a place called manly

A Place Called Manly is a landscape and nature photography series I created during lockdown in Sydney which quickly followed my arrival home from London. The series explores the everyday beauty of my home town of Manly.

View the photos, buy prints, and learn about the project below.

Artists Statement – Thomas James Parrish

A Place Called Manly, a Place Called Home

After 3 years in London, the last year of which was spent confined within the walls of my East London share-house as the pandemic ran its relentless course, I decided it was time to come home. Not only had the previous year thwarted any momentum previously established in my photographic progression, but it also ensued a paradox of feeling encouraged to slow down and relax as the world closed its borders, its shops and its windows of opportunities, whilst remaining eager to set in motion the wheels of my hopeful and ambitious photography projects.

One does not move to London to unwind, I moved there for the hustle, the buzz, the big city stories and the dazzling scenes, all of which were no longer on offer and so my mind wondered to a place called home. And so, heading back to the place in which I have deprived myself of in recent years for want of a broader mind, exciting stories and exotic photos, I decided to test out the previously unattainable attitude of taking it easy, and as Australia quickly entered its next lockdown a month after my arrival, the stage was set.

This series of photographs was captured during the recent lockdown period in my local government area of Manly, Australia; my childhood home. For these images, many of which were taken from my bedroom balcony, I permitted myself to refine my subject matter and focus on the everyday beauty that was all around me. The beauty that I often forget to appreciate as I hunt to tell stories of intriguing characters and social inequities. Scenes of seas and skies, light and shadows took on new significance and I allowed them to fill my frame as well as my soul. Whilst shooting this series I was confronted with the notion that, while a part of me used to resist the idea that I was from the most beautiful place in the world, perhaps I’ve started to believe it, and I hope these images to justice to such a place.    

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