Mick Scott's People in the Park



We've just come home from the opening of an exhibition of photos in the Leichhardt Library (inside the Italian Forum), part of the National Trust Heritage Festival 2008. Mick Scott, who has lived in Leichhardt his whole life, is the maintenance officer of the suburb's main green spot, Pioneers Memorial Park, for seven years. Apart from mowing the lawns and maintaining the rose beds, Mick cultivates community: he chats to the locals who frequent the park, befriends their dogs, encourages a wind-down get-together every Friday afternoon. One local woman has been observed bringing him a regular breakfast coffee. Along with all this community nurturing work, Mick is a keen photographer, and has been snapping visitors to the park for years. Thanks to his friendship with Leichhardt resident and artist Charlie Aarons, he has got an exhibition together, and a selection of his snaps are now up on the Library walls until the end of April.

The most interesting thing about photographs of people is often what they suggest about the relationship between the subjects and the photographer. As Charlie said in her brief talk this evening, these photos 'reflect the friendships Mick has formed and the ease people feel being photographed by him'. Taken singly -- the teenage girl with The Amber Spyglass on her lap, the smiling woman in a hijab holding a handful of freshly-picked roses, the elderly Italian woman wrapped in a flag, the dozen or so dog-owners -- they are relaxed, well judged snapshots. Together they're a warmly reassuring image of community.

The opening, attended by many of the subjects of the photos, was perhaps a little too noisy for the comfort of some library patrons, but no one was complaining.















Posted: Wed - April 2, 2008 at 08:25 PM           |

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