{"id":554879,"date":"2026-03-21T11:57:32","date_gmt":"2026-03-21T11:57:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/554879\/"},"modified":"2026-03-21T11:57:32","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T11:57:32","slug":"viva-gibbs-photos-of-everyday-people-in-suburban-melbourne-c-1975-1990","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/554879\/","title":{"rendered":"Viva Gibb’s Photos of Everyday People In Suburban Melbourne, c.1975-1990"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe people in my photographs are those who have survived at all odds\u2026 the lonely man next door, the old people who have lived in the area all their lives and are threatened with eviction, the homeless man whose only dream is to have a room of his own\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 Viva Gibb<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Melbourne<\/p>\n

Butcher on Errol Street, North Melbourne, 1980.<\/p>\n

From 1975 to the early 1990s, Viva Gibb (11 September 1945\u20134 December 2017) was living in the suburbs of west and north Melbourne<\/a>, Australia<\/a>. She took pictures of people in her area.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\u2018Lolly<\/p>\n

\u2018Lolly seller\u2019 on Victoria Street, West Melbourne in 1985<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The people in my photographs are those who have survived at all odds \u2014 socially, racially, and economically \u2014 in our essentially bourgeois society; the lonely man next door, the old people who have lived in the area all their lives and are threatened with eviction, the homeless man whose only dream is to have a room of his own\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2013 Viva Gibb<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\u2018Not<\/p>\n

\u2018Not many of us left now\u2019- Billy Flowers, 44 Hawke Street, West Melbourne, 1981.<\/p>\n

In 1975, Gibb moved to 64 Capel Street, West Melbourne, with her two children, Sybil and Rupert. She established her first dedicated darkroom a few doors up at number 72 Capel Street and began to chronicle the people and streets around her. She worked mainly with a Rolleiflex twin-lens medium-format camera and a large-format 4\u00d75-inch Graflex Speed Graphic press camera, developing and printing her own silver gelatin prints.<\/p>\n

From 1980, she lived and worked at 10 Hawke Street, with her studio on Stanley Street sandwiched between a neighbour and what she described as the \u201cbikie headquarters\u201d at number 59.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Colin
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

Colin Cheng outside his home at 26 Capel Street, West Melbourne, 1980.<\/p>\n

\"Centenary<\/p>\n

Centenary Bakery owner, 197 Victoria Street, West Melbourne, 1978.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t really deal with people I don\u2019t know\u2026 I only ask them for a photograph if I am interested in that person, if there is something in the whole story about them\u2026 or some special feature, whether it is their beauty or their personality.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 Viva Gibb<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Frank
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

Frank the barber, Errol Street, North Melbourne, 1980.<\/p>\n

\"Dorothy<\/p>\n

Dorothy at George Joseph\u2019s gun shop, 209 Victoria Street, West Melbourne, 1983.<\/p>\n

\"Giuseppe<\/p>\n

Giuseppe Lanteri, or \u2018The Boss\u2019, at Don Camillo Cafe, 215 Victoria Street, West Melbourne, 1981.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

Lillee feeding Pirate, Victoria Street, West Melbourne, 1982.<\/p>\n

\"Jimmy<\/p>\n

Jimmy at the wholesale flower shop, 217 Victoria Street, West Melbourne, 1977.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Willie, Hawke Street squat, West Melbourne, 1985.<\/p>\n

\"Maureen<\/p>\n

Maureen at age 90, 8 Hawke Street, West Melbourne, 1987.<\/p>\n

\"Maria<\/p>\n

Maria Lanteri, or \u2018Signora\u2019, at Don Camillo Cafe, 215 Victoria Street, West Melbourne, 1980.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Man outside 18 Capel Street, West Melbourne, some time between 1975 and 1980.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Man at Jack Rozen\u2019s barber shop, 9 Errol Street, North Melbourne, 1983.<\/p>\n

\"Lindsay<\/p>\n

Lindsay Williams, Hawke Street, West Melbourne, 1985.<\/p>\n

Her pictures of the streets where she lived are on display at the City Gallery.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThe people in my photographs are those who have survived at all odds\u2026 the lonely man next door,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":554880,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[449,458,459,64,63,460,134],"class_list":["post-554879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-design","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=554879"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554879\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/554880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=554879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=554879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=554879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}