After 6 months, it was Jolene’s final day in Australia. With a trip back to her home in Holland imminent, she spent time with her friend Oliver who was showing her the views around Kirribilli on a beautifully misty morning.
Sydney
100 Strangers Project - 83/100 /
What do you value in life?
"I value health and love from my friends and family. When I think about it, it makes me feel good I guess. When I am loved by my friends, by my family you know... I guess when somebody really cares about you and they are genuinely happy when you're happy and they try to help you when you're sad. For me that's love."
Thank you for taking part in the project Carmen!
100 Strangers Project - 82/100 /
What life advice would you give to your unborn child?
"Take every opportunity that comes."
Thank you for taking part in the project Julia!
100 Strangers Project - 81/100 /
Vicki had just clocked off from work and was on her way to visit her friend who was in hospital. She works with youth.
Who do you value the most in your life?
"Family and friends are really important to me. I am also very passionate when it comes to social justice, equality and diversity and I hope that one day we can all work together to ensure that everyone gets equal opportunities in life - especially when it comes to accessing housing, health and education."
Thank you for taking part in the project Vicki!
100 Strangers Project - 80/100 /
I met Santiago whilst he was on his way to work, and he was quite happy to have his photo taken late in the afternoon.
He comes from Manizales, Colombia and has been in Sydney for four months. During that time, he has spent the time balancing his studies, work and enjoying life in Sydney.
"I don't have enough time because I have to work. I study during the day, after that I have to work at night. From 7 until 11. Usually on weekends I'm tired and I try to go outside and just look around Sydney. I have a lot of pictures."
He gives an insight into how life is like for people who have come here to live here for study purposes.
"Sydney is multicultural and crazy sometimes, I think because people from other countries have to study, work, study, work and sometimes it's tiring. But it's nice. I like Sydney, I have met a lot of people here, international people from all parts of the world."
What have you found challenging about moving to Sydney?
"Sometimes it's too busy, but it's not a challenge for me. I like travelling, I like to visit new places. I work yesterday, (but) I can do a lot of things. Maybe the English is a challenge, you can improve that."
Thank you for taking part in the project Santiago!
100 Strangers Project - 79/100 /
Al is sitting on a bench enjoying a coffee on a busy street. And as I do when I discover an interesting character, I approach him to ask for a photo. He happily obliges. He tells me that recently, his niece found a picture on a website of him busking on the street and was surprised at the discovery. He tells me that he enjoys photography and that he used to get A’s in photography class back in his school days.
“I heard someone say ‘It’s a frozen moment in time.’ I really like that. If I went back through my negatives and printed one, it would still be the same person 25 years ago. Nothing would have changed.”
He tells me about how his old drinking habits:
“I don’t drink anymore, I haven’t drunk for 30 years.
I’m 71 and I feel 29. When you start drinking or taking drugs in order to cope with life, not just as a recreational thing, you stop growing emotionally. I started taking drugs at 21 and then 27 started drinking and I thought I was a genius! I was going to write a book about how to beat drugs: Just drink alcohol…” he laughs, “and it slightly backfired.”
And expresses his love of the Beatles:
“Recently I just bought my 50th anniversary of Sergeants Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. I remember buying it in 1967 along with Dylan’s Blonde on Blonde, but I haven’t heard it for 45 years. Even Jimi Hendrix sounds dated to me, as great as he was, but the Beatles’ music sounds like it was recorded last week. It’s just stood that test of time and they still sell for top dollar. Like Eric Clapton puts up a new album, 6 months later it goes down by 10 dollars. And I said over to a guy at ‘Hum On’ how come you still charge all this money for Beatles records and he said because they can… What can I say?
I used to get really smug, there was a young guy playing a Beatles album and I said ‘I bought that album in 1963!’ which is not very smug it just means that I don’t have as much time left as he has.” He laughs.
What was your perception of the Beatles back then?
“Back then they put Elvis Presley into the army and then they got ALL of these Italian guys and gave them Anglo-saxon names and they were dreadful. And the only thing we had Cliff Richard and the Shadows from England. And One day I was home I heard a Beatles song called ‘From Me To You’ and it sounded it like it was recorded in a 44 gallon drum it was just so rough and raw and I rang a friend and I just became a fan and then the album came out and I bought the album in September 1963. I recently bought George Harrison’s 'Living in a Material World' and I didn’t realise how good he was. Even the great jazz player, Les Paul said 'For every Beatles song he had a great riff,' The thing about the Beatles is that they didn’t have a virtuoso musician among them and yet they were so original. Especially when you heard it back then, it was just like: who is this? I was in a band and we used to try imitate them and after a while I said: let’s just stop singing Beatles songs.”
Al is a passionate and proud owner of 28 guitars, which he has collected throughout his life. For him it’s an addiction, “My girlfriend said to me after my second guitar: ‘If you buy any more, that’s it!’ and when I got up to 17 she kicked me out.”
Al is making plans to travel to New York in the near future to explore and to buy some more guitars! He explains to me that this is because they are cheaper to buy over there than it is over here in Australia.
Thank you Al for taking part in the project and I hope your travel plans come together soon!
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Rainbow volunteers at a local yoga school. She was introduced to the practice through her doctor as a means of overcoming her struggles with bulimia and has since been devoting much of her time to it.
She is currently completing the qualifications to become a full-time instructor with the aims of helping patients in psych wards as means of therapy.
Thank you for taking part in the project Rainbow!
100 Strangers Project - 77/100 /
"So why have you chosen me?" asked Nick.
"You seemed approachable and very casual."
"Thank you!"
This marked the very start of a quick, impromptu photo session with Nick.
Nick seemed very happy and cheerful to having his photo taken. He has family in Greece and is going away soon for a 6 week holiday. I was feeling a little bit rusty with taking portraits, but I wanted to try a technique to help. So I asked him to hold his hands out as if he was holding a giant Subway sub (something I picked up from learning portrait photography).
"Do you like Subway?"
"I do, as a matter of fact, I just had one for lunch!"
Nick helps run his family business and was on his way to take part in a course for his RCG certificate.
Thank you Nick for taking part in the project! Efcharisto!