Scottie Cameron - Creative's Guide to Melbourne

Scottie Cameron is a self-taught photographer but, as a child of glossy magazines, he was always drawn to large set-ups and bold imagery, yet equally fascinated by the atmosphere behind the camera as that in front of it. Setting up young and shooting blind, Cameron’s fi rst jobs came in a trickle… then a flood. In New York, he worked as first assistant on huge celebrity shoots (14 hour set-ups, five minute shoots). “It validated that I wasn’t as dumb as I thought I was,” says Cameron. Back in Melbourne and reawakened to the beauty of his home city, he today shoots at will – “a half-eaten hamburger at 2am, a portrait of the postman, a white wall with many coats of paint.”

SCOTTIE'S TOP 5:

1 • HANDSOME STEVE’S HOUSE OF REFRESHMENT
A bar in the Abbotsford convent run by a genuine human with no hidden agendas, this is a true diamond in the rough.

2 • CIBI CAFÉ
Cibi is fantastic. This café has a belief and the people who work here have heart – every coffee feels like a hug.

3 • PROVANS HARDWARE
One of a dying breed but they still sell real tools and timber… and genuine knowledge.

4 • EDINBURGH GARDENS
Apparently it’s sketchy here at night but to me it’s lovely. A warm day in this tree-covered park sky-gazing with a friend is perfect.

5 • MERRI CREEK BIKE PATH
You could drive slowly through traffic, body asleep with annoyance... or you could ride a bike along this path hidden between suburbia and industrial madness with an ear-to-ear smile of contentment.

scottiecameron.com.au