Back in the early 1970's, a young Andrew Chapman boarded the green bus from Elsternwick into the heart of Melbourne, 35mm camera in hand.
That modest transit route ignited more than five decades of relentless visual enquiry – an odyssey now distilled into The Green Bus: Andrew Chapman’s 55-Year Photographic Journey Through the Streets of Melbourne, showing at Melbourne Town Hall’s City Gallery.
Curated by Chapman himself, the exhibition pairs 55 gelatin silver prints with 55 years of work, tracking the city’s pulse from 1971 to the present day.
For working editorial and documentary shooters, Chapman needs little introduction. After studying photography at Prahran College and cutting his teeth as a news photographer in the late 1970s, Chapman OAM forged an extraordinary career documenting Australian politics, woolsheds, industry and daily life.
The Green Bus serves as an uncompromising masterclass in humanist reportage. The survey ranges from high drama – such as Chief Fire Officer Laurie Lavelle commanding a blazing CBD incident in April 1980 – to political friction in his frames of youths waiting to protest Malcolm Fraser along Bourke Street in 1975.
Elsewhere, Chapman catches the spontaneous theatre of public life, from passengers chatting in the back of the namesake green bus to crowds perching atop Swanston Street shop awnings during the 1987 Moomba Parade.
The exhibition coincides with the City of Melbourne Art and Heritage Collection’s acquisition of a substantial body of Chapman’s archive.
“Today we inhabit a post-truth society where much is not quite as it seems, but I’d like to believe that what I have witnessed bears honest testimony to the past,” Chapman reflects. “In this current AI-fuelled, social media-driven landscape, the importance of being able to cling to and rely on these grains of truth has never been more important.”
Accompanied by a catalogue featuring an essay by curator Stella Loftus-Hills, the collection is both a love letter to Melbourne and an inspiring reminder of what long-form dedication looks like in practice.
For photographers interested in the craft of street and documentary storytelling, Chapman’s eye offers an invaluable roadmap.
The Green Bus: Andrew Chapman’s 55-year photographic journey through the streets of Melbourne runs at City Gallery, Melbourne Town Hall, until 19 February 2027.
You can find out more on the City Gallery website. Or see more of Andrew's work on his website.
