Fiona Bowring, Fyshwick Women Working (PEOPLE 2023)

In 2022 I set out to capture the changing face of Canberra’s industrial suburb, Fyshwick, and the women who work there. Visitors to Fyshwick are mainly destination-driven: it’s not a wandering place. You go there when you need a couch or a car part, camping gear or cleaning supplies. Someone will have (or tell you) just what you need, usually based on vast experience of doing that very thing. In this project I has turned that outcome-driven approach to the area on its head. I roamed the streets not looking for things, or services, but the stories of the women who work there. Here are four of them: Jovanka, who’s worked repairing, washing and sorting linens for 27 years, and Beata, an artist, who is so busy with her wholefoods café she has no time for art. Then there’s Tanya, ‘living her dream’ of running a dog daycare service, and finally Carol, who long ago married into a family that has sold chook food and garden supplies on the same spot since the 1940s.

Images have been resized for web display, which may cause some loss of image quality. Note: Original high-resolution images are used for judging.