For the first time in a while I noticed actions, events and little moments that would not have happened a few months ago. One of which was seeing tourists waiting outside Melbourne Central. My initial instinct was to play it safe and photograph from a distance without getting their attention. However, for the purpose of this assignment I had to not worry about what others thought and muster up the courage to ask them for permission to do so for this assignment. Fortunately they were all okay and enthusiastic about being photographed in the end journey of their Melbourne stay.
As I approached them and asked for a photo all three started to put their phones away and orient themselves towards my camera whilst straightening their backs. But to their surprise, I asked them to continue looking at their phones searching for their Uber to capture this moment I initially saw from afar. After taking their photos I was curious to ask where they were from. One of them was confused when I spoke to them in English and so I had a hunch they were international tourists and I was correct, sort of. One of them told me they were all from Chile but moved to Sydney five years ago and said that they felt like living in Chile, South America at that time was not the best and moving to Sydney provided them a better life and was a lot better for them. Afterwards this made me start to think and be grateful of how lucky I am to live in Australia and not to take for granted the life I have in this country.
Moving onto my next subject for the afternoon, I found a student sitting cross legged waiting for the tram. I approached asking permission to photograph him for my assignment. The student did not adjust his posture or direct his body to the camera and instead waited in confusion for my instructions. Luckily, all I directed him to do was to keep using his phone candidly as to how he would pass time waiting for the tram in the exact same way I saw when crossing the road. I then asked questions of his thoughts about how returning to school in person was like to get that perspective from someone in primary or secondary education. He did not really go into the specifics of what he likes about going to school in person other than he “had enough staying at home.” the typical answer and nothing new which I completely get and understand. It was obvious that as I was asking the student questions to get out some sort of story, he was eager to get back on his phone and finish up talking to a stranger.
Afterwards, I was waiting at a traffic light with no idea where to walk next. However, what came to my attention was a businessman using his phone pressing a traffic light button. This moment stood out to me as it showcases that regardless before or after a pandemic, people are still cautious and wary of surfaces that are high in germs and bacteria. To me this contrasts with the previous photo I took of the student sitting cross legged on a city street and not too worried about factors like what is dirty in his surroundings that he comes into contact with.
Walking back to RMIT feeling good with the progress I made with the photos I spotted someone talking on the phone sitting at the back of a moving truck. Seeing how good the square shape of the truck fitted with the window frames behind caught my eye in its uniformity and consistency. Knowing that I would get spotted and she would move away in response, I hurriedly aligned my camera in the composition I envisioned and immediately took my photos, the last of which in my collection for this assignment.
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