All Things Considered

10 years at Greenway by Christopher Ireland

About

All Things Considered is a visual chronicle of life within social housing, as told by residents in Greenway Kirribilli, Sydney. Authentic, affectionate and provocative, the work is the decade-long project of renowned Sydney photographer, Christopher Ireland.

Work is in progress to bring All Things Considered to a wider audience through the publication of a photobook and curation of a touring exhibition. This is not driven by vanity, ego or profit, but by the desire to shine a light on a section of society so often overlooked and raise funds for the Greenway residents mental wellbeing programme. These remarkable images and stories are important reminders of the quiet and unheralded triumphs and tragedies that play out in public housing every day.

Some Context

“

Does that camera
record sound?”

It’s a question I’m asked more than once when I stand somewhere between the first and tenth floor of a Community Housing high-rise in Kirribilli.

“If it did”, I respond, “what is it that you would say?”

A kind woman will tell me she has fled a violent home in a foreign country to find solace in art, poetry and the quiet life.

A man with one arm will tell me he is lucky. A woman with very little will say she needs nothing. A man with a sad face will tell me he has gone many years without speaking to his son.

Some inside Greenway, as this block is known, have shared ideas with me that they hope will make it out into the world. For them, my camera captures their essence and relays their concerns to a preoccupied world.

Others have used our exchanges to test their ideas and feel what these ideas sound like when spoken.

Most residents just got used to my constant presence at Greenway and eventually volunteered their time in exchange for a print when we felt we could trust each other.

These stories exist because I am a deeply curious person and, in my desire to relate, I’m constantly asking questions. This curiosity, and the path it leads me on is what fuels me. This time, more profoundly than ever before, I kept getting answers. I began to realise that most of my collaborators hadn’t been the source of much curiosity throughout their quiet lives.

So one portrait turned into hundreds, one sentence turned into a book. A year turned into a decade, a collection of views turned into a perspective. A portrait of life emerged.

All Things Considered is a record of our exchanges, and testimony to the concerns of ordinary – yet, in their own quiet way, extraordinary – humans.

Christopher Ireland is an award-winning Sydney-based photographer and director. He is known for capturing life’s real characters with warmth, sensitivity and authenticity.

Read more

People
JIM

I was lucky.

People have lost both legs, both arms, and all sorts of things. As long as I accepted the fact that it’s not going to grow back, there’s nothing to stop me from leading a pretty much normal life.

Terry

Being a school
teacher, there was
no way in the
world I could
come out of the
closet. I just had
to get married and
I’d kept it a secret
for 40 years.

Jonno

I’ve got a lot to live for, but I just don’t really like to live.

I never stop thinking about him, my son. He died in a car accident. From what I was told, the car burst into flames. He wasn’t just my son, he was also my best mate, my brother.

I still keep expecting him to come knocking on me door. Its one type of pain I wouldn’t wish on anybody.

2013
2020
Anita
Adam

One thing you learn about mental health is nobody wants to listen to you.

Any person, ill or well, suffers from not being heard.

Danny
Colin

If you’ve never had
love, you can’t bloody
show it. Nothing
comes from nothing.

Julie
Nancy

I was only 17 when I
got married, and he
was 21. He was an
ex-boxer and
couldn’t argue, so he
just lashed out at me.

He was going to get a lucky punch and kill me some day. And
the children would be left without a father and a mother. I said,
it’s either I leave or you leave. I’ve got to finish this some way.
So he left. Eight days later, he committed suicide in our house.

It hasn’t defined me as the widow. I was upset about what
happened to Bill, but at the same time, I had a chance to not
get beaten every other month or so.

Li Xing
Galina

When the Czar was overthrown it was
about equality, justice. After that, there
was no private property in Russia. All the
property was state property, we didn’t
have property only personal belongings.

The country was very rich, and it is very
rich now. The feeling of being robbed was
unbearable. It was an insult to stay there.
I’d prefer to be at the lower financial level
here in Australia, and not feel robbed.”

But as to me personally, I
wouldn’t like to have much
money. It’s a burden. You have
to worry about your money,
and I’m happy that I don’t
have much. I have enough.

Menu