From powerful monochrome snaps of characters, fashion and culture in early 60s Sydney to stunning colour images of birds and boulders in the Blue Mountains, Wentworth Falls resident Barry Lesberg has captured it all with camera in hand.
Armed with a lifetime of eye-catching photographs, the natural thing to do was to put them on display for the first time.
The result is an exhibition from December 17-23 called A Life in Photography at the Virgin Walls pop-up space at 251a Great Western Highway, Blackheath.
Split into documentary and decorative sections, the earliest works have a high historical content while the colour shots were taken within the last 15 years and are mainly landscapes.
There will even be a small display of the oldest cameras and accessories Mr Lesberg used, including a Pentax Spotmatic.
“I love shooting in colour, but I find working in monochrome remains a useful tool when you want to isolate symbols and put more emphasis on the actual reason for the picture, using tone and contrast,” Mr Lesberg said.
“Some of my best work was done in black and white.
“To me the magic of photography is its power through freedom of expression.
“It’s also very much about the art of seeing and technique and being able to capture a moment in time that will never come back.
“When I was seven I was given my first camera. It was a simple Kodak with no light reader, but it was a magical thing to me and ever since then I’ve always tried to snap my interpretation of something.
“Like two old Diggers leaning on each other on Anzac Day, a boy on a bench who made his little sister cry but had that priceless ‘it wasn’t me’ look and a lady with cigarette in mouth, outrageous lipstick on and dressed up to the nines, just glaring at me from across the street.”
Some photographs by Mr Lesberg’s wife, Catriona, are also part of the exhibition and the couple hope to pursue more artistic photography projects together in the near future.
“This exhibition was my wife’s idea - she was the one who encouraged me to do it,” Mr Lesberg said.