These #photographs contain the story of Scotty in Sydney that according to the meta data of the images happened in the Spring of 2003! Clearly, these photos along with the other CADT Photography archives show that this was a very productive photographic time.
Above: These are James' images from Sydney resulting from walk arounds wth Scotty, displayed for narrative context, Below, are the images that provide evidence for the existence of a very handsome man!
Speaking personally, and not officially on behalf of Fagmedia, I would like to write a few words to go with these galleries, for the archives.
I met Scotty when I was living temporarily in Sydney after I moved there when I completed University. I remember meeting him in a video store bookshop in Kings Cross.
Scotty had only recently recovered from a serious bout of illness - with the big C and so he was putting his life back together and getting used to not living in the shadow of a potential funeral. I was adjusting to my own health issues while starting out as a journey of being a photographer focused on creating Images of Nature and Landscapes and documenting the Landscapes of People in Communities, so Scotty and I were not exactly on the same page!
I have always remembered Scotty and it was great to spend quality time with him during the Spring of 2003. Scotty indulged my photographic obsessions and so together we jumped on ferries from Darling Harbour and walked around Sydney where I collected images of Sydney life.
We jumped on the bus and went out to the beach where I captured another side of life in Sydney. In the first of many great road trips, I travelled up to Byron Bay by train and hired a car to drive around and decided to drive back to Sydney along the coast road which is a pretty cool thing to do. I rang Scotty and he caught the train to Newcastle where we spent the weekend checking out the sights and checking out the local bars.
I have very fond memories of Newcastle and the photographs help me to remember the late afternoon we spent watching the wind surfers by the beach with the sun setting. I think the picture of Scotty, above, on the hillside at Newcastle is one of my favourites and it has been utilised in many Fagmedia publications.
Every time I jump in a car and do a road trip to take photographs I think of my first trip down the coast of NSW and the time in Newcastle. Scotty was kind, generous and very funny. My life has been often surrounded by trauma from seriousness that came from work and academia so in Spring 2003, Scotty showed me how to be more light hearted.
Scotty told me how we need to not pick up and carry the baggage of other people and the shit things that happen to us in life. I don't know how well I learned this lesson but Scotty turned out to have been right about a lot of things!
We might have had digital cameras in 2003 but there was no facebook or social media like we have today. Interestingly for me, I joined facebook in 2008 when I was in Buenos Aires, Argentina! Keeping in touch with people who I met while travelling was a challenge that meant that I lost touch with many people.
These Photographs of Scotty are not studio images and they do not pretend to be anything but what they are. They were made with a Nikon Coolpix Camera which was one of the digital cameras available before the release of the D70.
I re-discovered Scotty's set of photographs from Newcastle and the Beach that he gifted to me. Now, as a veteran documentary image maker, I am able to read these images much better than as a recent graduate from Uni.
There is that old "lost innocence of youth" inherent within these images. At the top are the very fine images that I captured of our Sydney wanderings. Seeing them again enabled me to re-see the journey we took together which was very pleasant. Like other archives, the revisit, has been a somewhat bittersweet experience because it's probably so, that I might never know what happened to Scotty but I pray he has had a great life and is happy where ever he is now! If someone knows what happened to Scotty then please let us know above or if you are Scotty then drop us a line to tell us how you are!
Looking back on a Day in my life through Scotty's images is more than a reminder but it's like a view through his eyes which is very cool so check these out on Page 2.
