Perth Voice Interactive

IT’S taken many months riding around the streets of North Perth but the Houses of 6006 project is complete.

Local photographer Brad Serls set out to the capture the houses of his neighbourhood, exploring every street and right of way of North Perth (“Long live 6006,” Perth Voice, June 16, 2014). 

Sometimes it’s a story of dilapidation and one of the prominent houses of the exhibition has since disappeared.

In an area like North Perth that’s going through a lot of change, political inference is difficult to avoid. But to people who’ve suggested he’s anti-development or anti-progress Serls says his work is a “celebration” of old places rather than a protest at their demise.

He says once you get off the main streets you find places that look like they’re from other cities altogether, so it’s worth taking a different route than your every day commute.

A favourite part of the project was the conversations that came out of it. People invited him around for a coffee to talk about the history of their place and meeting new people has been an unexpected plus. Some 70 per cent of the people who’ve RSVPd to his invites were strangers who’d been following the project.

The exhibition opens Monday November 3 at the William Street Bird at 6pm and it’s on the whole month.
As for what’s next, Serls has invited envoys from other nearby councils to the exhibition, hoping they’ll be keen to hire him on to document their residential streets too. This project and its 100 images will all be donated to the state library pictorial archive.

by DAVID BELL