobile phone in Australia. Set in the late 1970’s early 1980’s, Conversations will be a series of fictional tableau photographs, set on locations across Australia, depicting Australians from all walks of life, using public phones. Exploring who we were and the conversations we had on these public phones. Be they simple everyday family tasks, or in relation to events of national interest or significance.

Available as Limited edition prints, a 160 page Book, and a travelling exhibition with working public phone installation.

Project update June 2022….

I have now acquired two period accurate public telephone cabinets (Phone booths), and one original telecom CT3. THere are still a few small bits of hardware that need to be acquired. For example the coach nuts that help hold the phone to the back wall of the phone booth. But still, we hav enough that some images can start to be made. So the next step in advancing the project is getting on with making some crates and means for transporting the phone booths to the selected photographic locations. The booths are fairly heavy items. And weigh even more with the phone installed. So great care will need to be taken with packing, transporting, and maneuvering the phone booths and dressing then in to the precise location with in the scene for the images to be made. Exciting times ahead. Look out for more updates as we slowly work away at this mammoth project.