Kings Cross. Credit: Damian Baker

By the NewsHooker

Hmm… been working for myself for so long, I can’t remember having a paid holiday, so I started out late last week with the intention of heading south from my hometown to Jervis Bay on the NSW South Coast.

The plan was to help bring my Dad’s yacht to Sydney along the beautiful waters of the Illawarra after meeting up with some friends in the city.

On the way I decided to camp at Peter Carett’s place (the famous Pappa of the Ratzi, previously mentioned in the NewsHooker) in Bondi to catch up and maybe angle for some paying photographic work. Peter’s a good friend and has now become a mentor and I always look forward to spending time in his company.

He’s a man who lives for his photography and his photographers. As he always says, “sure they are worth having son, see how you go.”

There’s always an opportunity for a photo shoot while staying at Peter’s place. To Peter a set (of photos) is an opportunity. His philosophy coincides with my own thinking at present, which is that life seems to be a series of sets.

The holiday can start tomorrow I thought, in any case I never seem to be able to separate work from play, no matter how hard I try.

So after a quick catch up with Peter, I ducked off to Kings Cross to see if I could find – and take some images of – the new Underbelly 3 TV series set.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t find the Underbelly film crew – the talk was they had a night off -  but at three in the morning, after shooting the Cross for hours, I started to realise that life itself was really just one big film set.

Kings Cross, Sydney. Credit: Damian Baker.

After chatting with the strippers and the hookers, the coppers and the buskers, the bouncers and the young Islander boys intent on a Friday night rampage, I’m left wondering who is real and who is not, where does the film set end and life begin?

Are we are all just playing out our little roles in life? Whether it be Sigrid Thornton (though she was obviously not to play her Underbelly role for me that night) or the strippers and hookers of the Cross, life seems more and more like it’s just one big role play. It’s just that some play harder and for keeps while others just play for kicks.

The Cross is a wild mixture of pap and film set any day of the week, some like the lenses and others avoid them. I not sure what to do with the images but as I rolled back into Bondi with a memory card full of life, I felt I had achieved something even if it was not a paying gig.

Helensburgh Mine and the Climate Camp

The next day I had a media strategy meeting at the University of Technology in Sydney with the young Climate Camp crew. After discussion of protest tactics, I rolled off down the coast to Helensburgh to do an extended reconnoitre of the coalmine where the protest action would take place.
Keen for a little industrial surveillance I found it hard to believe that I could walk around the mine for an hour, shooting anything I wanted without being so much as being asked who I was or what I represented.

However it was too good to be true and I ended up pushing my luck a little too far as I ran into the afternoon shift while I was trying to get access underground. Now I needed a story, and a good one – quickly.

So I had a bit of a chat with the boys, got an introduction to the management and after an hour or so of bullshit and good old-fashioned Aussie blarney I left behind a confused group of men trying to understand who the hell was the NewsHooker.

Helensburgh coal mine. Credit: Damian Baker.

Rushing through Wollongong  with my surveillance photos in the bag, I watched the light fade and found Dad and his crew lying up after a wild day at sea.

Ah, now I could relax and begin my holidays I thought and we sailed back into Wollongong the next day and I shot the harbour in the afternoon light.

The Lighthouse Brides

Got some nice images of the boats, shot the Saturday brides at the local lighthouse (you never know when you need a good wedding photo in your portfolio) while wondering if it really could be a girl’s very own “special day,” if you had to wait in white with five other brides for your turn under the lighthouse.

Ironic really, when the girls glam it up, be it for their new husbands or their old folks, the make up still looks the same, they smile in a familiar way and the role playing, as at the Cross, just keeps on rolling on.

Lighthouse Brides. Credit: Damian Baker.

Anyway got some nice shots over the few days I crossed the divide between hookers and virgin brides but as I sailed the ups and downs of the Illawarra coast, I was left wondering.

What does it take to fulfil the great Australian dream, can the hookers from the Cross  be carried over the threshold and attain their “white picket fence” before the blushing brides? Or will it all end in tears under the lighthouse?

Stay tuned for a NewsHooker behind the scenes look at the fashion world.

Every week theangle.org’s very own NewsHooker takes a witty or jaundiced look (depending on the assignment) behind the scenes of the sausage factory that is news reporting in this country. The NewsHooker lifts the lid of what it takes to be a successful Australian photojournalist.

Tags: Kings Cross, newshooker, paparrazzi, photography