"Faces" of Melbourne Suburbia

Owning a big house, with a sizable front and backyard in the suburbs tends to be the preferred life style for Aussies. Most Melbournian, like rest of Austrlia, likes that lifestyle. The suburbs in Melbourne, especially the once away from the CBD, are mostly large and quiet. For a street photographer, this could be a bit boring, just try and stand in a street corner and wait for someone interesting to walk past, you could be there for half a day. However, dig a little deep, and observe a bit more, you will discover the suburbs are much more charming and interesting than on the surface.

Yes, the streets are still empty, and there are hardly any people's faces in you can photograph, however, the real charm of the suburb lies within the front yard of each residence. How is that so? the front yard is like a display, or "face" of each household in the suburb, one can tell the personality of the person who live in the house from their front yard. Some front yards have meticulously mowed lawn, which means the owners are meticulous people, some front yard are paved with concrete used for driveway or storage, which means the owners are practical, and others are blocked with high fences, which means the household is very private......etc..... Once in a while, a front yard stands out from the rest, either through special choice of decoration, or through total negligence.

Maybe I am bored out of brains, but I found how these differences in the front yards of the suburbia interesting, and this will be my on-going little project, where I will collect and post shots of interesting Melbourne suburban front yards, and maybe throught the photos, one can tell what the person living in the house is like.

So to start off.....

An example of very good use of the front yard....as advertising space

Neatly mowed lawn, a good looking old trailor, very 70s.