With his camera under the driver’s seat or on his shoulder as he moves from one place to another, Josh Robenstone captures moments that exist in fractions of time, constantly and everywhere.
The series has no fixed intention, time frame, or final goal, but instead functions as a personal study of a way of seeing.
It is, in essence, street photography, though Robenstone approaches it more as an ongoing meditation on the art of observation.
Sometimes, without a camera in hand, he finds himself noticing something that may last only a split second. As that moment passes, he pauses to reflect on what drew his attention. Shapes pass by and connect as interacting forms and colours, briefly creating a visual language that resonates with our intrinsic understanding of the world we inhabit.
These photographs capture those moments when he happens to have his camera with him. At times they are spontaneous snapshots; at other times they are more considered. Often, however, it is only later, while looking back at an image on his computer, that he understands why he was drawn to photograph it in the first place.
Nothing is beneath photographing and nothing is above it. The ordinary is never truly ordinary, but rather the accumulation of everything we have learned to move past without noticing. There is an edge to things, a space between people, a geometry to unplanned moments that only reveals itself when the right kind of attention is given.
Colour, form, and light exist in the work in the same way they exist in life: not deliberately sought, but incidental. Humour also appears not by design, but because it emerges naturally when one observes the world in a particular way.
Over time, this series has come to feel less like a defined body of work and more like a habit of mind. The camera itself is incidental; what matters is the act of looking and the willingness to remain present to the possibility that something worth seeing is always about to happen.
This ongoing series has been photographed around Australia over the past ten years. Perhaps one day it will become a book, but for now Robenstone continues simply to look.
About Josh Robenstone
Josh Robenstone is a documentary and editorial photographer based in Melbourne, Australia.
His work has been published in national and international publications including The Good Weekend Magazine, The Australian Financial Review Magazine, The Weekend Australian Magazine, The Observer Magazine (UK), and The New York Times T Magazine.
His photographs are held in numerous private collections in Australia and internationally. Basta!, Robenstone’s first published monograph, is held in the National Gallery of Australia’s permanent collection. [Official Website]
