Painting with light in a dark world

This is a wonderful documentary containing interviews and observational footage on the life and works of a Kings Cross street photographer, Peter Darren Moyle. Arriving from the bush during the 1980s with no money, no support and no where to live, Moyle with his old 1936 camera in hand, has immortalised the underbelly of Kings Cross with images of prostitutes, drug addicts, transvestites, and the homeless capturing their vulnerability, their loneliness, their pain but also their craziness, their humor, their sense of wickedness. His black and white images can be evocative, confrontational, and even humorous, often mirroring the contrasts of day and night where daytime equals “damaged stock” and night-time equals “alive”. Moyle has had to be resourceful to avoid becoming a victim himself, living in squats, eating out of bins, setting up dark-rooms wherever possible to help finance the special film and developing processes he needs to produce his photographs. He talks about the darker side of his life, his aspirations to be a successful photographer and for his work to be made more available to a wider audience. Through Robert McFarlane, renowned photographer and critic, Moyle is given a chance to come out of the void and into the open - McFarlane wants to set up a solo exhibition of Moyle’s works. This is an uncompromising look at Peter Darren Moyle, his journey as he strives towards his first exhibition, his relationship to the environment and the people he shares his life with but it is also a social commentary of the times we live in. An extraordinary piece of work. Cinematography by Mark Bliss.