I’ve read The Wind in the Willows too many times and the net result is I love messing around in and on boats and water anywhere. Thus I wound up wandering around a small fishing village, Teluk Bahang, on the north west corner of Penang Island off the west coast of the Malay peninsula.  I’d spent a couple of hours schlepping around jetties and colourful wooden boats, inhaling fishy smells, making friends with scabby dogs and slick cats while exchanging laughs with sinewy boat crews as I tripped over heaps of nets, ropes and unfathomable tackle. Narrow tidal creeks were bordered … Continue reading Messing Around in Boats (and Laundry)

There’s been a temple ceremony in Padang Bai, a small ferry port in Bali, for the past couple of weeks. It is held once very twenty or thirty years to clear any bad spirits away. Today is the final day so we’re probably safe now. These kids, dressed as guards, spotted me with a camera and asked for pictures to be taken. As they were heavily armed I couldn’t refuse. #Bali #indonesia #temples #hindutemple #buddhism #photojournalism #photoreportage #flaneurmagazine #rogergarwoodphotojournalist Story and photographs © Roger Garwood 2022 Continue reading Defending the Temple

I’ve known him for years but have no idea of his name. We sit and chat and don’t understand a single word of each others’ language. But Cowman as I refer to him in my mind spends his life tending to his small herd, four of them and, currently two calves. His cows live in a small homemade shed propped up beside the pathway which leads to a local beach. Most mornings I try to take a few bananas to feed the ‘Daisies’, skin-on is their preference. I call them all Daisy and they are the healthiest cows I’ve seen. … Continue reading … ’til The Cows Come Home

There’s not a great deal more satisfying than strolling around with a camera and shooting up the neighbourhood.  I’ve recently, in fact for a long time, found the work of many photographers inspiring. Simon Cowling for his precise graphic images and Brett Leigh Dicks for his style and projects which involve exploring anything from deserted prisons to atomic test sites and more recently lunch bars. My preference is for pictures which are complex, where colours, textures and graphic content attempt to make a simple image but don’t quite get there. I like to disobey the conventional rules and do aim … Continue reading Exploring the ‘hood, Bali style

Brett Leigh Dicks’s favourite photograph in his Lunch Bars of Perth exhibition makes him homesick for California and the Mojave Desert. It’s the quality of the Great Victoria Desert light framing the Hay Street, Kalgoorlie lunch bar that creates the feeling. Brett’s exhibition of over 40 images evokes a sense of delight alongside an appetite for Aussie burgers, meat pies, chips and international fare. Each lunch bar’s character is unique, shaped by owners and staff, menus, locations, signwriters … and local customers. Brett’s photographs illustrate colourful sparks of life in bland urban landscapes, serving up humour, whimsy and intrigue amongst … Continue reading Brett’s Lunch Bar Adventure

It was a sweltering dog day afternoon with many hounds deciding to be carried through the crowds at George Street’s 13th annual festival.  Thousands of people celebrated the Plympton village event, returned after the Covid cancellation of 2020. Music was at the forefront over three areas. The Music Hub and Sewell Street stages featured established artists while the expanded Glyde Street Youth Stage hosted emerging solo performers and bands supported by an audience of mums, dads, dogs, teachers and festival goers.  Sustainability was a strong theme. Stallholders offered eco-friendly Christmas gifts of potted plants, bee hotels and handmade clothing. Green … Continue reading George Street Festival