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.
These are Scotty's images from Newcastle to Sydney in 2003.
Below are Notes for the Archives!
Putting together these archives means that I have connected again with some of my "Lost" pre facebook Friends. It's good to know that folks like Ruben are alive and happy. Sadly, many people have passed away in recent years, some without anyone bothering to tell me about, which is one of the reasons why I decided to provide these archives to provide a memorial to lives lived.
I also put my money where my mouth was and made a large donation of images plus a collection of Lorenzo Monti's hand crafted jewellery with many very special OPI Veils and documents to West Pride, the LGBTQ Archives of WA, held at the Murdoch University Library. I have not been sent a thank you from West Pride for this so I do not know if the very expensive items are viewable or not, but that I guess says something about the status of manners in Perth!
The Dear Leaders & Groomers of the LGB, HIV and Trans Community in WA don't like me saying this, but their approach to community development based around small cliques of fighting factions, political machinations, tyranny and bullying has undermined the LGBTQ Tourist Industry. The annual west to east migration of graduating students has become an annual brain drain and led to the creation of a bit of a beautiful looking shithole when it comes to the level of cultural abundance of the LGB, HIV & Trans Communities.
I believe the toxic political machinations that infect LGB HIV & Trans Community Groups with the trickle downed widespread usage of bad manners including the distasteful sexual credit scoring displayed towards newcomers and visitors, plus a better mannered heterosexual community, equals the reason why the Majority of young LGB & Trans People & newly diagnosed HIV+ People, take a look & decide they have better lives outside the LGB, HIV & Trans Community. Ergo the problem of ageing means that many LGBTQ will simply cease to exist in the years to come as those who might have been willing to take on the mantle are being excluded from participation by the Gravy Train Mentality of Ageing Leadership Groups.
If you speak languages other than English then you will find many bad reviews online. In Sydney & Melbourne, where I worked as an ESL Teacher we had many Asian Students relocate colleges because of what they described as mistreatment they had experienced in Perth's LGB, HIV & Trans Community. I saw with my own eyes how visiting Asian Men were ignored by the locals and others "mobbed" in a new meat syndrome, then ignored, once the bets in the race for first bedding were paid out by the "bookies"!
I also know stories of and witnessed how HIV+ Gay Men coming to Perth would be first considered hot and then once they disclosed their HIV Status I saw how like a bushfire the "news" would sweep through the HIV negative community and backs would be turned, which says much about the commodification that is inherent in the hyper sexualised culture that has been normalised in the LGB, HIV & Trans Leadership Community. And paid for by AIDS funding that were supposed to have been used to support PLWHA?
It's an open secret, that if you are not born and bred in one of the cliques or don't have lots of money then Perth's LGBTQ Scene is not very inclusive. BUT the LGBTQ Media and their allies along with the LGB, HIV and Trans Leadership Community are engaged in a conspiracy to ensure that in the (English) publications only good news is reported!
Too many travellers have come to Perth and experienced the cold shoulder and the meat market approach to dating visitors and returned back to their own countries with bad reviews. Why do you think ESL Colleges employ Speakers of Languages other than English to monitor their reviews in Overseas websites?
I say this because it explains why no one I met overseas or over east seems to want to come to Perth. Wayne Ostler famously visited for Pride in 2006. That was the one where it is alleged that 2 Pride Committee Members had a punch up in the toilet at the Party and I think it was the one where the allegation where the free drink vouchers were taken by someone and shared amongst their friends resulting in a mess?
Wayneio might have had stories to tell about Perth but I'm not sure he went around Melbourne telling people to go visit fantastic Perth! I say this all because, I've often flown to Sydney or Melbourne to meet friends from Overseas who have bypassed Perth on their travels and it was the experience of bullying that led me to retire from taking free photographs for the Community.
I feel that the LGB, HIV & Trans Communities Leadership Group's collective failure, to eliminate the nasty bullying and toxic culture that exists beneath the thin veneer of civilisation and that destroyed the diverse and cultural abundance of the pre AIDS era, in which there was spaces for all sorts and where people looked out for people, deserves to be held accountable in the archives of history.
James Rendell, President of Fagmedia and Chairperson of CADT Photography.
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