Tonina Ryan, St Kilda Speaks – It tells you how to Be Alive (DOCO 2026)

The mural on the side of the Espy looked down on me as I began taking photographs, and I thanked one of my music idols, Paul Kelly, for this hotspot of festive fun. His song played in my mind as I wandered. “From St Kilda to Kings Cross is thirteen hours on a bus. I pressed my face against the glass and watched the white lines rushing past. And all around me felt like all inside me. And my body left me, and my soul went running...I want to see the sun go down from St Kilda Esplanade. Where the beach needs reconstruction, where the palm trees have it hard...' I like it when it feels like summer and when something's so special your hair stands on end. You know you are alive. The urge to preserve is the basis of art, and I adore capturing these brief warm interludes with photography. Every day, people are coming out of their shells. St Kilda seemed to be speaking. The beat of the drum, The sound of a heartbeat.

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