Melbourne

<p>Hello, dose any one have any insights into the Photography scene in Melbourne, Australia. I might be moving there for a year so I was wondering what I would be getting into. I do Mainly fine art photography and some product as well.<br>

thanks</p>

 

<p>well, the art centre and that precinct has a lot of stuff to take pictures of. personally, i love taking street shots in melbourne. where are you from? please do note that australia has a lot of strict photograhpy laws.</p>

<p>"please do note that australia has a lot of strict photograhpy laws."</p>

<p>We do? I'll be the first to admit that I am well below the average informed citizen when it comes to keeping up with current affairs (I tune in to the ABC news radio once a week or so), so it would come as no surprise that there are rules and regulations passed that I had no idea about (apparently we even got some new road laws last month? Who knew!). However, I had no idea we had any sort of photographic laws, I know that my local swimming pool doesn't allow cameras, and I think I've seen signs in a shopping centre too, but in the ten years I've been living in Melbourne I have never encountered any sort of trouble whatsoever... maybe I'm just lucky?</p>

<p>Just thinking about it, if there <em>are</em> laws, perhaps I'd rather not know, ignorance is bliss you know!</p>

<p>steve, we put out so many laws coupled with hefty fines that sometimes, i don't even want to walk around with a camera anymore around my neck outside the CBD/touristy areas</p>

<p>I am an Australian citizen of 19 years, originally from Iran. I just think legal restrictions are too much here, good money for lawyers. In Iran, you won't get accused of being a pedophile if you took pictures of children in public places. Here, you might. Is pedophilia more in Iran than in Australia? I am not sure, lived there for 38 years until 1990. Here, you can't even let your children play in your front yard, something very common even in the streets of Iran.</p>

<p>I have to say, I am very surprised that there are actually laws out there (in Australia) regarding photography. I spend a good part of the year travelling the outback, but even when back at 'home' in the city I have never felt hindered in anything I do. I know there's a lot of paranoia out there, a lot of people seem to think that there's a paedophile hiding behind every tree just waiting to grab their little darlings, but I've never actually heard anything more than paranoia and 'what if's'. I will have to look into these 'new' laws, it might turn out I'm a dirty old man and never even knew it!</p>

<p>But back to Nathan's original question, I got the impression, when you asked what the 'scene' is like, that you're after information on work, or possibly study in that area in Melbourne, or do you mean locations worth shooting? If you're after locations, I'm sure that between just the three of us who have responded so far, we could easily give you so many suggestions as to fill up your entire years visit <em>very</em> quickly!</p>

<p>Thanks Steve for helping me to correct myself here. Indeed, I am not aware of exact laws either. But I am very much concerned about the paranoia as you suggested.</p>

<p>Hi Bahram and Steve. This is off point to Nathan's request, but I believe that there are few legal constraints to photography, at least outside of private property and some forms of workplace surveillance. The legal situation in new south wales is well covered in the following pamphlett: www.forsterdigitalphoto.com/files/nswphotorights.pdf. I can't imagine it would be much different in victoria - a quick search thru victoria's legislation came up with only a couple of references to photography, the most salient being in relation to what 'child related work' is for the purposes of the Working with Children Act. Still, the public hysteria/fear which has been referred to may mean that people 'think' there are significant legal restraints and act on the basis of that belief. And who know's - that may be a prudent thing to do. Arthur </p>

<p>here's another link for the NSW photo rights which I believe would have similar laws in all states. they're stricter with the laws when you're holding any camera larger than a point & shoot so a camera that size of a lumix lx-3 or a canon s90 would come in handy.</p>

<p>my main concern is what is the business of photography like in Melbourne, is there a large market, what areas dose it center around, are there lots of galleries etc... stuff of that nature, I hadn't really considered differences in laws concerning photography yet, I'm mainly trying to figure out what this move would do to my business.</p>