A visit: Uma Curry & Roti, a Haymarket curry house run by refugees & asylum seekers

It’s 12.30pm on a Wednesday, and May Sally Win, culinary maestro of Parliament on King is crisping up roti’s for lunch as a queue of patrons grows outside. But this is not their usual Erskineville headquarters; instead we’re at Uma Curry & Roti, Parliament’s new Haymarket outpost, and the crowd is more neon-lit corporate than breezy inner-west. Nestled in the middle of artisan food court Maker’s Dozen at Darling Square, Uma marks a significant new chapter in Parliament’s social enterprise project, the International Shift. Aside from providing hospitality training for refugees and asylum seekers, they’d also run a catering arm …

Catalina & Adelene

Shot in April, 2017 as part of a series for William Blue College of Hospitality & Concrete Playground. Catalina Fuentes, junior sous chef at Papi Chulo, Manly:   Adelene Stahnke, co-owner of Bang Street Food:

Flavours of Auburn

Things have been crazy here in Kimberley town. In between moving my studio to Redfern, working on OBSCURA, shooting the Maasai Cricket Warriors (more on that later) and all my non-stop (but super awesome) work with the likes of Broadsheet, there’s been very little time to breathe. But every now and then I get a gig that completely reinvigorates my love for photography, and this past month working on a cultural tourism campaign with Auburn Council has done just that. Auburn is one of the most (if not, THE most) interesting suburbs in Australia. With an incredibly diverse range of …

Local Family Dinner @ Parliament on King

Local Family Dinner is a sometimes weekly, sometimes monthly social enterprise dinner held at Parliament on King, a cosy little cafe on the south end of King Street, Newtown. The dinners are always hearty, tasty vegan-friendly meals cooked and hosted lovingly by asylum seekers and refugees, and I was assigned by Broadsheet about a year ago to shoot a story on them. Having conceived a similar idea back in my uni days and feeling super bummed about this country’s beyond-shitty treatment of refugees and asylum seekers, I was incredibly inspired by what owners Ravi and Della have done and decided …

Calcutta/Pieter Ten Hoopen workshop 2015

I was in Calcutta last month to take part in a workshop organised by the Lighthouse with twice World Press photo winner, Pieter ten Hoopen. I learned a whole lot in the short 5 days of the workshop, and being in the company of other like-minded photographers was incredibly refreshing to say the least. The workshop was also a good reason for me to finally visit India, and it was both nothing and everything I expected. Some work I produced from the workshop: 1. Chandni Chowk 2. Maidan As is always the case when one travels, the company is what …

Black Anzac Mural & Coloured Diggers March, ANZAC Day 2014

This April I’ve been working with my good mate Hugh aka (@_hego in Instagramland), who’s a street artist with a background in architecture and strong interest in social inequality issues (as do I). His buzzword these days is #magneticstreetart; however for ANZAC day he wheatpasted a 6m tall black and white image of an Aboriginal soldier at the historic block in Redfern. Amazing. You can see a sick timelapse of the whole process by Stationary Movement here. The mural, entitled ‘Black Anzac’, is visually stunning, makes a strong statement and absolutely can’t be missed. The installation coincided with the week …

Choice

Alot of things happen during my shoots that I always mean to share, but I tend to get caught up doing other things so I always forget to blog about it. But hey, I’ll give it another go. I know we all hear it and secretly know it, but it’s so easy to forget that the attitude you choose can (and probably will) dictate how your day goes. I’ve been having a terribly stressful time of late trying to cope with settling into a new house, getting uni assignments done, doing family-related things and balancing all that with photography work. …