Wall Ease

It’s More Than Just A Façade

Photographs copyright: DAVID McMAHON

Prahran is one of those wonderful Melbourne suburbs where there is something for everybody. The central strip is Chapel Street, which is the lodestone for tourists, cool shoppers, chic fashion, great gourmet experiences and some serious this-is-the-place-to-be karma.

I was driving down the street some weeks ago - which is always interesting because trams (trolley cars, to some of my American friends) run up and down the centre of the road - when I noticed this building.

Finding a parking spot on such a busy street isn’t the easiest task in the world, but I eventually tracked one down. I had to walk about a hundred metres to take this shot, so I was lucky that I had some coins in my pocket, because the machines don’t take anything else.

You can see why this small section of the building’s façade caught my eye. Apart from the manner in which someone has opted for bright slabs of colour on the exterior wall, there is another unusual element. You did notice the blue balcony rails, didn’t you?

And in the first photograph, did you notice the reflection (in the right-hand window) of the building on the opposite side of the street?

Indian Summary

A Tram's-Eye View Of A Stunning Country

Photograph copyright: DAVID McMAHON

Looks like an advertising billboard, doesn't it? Well, yes and no. Yes, it's an advertisemement. But it's actually painted across the side of a Melbourne tram. You know the feeling? You can see a great shot, you've got the camera with you - and you're in completely the wrong position and you've got literally a couple of seconds to shoot it.

There I was, stuck at a traffic light on the intersection of Dandenong Road and Chapel Street in the Melbourne suburb of Prahran. And I could see this tram coming from the opposite direction, with a stunning rendition of the great series of `Incredible !ndia' television ads. If you haven't seen the ads, they contain some amazing cinematography and of course the ad campaign substitutes the capital I in India with an exclamation mark instead.

(If you worked on the ad campaign, or know someone who did, please let me know by leaving a comment here.)

I was in the middle lane, with two vehicles between me and the tram and a schoolboy at the tram stop. Time only for one shot but strangely enough the colours across the frame somehow bleneded well, with the burgundy of both vehicles and the brick on the wall across the street.
I firmly believe in the `integrity' of an image, and I choose not to crop or enhance any photograph I take. But as an experiment, I cropped this frame to exclude most of the two vehicles and I still reckon the original frame is the stronger image.

Let me know what you think. And watch this space for a series of shots from a recent trip to India, the country where I was born and educated and where I began my career in journalism.