The Damage Report
On February 25, 2016, I embarked on a unique challenge to photograph at least one live music performance each day for an entire year. I completed the project on February 24, 2017. The project outcomes culminated in the publication of a book titled The Damage Report and the launch of an exhibition at Arts Centre Melbourne, which featured over 500 photographs from the project and then toured to Nanda\Hobbs Contemporary in Sydney before moving to Bib’n’Brace Collective in Brisbane. In November 2017, I received The Age Music Victoria Awards “Outstanding Achievement Award” for the project. As 2016 was a leap year, the project spanned 366 days. My motivation for embarking on this year-long endeavour was to showcase the rich diversity and cultural significance of Melbourne's live music scene at a grassroots level, particularly from the perspective of those directly engaged in the live music creative sector. The exhibitions were made possible thanks to the generous support of Ilford Australia, C.R. Kennedy & Co., Prism Imaging, Young Henry’s, and Goatsound Studios.
The Damage Report is at once the testament to an incredible feat of endurance; a blinding anthology of live rock photography by one of the form’s greatest Australian practitioners; and Exhibit A in the case to be made for Melbourne as the Live Music Capital of the Southern Hemisphere”
— Gerard Elson, Readings Books, 2017
The Damage Report, The Kiln, Gallery 1, Arts Centre Melbourne 2017. Installation view
The Damage Report, Nanda\Hobbs Contemporary, Sydney 2017. Installation view
The Damage Report, Bib’n’Brace Collective, Brisbane 2017. Installation view