Richard Szymczuk has been photographing the urban landscape, of Geelong and region, since 1986.
He was originally drawn to the photography of the desolate, American South West, by photographers such as Stephen Shore,
Richard Misrach and Jeff Brouws. Richard’s biggest influence though, was gained through viewing American road movies
from the mid 1980s; the use of barren, abandoned and fringe locations such as in: Paris Texas, Repo Man and Blood Simple
... not forgetting the 1970s cult classic ‘Vanishing Point’.
Richard set out to see if these type of places existed in an Australian context, within his hometown environment.
What he found was similar, if not quite as architecturally flamboyant as in the USA.
In the late 1990s, it became a race against time, to record these locations before demolition.
This documenting of: abandoned petrol stations, bowsers, milk bars,
advertising billboards, naive street art...... records the disappearance of an era.
.RICHARD SZYMCZUK
Richard's Profile
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