Suburbia

the familiar and forgotten
Warren Kirk

‘Kirk [is] creating is an archive of how Melbourne once looked. What that picture will look like in another decade or two is anyone’s guess. For Kirk it is about documenting a particular reality but it’s also creating objects of beauty.’

Kerrie O’Brien, The Saturday Age

‘His new book, Suburbia, is full of quirky finds.’

Ross Bilton, Weekend Australia

View all reviews

‘Part archivist, part archaeologist, Kirk is motivated by a desire to bring hidden beauty to the fore and, in doing so, stop it from being lost forever.’

ABC

‘From the dingy Chinese takeaway, the quirkily clipped hedges and formica tables, to the cluttered speciality stores and faded weatherboard, Kirk’s photographs are so vivid you can practically smell the fried food, lawn clippings and motel-room mustiness wafting off the page.’

Sally Pryor, The Canberra Times

‘I was instantly in awe of his ability to distil oft overlooked scenes of our vast city. These vignettes of life in the ‘burbs illicit a distinct sense of nostalgia.’

The Design Files

‘It’s a nostalgia-soaked coffee table book ... A time capsule.’

Smith Journal

‘Kirk’s imagery is strikingly evocative, at times achingly nostalgic, and at others unexpected and strange as he moves between ’50s-era kitchens in Ringwood, hair salons in Murrumbeena, elaborate Brunswick backyards and empty grocery stores in Northcote. It’s a beautiful and stoic collection of time-weathered workplaces, cars and faces; a study in forgotten typography; and a chronicle of buildings that gentrification forgot – or just hasn’t discovered yet.’

Ellen Fraser, Broadsheet Melbourne

‘In Suburbia, antiquated barbershops and vacant shopfronts rub up against the kitsch and the colourful in a collection that invites the eye to drift through suburbs from all points of the Melbourne compass.’

Star Weekly

‘His new collection of photos, Suburbia, is affectionate but precise, and documents a community in evolution. The sentiment that flows through his image is a balm to the knowledge that time is passing and things will change. These photos are luminous and incandescent, like a light bulb burning brightest just before the element goes.’

William McInnes, Assemble Papers

From the photographer behind the acclaimed Westography

The sentiment that flows through these images is a balm to the knowledge that time is passing and things will change — William McInnes.

Warren Kirk's photos will strike a chord with anyone who's grown up in the Australian suburbs in the past 50 years. Somehow both achingly familiar and unimaginably strange, these luminous images continue his 30-year project of documenting a way of life that is slowly disappearing, along with the people who lived it.

Taken with loving attention and considerable skill, and with the utmost respect for the people and places that appear in them, Kirk's photos of shops and houses, of gardens and lounge-rooms, of people surrounded by the things they love, are beautifully evocative and powerfully nostalgic.

Kerrie O’Brien, The Saturday Age

‘His new book, Suburbia, is full of quirky finds.’

Ross Bilton, Weekend Australia

View all reviews

‘Part archivist, part archaeologist, Kirk is motivated by a desire to bring hidden beauty to the fore and, in doing so, stop it from being lost forever.’

ABC

Sally Pryor, The Canberra Times

‘I was instantly in awe of his ability to distil oft overlooked scenes of our vast city. These vignettes of life in the ‘burbs illicit a distinct sense of nostalgia.’

The Design Files

‘It’s a nostalgia-soaked coffee table book ... A time capsule.’

Smith Journal

Ellen Fraser, Broadsheet Melbourne

Star Weekly

Details

Format:Hardback

Size: 263mm × 297mm

Extent:160pp with incl 150–180 images

ISBN (13):9781925713114

RRP:$49.99

Pub date:29 Oct 2018

Rights Held: World

High-res cover:Download Image

ADDITIONAL MATERIAL:Download ZIP

AWARDS

2019 Victorian Community History Awards - Short-listed

CATEGORIES / tags

AUTHOR

Warren Kirk

RRP: $55.00 Pub date: 18 Oct 2021 Category: Photographs: collections Cover view

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Warren Kirk

RRP: $39.99 Pub date: 29 Sep 2020 Category: Photographs: collections Cover view

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Suburbia

the familiar and forgotten
Warren Kirk

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