Author(s): Spiros Coutroubas

Australian Photography | Canberra & Region

This is a book photographic portraits shot in the Belconnen Mall in 1989 and 1990. Belconnen is a district in the north-west of Canberra, Australia's national capital. There are three sets of portraits, each documenting people in different spaces in the mall. They include passers-by making their way through one of the mall's parking areas; salespeople, promotional staff and performers working in the mall's common areas; and regular customers of one of the mall's cafes who complement their photographs with handwritten messages that lend an extra dimension to their portraits. The author worked at the mall on and off for more than a decade. He created these portraits as the 1980s gave way to the 1990s - a period of record interest rates, high inflation and unemployment, and eventually economic recession. It was also a period of change for the mall as it passed from public to private management as well as going through a significant expansion. The portraits provide a window into life in one of Canberra's suburban malls from the point of view of an insider whose experience there was as intimate as it was longstanding. Ultimately, the book also documents some of the untold history of Canberra through depictions of ordinary people in everyday situations.