Grid Project with Magnum
A collaborative documentary project between RMIT University and Magnum Photos, under the helm of Dr. Christopher Stewart.
We were each briefed with a small grid section of Melbourne, within or close to, Melbourne’s city limits. I visited daily, for a month in 2010.
My grid was in South Melbourne: A section that was already quite familiar to me; the South Melbourne markets and its growing, gentrified borders.
Two streets over and a world away, sits Park Towers, a high-rise public housing estate: A relic of another era and indicator of another existence entirely.
From 2014 to 2017, ambulances were called to Park Towers every second day. Overdoses, head injuries, lacerations, attempted suicides and traumatic injuries were listed as common reasons. Assaults and deaths also. Over the same period, police attended every day and often more frequently.
The poverty and disadvantage was simultaneously somewhat hidden and bubbling furiously, almost always overflowing. Sounds and signs of violence were constant. The mood could swing and drop in a mere moment.
Collaboration with Mark Powell and RMIT
Behind The Scenes with nicole marie
Hi, Nicole here. This is a little behind the scenes info on this project, to provide some context for you to enjoy the imagery more closely.
Grid was a project I created as a photography student at RMIT, with Magnum Photos. We were each given a tiny grid from a street map of Melbourne to document and create a story from.
Sometimes in photography, limitations like this are really useful in creating a project. It provides focus. I really loved travelling to my grid each day, walking around, becoming familiar, embedded, peeling back that first layer to find more. I was drawn back to these commission housing towers, again and again. They were filled with life and drama and realness. It also felt like this little area was being consumed by its gentrified neighbourhood. I wanted to tell its story before it disappeared completely.
Thanks for taking the time to listen in today. If you’d like to chat about your upcoming projects with me, please call me or e-mail me through my contact page. Love to hear from you.
Grid Project with Magnum
Nicole Marie Photography
