Sydney; A black and white perspective (almost)

August 26, 2011

Sydney; A black and white perspective (almost)

Jo and I spent the last few days in Australia before flying back to Lausanne hanging out in Sydney. It's an interesting city, yawning and expanding daily towards Wollongong in the south, to the foot of the Blue Mountains in the west and Newcastle up north, via winding acres of tar and cement (to steal a song line). To the east it will never change, caressed by the might of an unpredictable Tasman Sea where it has carved out one amazing harbour and has left the remains of its labours as pristine beaches to the north and south of the city.

Downtown Sydney still ambles from Central Station and Surrey Hills down to Circular Quay, much the same has it has done in my many excursions through her streets since 1968. Circular Quay, the place where the first fleet of invading English claimed ownership after misjudging the depth of Botany Bay's water (and also overlooking the fact that Australia had been inhabited for 100,000 years), the quay has been the place where travelling passenger ships and the local ferries have made port. Its horseshoe shape still bustles with ferries and people taking journeys, or other punters just like Jo and I, wandering and watching and soaking up the liquid silver and dreaming from sun on a clear winter's day. The quay would be the best people watching place in Sydney. Combine the people traffic with the water vessels of all shapes and sizes, then backdrop it with the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House and it's easy to have an interesting day out in a cafe or parked strategically on the steps leading up to the upper decks of the Opera House. The sunshine levels on the sails of the white monolith made it a good day for black and white, with a little bit of blue (except for the poster shot).

So that's what Jo and I did.

Bonjour
Rob (back) in Lausanne

p.s. Below you can find a video of one of Sydney's successful exports to Europe, Angus and Julia Stone