It took me AGES to sort through my whiskey-soaked memories to figure out how this story started - but I finally did it.
So one Halloween - I think 2014 - I went to GoodgodSmallClub or Hudson Ballroom (as I believe its called now) with my mate Adele to catch Briggs perform at probably one of the very last small-venue shows that he had to suffer.
Being me, I went packing my trusty D700 with a couple of prime lenses (this becomes more relevant later.) And I must have just finished work at the studio I was working at, at the time and then gone straight out (which was a pretty standard procedure back in the day in Melbourne but not so much since I moved to Sydney) because I was wearing work clothes
Anyway, shenanigans and tomfoolery were had because post gig as we dived into a little bit of Halloween mayhem.
Several hours later, I remember waking up with a cracking headache on Adele’s couch in Redfern to a bunch of text messages from another friend; Corrine. Corrine was informing me that she was with the legendary Chali 2na who was casually at Bondi Beach painting a mural and I should come down.
“What’s that now…?
So, Adele (being a J5 fan as well) and I get our shit together and head down to Bondi. Surely enough the unmissable - almost 2m - frame of the 2na Fish himself is hanging out at Bondi painting (spray-painting) a mural of an ultra-photo realistic turtle along-side a couple of local Graffiti Artists - who were also painting turtles - but much different in style.
We all hung out for a spell; talked shit and appreciated the women of Bondi together. Chali commented that he had been falling in love all morning!
I also found out that Chali’s artistic ability is boundless as his photo-realistic took shape right in front of my eyes. Plus, he is also an incredible photographer!
After awhile Adele and I left to post up at a near by bar where we resumed our Modus Operandi from the previous night.
Amidst all this Chali was nice enough to let me photograph some of his progress as well as create a couple of nice little portraits in front of his mural as well.
Looking back at these shots, I can’t believe how incredible the light was that day. So bright and toppy - which is normally terrible - but it was SO bright and toppy that the concrete and sand acted like giant reflectors.
Noice!
Much later, I got word that I had scored a photo-pass to shoot the J5 gig at the Enmore. Unfortunately, I could not get there before the 3 Song (No Flash) grace period ended and I missed out shooting the gig. So, instead I was forced to stand there an enjoy it without a camera in front of my face.
The following year I remedied this faux pa of time-management by capturing Jurassic 5 tear up the stage at Bluesfest!
Work In Progress with Chali 2na
