I don't belong here

Not entirely sure why, but I love this photo. I like the composition, but mainly I think it was the incongruity of the bags of rubbish just off the designer boutique drag of William Street. As I scruffily loped through Paddington's back lanes in between gallery stops yesterday, passing pearl-strung and poodle-pouffed women and meticiously disheveled fashionistas, my mental soundtrack was stuck on that haunting children's choir cover of Radiohead's "Creep"*. I don't belong here....

I will make exceptions, however, for the London's outstanding beer garden.


Main Paddington drawcards were Blender and the Australian Centre for Photography. ACP is currently decked with exhibitions of fashion photography, my favourite being "Zeitgeist Becomes Form", a retrospective of German fashion photography from 1945-1995. It's just delicious - from Helmut Newton's cinematic dramatics, to Jürgen Teller's raw androgynes and unconventional shapes. Lots of glorious black-and-white shots, ranging from graphic modish images from the 60s to Ellen von Unwerth's decadent sapphic tableaux. Amidst the monochrome, pops of saturated colour by the likes of Chico Bialas and Christian von Albensleben were even more compelling. I think these shots above by von Albensleben were my favourite - who knew the trots could be so glamorous? And the dive is such a perfect visual moment.

Just down the road, plenty of people were making the best of a sunny winter Saturday at the Paddington Reservoir Gardens. So many quiet nooks to read and picnic, it's a really lovely space that's at once historical, industrial, natural and peaceful.

*The choir cover of "Creep" can be heard in the trailer for The Social Network, aka the movie about Facebook that has inexplicably been made (in related WTFs, Justin Timberlake is involved). The whole thing is so ripe for satire it was only a matter of time before the parodies began to roll in, like The Video Website.