By: XEONIQ [ Instagram | Tumblr ]
Fujifilm Natura was a 1600 ISO, high sensitivity 35mm film made for consumer use in indoor and night time lighting. Since being discontinued, its price skyrocketed and rolls of the film that expired several years ago command almost $AUD100. High grain, but vibrant, the resulting images from the roll have a nostalgic aesthetic that I feel lend well to nighttime street photography.
Over the last few months I’ve taken my Minolta A7 out, sometimes in the early morning, but typically during twilight, to capture glimpses of the city and its urban architecture. I’ve included a small description and some commentary about each scene and the location; things I have observed over the last few years living here during the ongoing COVID-19 event.
Southport | Southport CBD is a primary shopping, business and residential hub and one of the oldest parts of the Gold Coast. Despite its Chinatown suffering, the town’s main shopping mall, Australia Fair, has remained bustling throughout the pandemic. Roving mobs of addicts and the homeless have become a growing problem over the years which has only increased the last two years.
Chinatown | Southport’s China Town demarcated by glowing red neon gates. COVID-19 hit this area harder than the rest of Southport. Weekly food and entertainment street markets have closed indefinitely and only a handful of rundown massage parlours and Asian restaurants remain in business.
Surfers Paradise Hilton | The Eastern facade of the Surfers Paradise Hilton residences and hotel is illuminated in yellow green neon each night. While a somewhat recent development, the Hilton’s blue-window’d twin towers and its evening illumination are one of the architectural landmarks of the city.
Cavill Lane | Beneath the Surfers Paradise Hilton towers, a shopping arcade of Asian and Latin American restaurants and cafes provides pedestrian connection between Surfers Paradise Blvd and Orchid Avenue. Struggling since the pandemic, an assortment of small restaurant businesses still run here surrounded by artificial sakura trees and hanging Chinese lanterns.
The Island | The Island is a boutique hotel with gambling, alcohol and dining services that has remained popular despite the decline of Surfers Paradise during the pandemic. With a city that was built for and depended on international and interstate tourism, travel restrictions have decimated more than 75% of businesses in the town. Poker machines remain an attractive draw to hospitality businesses with the licences to run them.
Orchid Avenue | The premiere entertainment strip of the Gold Coast now remains mostly deserted. A decade ago this street would be swarmed with pedestrian revellers and the road jammed with all manner of exotic, performance and luxury cars showing their rides. A single night club remains and is only open two nights a week and less than a dozen restaurants are open for business.
Cavill Avenue Station | The central Surfers Paradise station for the Gold Coast’s light rail transit system: G LINK. Located at the intersection of Surfers Paradise Blvd and Cavill Avenue, the iconic neon guitar of the Hard Rock cafe is one of the main landmarks for Surfers Paradise. Connecting Broadbeach to Helensvale, the G Link was constructed to be ready in time for the 2018 Commonwealth Games hosted on the Gold Coast. While controversial and potentially one of the causes for Surfers Paradise’s economic decline, the light rail has unarguably made public transport viable in the city when previously a car was an absolute necessity to live on the Gold Coast.
Elkhorne and Orchid | This intersection was once the location of Surfers Paradise’s and the Gold Coast’s luxury shopping brands including Hermes, Louis Vuitton, Prada and Gucci. Those left even before the light rail system was completed and now the area only hosts a handful of convenience stores, noodle shops and an Italian restaurant. Orchid Avenue’s flanking bulb-lit palm trees remain on each night, for now.
The G:Link | Some local Surfers Paradise business owners say that their economic problems started not with COVID-19 but rather with the construction of the light rail service some years prior. Taking years to complete, the entire district was awash with noise and dust pollution, a majority of the town’s palm trees were town down for overhead tram power lines, and locals flocked away to other parts of the Gold Coast, leaving the businesses to compete for an ever-waning pool of interstate and overseas tourists.
Cavill Avenue | While most of this scene is on Orchid Avenue, Cavill Avenue to the left is the main pedestrian thoroughfare of Surfers Paradise, and as illustrated is in a rather dilapidated state of urban decay. As more and more business tenants left and for lease signs became sun-bleached in time, boarded up fronts and lagging construction projects have become frequent in the area. Time will tell if prosperity will return to Surfers Paradise or if other retail hubs in the South of the city have permanently usurped the town of its business.
Equipment Used
- Fujifilm Natura 1600
- Minolta A7
- Tamron 35mm 1.8 Di USD
- Sony 85mm 2.8 SAM