Neighbourhood

[vc_row row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”full_width” text_align=”left” css_animation=””][vc_column][vc_column_text]As part of our collaboration with Elizabeth St gallery, FLINT is curating the work of their amazing photographers from their Autumn show.

The Elizabeth St gallery does away with the confines of sterile & perfectly lit white walls for the grime of inner city streets illuminated by natural and street lighting. With the aim of rejuvenating Sydney’s Elizabeth St and its surrounding cultural vacuum, by allowing the public to look into a mirror to see repressed realities, and other worlds at their feet.

Neighbourhood by Tom Williams is an incredible long form photographic documentary, with a refreshing honesty and humane way of presenting the subject. Since 2004 Tom has been documenting the people that call the Department of Housing towers home in Redfern and Waterloo home.

The Department of Housing towers in Redfern and Waterloo are not skyscrapers, but emerge into visibility throughout central and southern Sydney as skyscrapers would. This place is a central one for the aboriginal communities of the metropolis although uncountable paths have also led here from around the world.

“I’ve spent a long time inside these buildings and with this project, partly because I get wrapped up in hearing peoples’ stories: stories that might be found in many places but not often so densely packed within one city block or one neighbourhood” says Tom.

Melissa Logan at her Aunt Elma’s flat in Redfern.  She lived in another public housing unit with her father and cousins around the corner but they had to vacate shortly before Christmas in 2007 when their building was about to be demolished.

Tony Randall served in the Australian army in Vietnam for four years. He lived on the 22nd floor of the Turanga highrise (in Waterloo) after briefly working as a guard and spending most nights over two years in a park.  September 2007.

Cyndelle on the phone to her mother, who has custody of her young daughter.  October 2007.

Redfern, 2010

Phoenix with newborn Charles, Waterloo 2012.

The ninth anniversary of TJ Hickey’s death in Waterloo in 2004.  Two of TJ Hickey’s sisters (Cynthia, left, and Rebecca, on the right), march with other family members, friends and supporters towards NSW Parliament House to hand over a petition demanding a fresh inquest into TJ’s death.  It is alleged that at least one police vehicle was chasing him when his bike crashed and he was impaled on a fence at the base of the Turanga tower.  TJ’s death caused a reaction in the community that has been labelled the ‘Redfern Riots’.

Redfern, 2012

Redfern, 2008

George Tino, Redfern 2008

Tom Williams is a photojournalist, documentary and editorial photographer. Based in Australia. Check out Tom’s portfolio here: tomwilliamsphotos.com

If you are in Sydney or plan to visit the city soon, check out the Elizabeth St gallery. You can find info about them and directions to the exposition here: Elizabeth St gallery.

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