“The Damage Report”
Zo Damage 2016-2017

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 established some straightforward guidelines, the most essential being that I must capture images of one or more live music performances every day throughout this ambitious project. I completed this journey on February 24, 2017, which culminated in the publication of a book titled The Damage Report and the launch of an exhibition at Arts Centre Melbourne. This exhibition featured over 500 photographs from the project and subsequently toured to Nanda\Hobbs Contemporary in Sydney before moving to Bib’n’Brace Collective in Brisbane. In November 2017, I had the honour of receiving The Age Music Victoria Awards “Outstanding Achievement Award” for my year-long project and the accompanying book. 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

Still

Digs