The Faces Project

Faces | Trevor

I met Trevor at the Nhill Aviation Heritage Centre in the Wimmera region of Victoria. We had a good chat about the Link Trainer (a Second World War era instrument flight simulator) that he's standing next to here - and then he offered me a go in it. It's noisy (it's powered by vacuum pumps and bellows) and it's a little claustrophobic when the lid's closed, but it's great fun - and a pretty realistic-feeling simulator. Not bad for almost 90-year-old technology!

Faces | Nilson

Born in Portugal, grew up in the United States, started his acting career in Australia and now living in the Netherlands, Nilson is fluent in Portugese and English, understands Spanish and is currently learning Dutch. I worked with him during a 'Creative Portraiture' workshop in Melbourne, where I snapped this photo that rather captures Nilson's quirky personality.

Faces | Pat Fitzmaurice

Pat's a lovely bloke with a big smile who always has a joke ready. He's a regular at Irish cultural group Melbourne Comhaltas, and I photographed him at their set dancing weekend in Avondale Heights in 2019.

Faces | Tom Knox Jr

Tom is the son of Tommy Knox, who also features in this collection. Photographed in Sydney on Anzac Day 2019.

Faces | Michelle

Michelle normally plays a harp, but I caught her noodling about on a cello in a friend's backyard in late 2018.

Faces | Frank Mottershead

Frank flew thirty operations as a Lancaster wireless operator in 463 Squadron during WWII. His pilot - Don Huxtable - was a good friend of mine (and in fact had died less than three weeks before this photo was taken), so it was great to hear some stories I knew but from another perspective. This photograph was taken at the end of an interview for the International Bomber Command Centre's Digital Archive, in April 2016. Sadly, Frank has since died.

Faces | Unknown

I attended a Climate March in Melbourne in November 2015. This man was among the estimated 60,000-strong crowd, wearing his old Melbourne tram conductor's uniform, complete with leather bag. I've no idea what his name was, but he was clearly a proud 'connie'.

Faces | Vince

"I've got the classic immigration story, really. I left Dublin when I was three to live in Halifax in Yorkshire. I lived there til I was 10, then I came to Australia as a 'ten pound Pom'." I photographed Vince at the conclusion of an interview with him for my 'Music and Friendship' book project. This photo didn't end up making the cut for the book, but I still quite like it.

Faces | Catie

While it's the crowded hub of everything at night, the Session Bar at the National Folk Festival is normally all but deserted during the day. I was using it as a shortcut during the 2017 festival, and I found Jess, Michelle and Catie sitting in a little circle playing their instruments. I sat in for a moment to listen, and snapped this photo. What I didn't realise was that I'd just crashed a rehearsal for their band The Neon Effect. They played a blackboard spot later that day.

Faces | Jim Cahir

93-year-old Jim Cahir's voice cracked as he looked at a photograph of Flight Sergeant Patrick Edwards, the 20-year-old pilot in Jim's 466 Squadron Halifax crew. He had just told me why the memory of his pilot makes him choke up. On the night of 20 December 1943, they were on their way home from attacking Frankfurt-on-Main in Germany when, unbeknownst to anybody in the crew, a German JU-88 nighfighter flown by ace pilot Hauptman Heinz Rökker, slipped silently underneath the big black bomber. Rökker squeezed the trigger of his upwards-firing "Schräge Musik" machine guns - and dived away as the Halifax's starboard wing and engines erupted in flames. In his turret, Jim had the best view in the house of the ghastly spectacle. He could see the flames spreading and told Edwards as much. "Time to get out," Edwards suggested. "I think so," said Jim. Flight Sergeant Edwards held the Halifax as steady as he could as Jim bailed out of the rear door. Five other crew members got out too and within days, all had been picked up to spend the remainder of the war as prisoners of the Germans. But Flight Sergeant Patrick John Edwards could not get out of his doomed Halifax. He died when the aircraft crashed a short time after the last of his crew safely got out. It's clear that, despite doing all that he could, Jim has carried survivor's guilt ever since. On the wall in his little office at home in Melbourne hangs a portrait of his young pilot. "The bravest man I ever knew," he said sadly. Jim died in April 2017.

Faces | Steph

"Take off the mask: your face is glorious" A collaboration with Irish creative Steph in May 2015 - this was the final image in the series. Taking off the mask has an entirely new meaning in these plague days that wasn't at all the intention at the time!

Faces | Cameron Zofrea

I sat next to Cameron at the 2019 Bomber Command Christmas Luncheon in Sydney. He is a pilot with 37 Squadron at RAAF Richmond, flying Hercules transports. He joined the Air Force wanting to fly fast jets, was selected for F/A18 training and was almost successful, but was scrubbed in the final stages of training and was re-posted to transports. Still, it's an interesting job: in between asking me questions about some of the finer points of ATC operations, he spoke of the fun of flying big aeroplanes like the Herc at 150 feet above the ground, and that in the last 18 months he'd visited 15 different countries, sometimes at very short notice.

Faces | Ralph White

Ralph White is a veteran who flew Halifax bombers with a Special Duties squadron during WWII. I interviewed him for the IBCC Digital Archive a couple of years ago and we've been friends ever since. I was very honoured, then, to be invited to atted a special investiture ceremony, held at the Shrine of Remembrance on 11 November 2019, to watch Ralph being presented with the Legion d'Honneur by the French Government, in recognition of the part he played in the liberation of France during the war. This photo was taken shortly after the ceremony.

Faces | Rachel McIntosh

In the shade of a big rock wall in Manning Gorge, along the Gibb River Road, I photographed Rachel wearing an Akubra and her happy smile.

Faces | Robert

Rachel and I were on the first full day of our week and a half-long trip down the Gibb River Road in the remote and spectacular Kimberley region in Western Australia. We camped at a place called Birdwood Downs Station and, early in the morning, were treated to a tour of the station and its environs with this bloke. Robert's a botanist who is trying to commercialise bush tucker as an additional revenue stream for Birdwood. He never, ever wears shoes.

Faces | Paddy Fitzgerald

Paddy Fitzgerald is a legend of Irish music in Melbourne. I was at The Last Jar pub in Melbourne before it opened one morning, doing a promo photo shoot for two musician friends, when he stopped by. He'd left his glasses at the pub during the regular music session the night before, and had come in to pick them up. Naturally, I convinced him to stand against the spectacular wallpapered wall we were using as a backdrop for a quick photo.

Faces | Tommy Knox

Tommy Knox was my 28th and final interviewee for the International Bomber Command Centre's Digital Archive project. I travelled to Sydney for a couple of nights specifically to interview him at his home in Mona Vale. A Scotsman who still has a beautifully soft accent, Tommy was a flight engineer on Stirling bombers in 149 Squadron.

Faces | Jinty

The final morning of the National Celtic Festival in Portarlington in June 2019. Everyone was, let's say, feeling the effects of a weekend of fun and frivolity. Including Jinty. Especially Jinty. I still got a nice smile out of her, though.

Faces | Bill Geoghegan

Bill was a 61 Squadron navigator during WWII. He celebrated his 100th birthday a matter of months after I photographed him on Anzac Day 2019.

Faces | Frank Dell

This is the rather amazing Frank Dell, a veteran RAF pilot who flew Mosquito bombers in the Light Night Striking Force during WWII. He was shot down over Holland in October 1944, thereby embarking on several months of extraordinary adventures and close calls. After the war he flew for many years with British Airways. I photographed him in Sydney on Anzac Day 2019.

Faces | Don Southwell

One of the first veterans I really got to know, Don Southwell was a 463 Squadron navigator during WWII. He was a serial organiser, always involved in running various Squadron and Bomber Command-related events in Sydney and Canberra. This photo was taken in April 2019. Don died in December.

Faces | Ernie Holden

"Can I take your photo?" I asked. "Depends. Are you going to send it to the enemy?" "Er... who's the enemy?" "North Korea!" Turns out Ernie is a veteran of the Korean War - the first of those I've ever met. Photographed in Sydney on Anzac Day 2019.

Faces | Ron Houghton

Dr Ron Houghton, photographed immediately berfore the 2019 Anzac Day march in Sydney. A man with a fascinating story, he flew Halifax bombers and Spitfire fighters during the war and then began a long career as a pilot with Qantas, finishing on Boeing 707s.

Faces | Unknown

This lady was sitting in a little jeep on the street where units were forming up for the Sydney Anzac Day march in 2019. She seemed genuinely perplexed that someone would want to take her photo but was happy for me to do so.