When I was 14, I bought a Minolta underwater camera and started photographing my friends surfing. Every time we went out for a surf, I always brought my camera with me. I didn’t see it as a passion or career at the time; it was just something that I loved to do. When I got to boarding school in 1992 as a 16-year-old, I wanted to take art classes, and the teacher asked me what it was I liked to do. I said, ‘I take pictures of my mates’. He said, ‘Great!’, and threw a 35mm black and white film at me and told me to keep shooting. I would process and print my film during recess, lunch and after school. I lived in that dark room.
My final project was a lot of what you see in ’93: Punching The Light. I focused on the subculture of the rave scene. I didn’t want to go to college or university. I wanted nothing more than to pursue being a professional photographer. The next stage was for me to train as a photo assistant with high-end advertising and commercial photographers based in Australia and learn the business and craft. At the age of 22, I planned to leave for New York City; I wanted to work for the best of the best in the world. But I broke both my wrists skateboarding, so that pushed my plans back until age 24. One cast was on for nine months and the other one for a year and a half, with no use of my thumbs. Even with that injury, I still managed to load film and drive a car. I was determined to not let it stop me.

A real rave was like a ‘one-off’ and only the people in the know knew when it was happening and where. We would pick up flyers at a local record shop, Reaching’ Records, or each week flyers were handed out at the raves we were at. There was a local magazine as well called 3D World – that was the Bible of raves. It listed all the parties. You would buy your tickets from a variety of local record shops on the evening of the rave and then ring the phone number on the flier for the location of the party after 10 pm.
The event coordinators would take over these abandoned warehouses or a variety of other venues for the weekend. Sometimes, they would take place hours north or south outside of Sydney’s centre in large fields, hidden in nature or farms. There were a variety of production companies alongside DJs who frequent/headline most of these events and they collaborated with lighting and sound companies as well. DJs like Sugar Ray, Paul Holden, Phil Smart, Abel, Jumping Jack and Ming D – they led the charge. The slipped into a time that was perfect. They would start at midnight and go until 8 am or longer.

The vibe was honestly the best. I never saw a fight. It was all love and friends dancing to good music. The parties would take place at warehouses in the inner west of Sydney. They had lighting companies set up lasers and all sorts of trippy shit inside; sometimes, there were bouncy castles too. It had never been done before, it was something so new and so wild. There had been nothing like this, ever. And each one was different, in a different location. The underground nature of it all. The attendants/community were like a secret society of like-minded people.
No real dress code so to speak at all, the fashion was all it’s own. The fact that the music was so cool, the influence of English DJs and their drugs. Ecstasy was brought in and just made these parties so much fun. It wasn’t all about drugs, it was about the community and a sense of belonging for us as teenagers. We didn’t want to go down to the local pubs and be drinking Jack and cokes and throwing up, it didn’t appeal to us. But being out in an abandoned warehouse until 8 am dancing with your best friends for hours certainly did.

1991. A rave called Hardware, I was 16 years old. It was at Darling Harbour’s exhibition centre and it was the first time I ever did acid – microdots. I went with my mate Ben Hansberry and we were the first of our friends to do that. I don’t recall how we found out about it, but it was life-changing.

There are so many great memories, they really all blur into one. The experience of the whole thing. The feeling and the thrill of them all. There is one moment that I talk about in my diary. There was a party called Space Cadet. Myself and all of my mates were dancing all together and peaking on the same really good E for hours. It was very special. There are so many… each night had new adventures and experiences, new places and faces.

The worst memory is probably when I put my mom’s Corolla over the side of a cliff about a hundred miles north of Sydney. Our car was saved by coming to rest on a tree – ‘the tree of Life’, we called it after. All of my mates had already taken their acid, but I thankfully had not. We all climbed out the one side of the vehicle that we could get out around 1 am. We waited until sunrise for one of the local farmers to get a tractor to tow my mother’s totalled car out of the ditch. Then waited another four hours for my parents to come get me and take me back home. Not much was spoken on that ride home.

Happy Valley II, Hardware, Psychosis, Space Cadet, Ascension… All epic and all memorable! To be honest, each one was very special and exciting.

They weren’t exactly illegal because it was just a gathering of kids dancing. The raves were properly produced by DJs and promoters. The warehouses/pubs/bowling clubs were rented out to them. Never been arrested.

I was an insider and had access to all this. My teacher was really encouraging, so much that he came with me to a party at 4 am and sat with me for hours and taught me composition and the use of backgrounds. My peers knew at the time that these pictures were special, as I did. I remember like it was yesterday standing on industrial fridges with my camera. The fridges were shaking underneath me with bass with a sea of teenagers in front of me at 8 am. I didn’t know what depth of field was or how to focus, but I just knew and felt that I had to capture this. And I knew then, when I was taking the pictures, how special they were and how special they are today. I made sure I was never shooting with flash. I didn’t want to impose on the feeling that everyone was experiencing, so I chose only to shoot early morning or long exposures inside. I wanted to keep that intimacy.

Our clothes were mostly purchased through hours of thrifting. I personally loved a large denim bell bottom that was bigger than the shoe and usually dragged over my caterpillar boots or my favourite navy blue Filas or the classic Air Max 90s. I would wear a ‘70s-style polyester bowling shirt that would stink by the end of the night since polyester doesn’t breath. On top of that, I would wear a grandpa-style cardigan that was quite fitted, over the top as well. We were all so skinny, and in these clothes it was quite funny.

I separated it a little bit. I would make time to shoot the pictures when the sun came up. After I danced all night, I would then go back to the car, get my camera and come back to take pictures. The camera was always with me.

I was a ‘weekly boarder’, so therefore, I went home on Saturday morning after sport and went back to school on Sunday night, often without sleep. We would have a dorm room meeting at 8:30 pm and I must have looked like death – and often stoned. All the time, I knew what I was doing was pushing the envelope, especially in 1992 as I was sick with mono and my immune system was shot – I was consistently sick with colds or a cough. I did stop raving once I started my career, and also, the rave scene fizzled and became commercial and just wasn’t the same community with 13-year-olds sucking on lollipops.

The first thing, assisting in Australia is different than assisting in NYC. In Australia, you are a jack of all trades, you work on all levels of the assisting role as soon as you start. In NY, in fashion, there is a structure and there are different roles that you work your way up to become a first assistant. You start at fifth, sixth or seventh assistant and work towards a first-position role. As a first assist, you work closely with the photographer, the creatives, and clients directly. It’s basically the last step in the apprenticeship so to speak before going out on your own. There was some sort of camaraderie as assistants – you worked hard as a group together, go into battle together. Film was being shot back then, so there was a lot more work to be done compared to nowadays.
Digital has made life a lot easier for commercial aspects of the job but has also made assistants kinda lazier and it’s by default due to technology. They don’t need to really know film speeds, light metering or running different stocks with different camera setups as you have more wiggle room with digital. It was an incredible time to be a photographer and one of their assistants. The whole feeling on set was so different than it is now. In addition, I also learned how to conduct the ‘show’. These guys had thirty to fifty people on set. We go eighteen to twenty hours then back on set at 6 am the next day. I learned the structure of photoshoots, the waiting to start, and when it’s go time, you have to be ‘on’ and ready to shoot. Your energy makes or breaks the day. You are the captain of the ship and people are always looking at you for the answers.

Australia at that time was predominantly about advertising work. And really good work! Very clever, great tag lines and photography. Australia was getting accolades for their advertising campaigns internationally. New York was very fashion-driven, the pinnacle of the fashion world, so therefore, it was a whole new level and style of photography that I wanted to be a part of. I just always loved fashion. Raves and fashion kind of go hand in hand. Fashion is music, art, culture. Raves were just that. What was cool and underground at that particular time.

The process of putting this book together over three years really brought everything back to me. I reached out to friends I hadn’t spoken to in twenty-five years. Reconnected with people who are in the book and still getting Facebook messages from people in the book that I didn’t even know. I have been looking back at the music from that time and putting playlists together. Friends are sending me their old flyers. I would have to say the actual book is a small portion of what has come up for me as far as nostalgia goes. I feel incredibly proud looking at the book.
It was also enjoyable to work and hear my designer’s (Ed Martin) reactions to my diary entries throughout our three-year period on this project. He is fifteen years younger than me, so seeing his enthusiasm on the subject really validated the project for me as well. He and I worked closely together on different sides of the country and only finally met recently at the NYC book launch. I can’t thank him enough for his patience and work on this project. Also, going to Bolonia (Italy) to print the book at Damiani printing house with someone who has been printing books for more than thirty years was an amazing experience. Being my first book, I have learned so much about the whole process.

I think it’s the nature of the beast. We become teenagers and try and find some sort of outlet or a place to feel like you belong. I know something will come up and I just hope that they feel open enough to talk to us about it and anything. I know I had that same relationship with my parents, they knew what I was up to. As far as them being rebels? They are 4 and 2 years old, so hard to say.

It is very special for many reasons. It is where the pictures took place, it is my birthplace. Regarding the party, I just don’t know if a bunch of 40-year-olds jumping around in a warehouse is something I would be interested in hosting (laughs). It would be fantastic to get the young people involved and get that crowd to come, of course. I’m glad to see and hear that this book can be related/excite by both young 20-somethings to the people in their forties who were there. The New York opening had a great mix of people. We set up a mini rave downstairs with a live DJ, projections and flyers thrown all over the floor. I would love to do that again in Sydney.
I have been approached by the New South Wales State Library to add the book, diary and all memorabilia to their archives to be used for visual references for teachers and students throughout Australia. This book is literally going down in history as a documentation of a subculture, which is very exciting. Ideally, I think there are many opportunities in Australia. I would like to put photos up at a gallery and have an exhibition of the photographs and diary entries as well as book signings and talks throughout the country.

Yes! I still love the music. All music in general. I suppose for me, it was such a poignant period. I fell in love with photography at that point in time, taking those pictures. Raves hold a place in my heart. It was my coming-of-age story. I am still madly in love with photography. Now, when my wife and I can get out, we love to go for a dance when we can. And I still love that too! So I suppose some things never change…