So long, Sydney...

Home at a stately (!) midnight after the launch of the Oculi photographic collective's book commemorating their first ten years (well worth checking out!), and sleep beckons BUT there is grilled cheese and mixtapes to be made for tomorrow's roadtrip back toward Queensland.

This whole week's worth of work has been one of those "if you can't say something nice, don't say anything" situations... so suffice to say, it will be lovely to head toward home. Even better with some Grizzly Bear and the XX and Blakroc and Hall & Oates....

Tonight's event was a great celebration of the hard slog of independent photographers banding together. David Marr, who wrote an introduction to the book, tipped his glass to the irony that even some of Sydney's best photographers still called for a stringer-together-of-words to launch the book. Photographer Steven Siewert said some lovely words too, to "hereby declare this book open!" But knowing some of the guys behind this work, and the passion and dedication they have to photography, it was a privilege to be there. Seriously, can't recommend Oculi highly enough if you're a fan of photography - from Siewert's beautiful documentation of the rockabilly scene to Andrew Quilty's Kerouac-meets-the-outback travelogues and James Brickwood's burn-out-to-fade-away depictions of youth culture, and much more.

Was also a delicious bonus to catch up with my favourite boy genius journalist Erik Jensen. But, if you'll excuse me, I have driving CDs to compile.

See ya!