Australia’s world picture could also be constructed on sun-soaked seashores and gleaming metropolis skylines. However most individuals who’ve visited will know that that is only a tiny fraction of this huge, continent-sized nation. And photographer Helin Bereket is clearly amongst them.
In her newest collection, she’s turned her lens away from these acquainted postcard footage to doc a quieter, extra complicated story. Deserted Australia captures the unhappy fantastic thing about forgotten cities and derelict buildings scattered throughout regional Victoria and South Australia. These are locations caught between previous and current; nonetheless respiration, however barely.
The challenge started by chance. Helin had travelled to Australia in March 2025 to {photograph} silo artwork: large-scale murals painted on grain silos to draw tourism to struggling rural communities. However when she arrived at her first vacation spot, one thing else caught her consideration.
“I by no means got down to {photograph} deserted locations in Australia,” she explains. “Initially, I used to be heading to {photograph} examples of silo artwork, which had piqued my curiosity. However once I arrived within the first city that includes silo artwork, I used to be struck by one thing else. A lot of buildings that had clearly been left to decay. The distinction between the colourful artwork and these deserted buildings sparked one thing in me. Regardless of the city’s stillness, it had life. That is how my exploration of deserted locations started.”
This opportunity discovery speaks to an vital precept for artistic professionals: staying open to sudden instructions. Helin’s willingness to desert her unique plan led to work that feels extra sincere and emotionally highly effective than any predetermined idea may need achieved.
Emotional weight
Helin’s background in structure and grasp’s diploma in artwork form her method to those forgotten areas. Every body captures not simply bodily decay, however the emotional weight of locations that when thrived. Climate-worn petrol stations, shuttered motels and empty pubs change into silent witnesses to financial shifts, environmental challenges and the city migration that has drained life from Australia’s rural cities.
“It was undoubtedly a jarring expertise,” Helin displays on encountering this actuality. “I got here with preconceived notions, primarily based on what I had seen on-line: lovely seashores, surfers and kangaroos. What I encountered, nonetheless, was way more layered and sophisticated. I knew little about Australia’s historical past, and once I began to see the remnants of previous cities, deserted buildings and the quiet, desolate landscapes, I felt a way of revelation. It was a reminder of how a lot of a spot’s true id is commonly hidden beneath the floor, past the postcard-perfect photographs.”
This discovery highlights an vital lesson for visible storytellers: essentially the most compelling tales typically exist past mainstream illustration. Whereas journey images usually focuses on a vacation spot’s highlights, Helin discovered deeper which means in its shadows.
Inventive course of
Helin’s working methodology is refreshingly easy. Fairly than in depth planning or analysis, she depends on intuition and commentary. Of selecting topics, she says: “For essentially the most half, it has been a mixture of likelihood and serendipity. A number of the deserted buildings I’ve come throughout had been in cities I initially visited for silo artwork or simply occurred to cross via.”
Curiously, Helin is cautious along with her language round these locations, avoiding phrases like “ghost city” that counsel full abandonment. “The time period ‘ghost city’ normally implies a spot that’s utterly deserted, devoid of life,” she explains. “Nonetheless, what I’ve encountered in Australia is commonly way more complicated. Many of those cities are removed from empty. They might be quiet, however there are nonetheless individuals residing there, albeit sparsely.”
“My method is essentially observational,” she continues. “There weren’t many individuals round within the cities I visited. For me, the sweetness lies of their quiet solitude. I choose to look at and let the atmosphere inform its personal story, relatively than imposing something on it.”
This restraint—permitting topics to talk for themselves relatively than forcing a narrative—reveals confidence within the medium itself. It is a reminder that highly effective artistic work does not all the time require heavy intervention or apparent ideas.
Real curiosity
Deserted Australia connects to themes Helin has explored in earlier initiatives, together with ARID, photographed in Marvel Valley, California. This consistency suggests an artist following real pursuits relatively than market calls for—an method that usually results in extra distinctive and lasting work. “I do not purpose to impress a particular emotion,” she notes. “My purpose is to spark curiosity. I need viewers to ask questions: What occurred right here? Why is that this place in such a state? What is the story behind it?”
For creatives, this philosophy presents a substitute for work designed primarily for quick affect or viral success. In distinction, Helin’s work right here creates area for thought and discovery, qualities more and more uncommon in our attention-hungry financial system.
Total, the collection challenges Australia’s tourism-friendly picture whereas revealing common themes of change, resilience and the passage of time. These forgotten cities, suspended between previous and current, supply wealthy materials for enthusiastic about what we select to protect and what we permit to fade.
In different phrases, in an trade obsessive about the brand new and the subsequent, Deserted Australia argues for the worth of trying nearer at what’s already there. Achieve this, and you will find extraordinary tales in atypical decay, and actual magnificence in locations the world has largely forgotten.
