This post marks the start of a new and exciting chapter, both in my professional and personal life. Yesterday I flew to Alice Springs; the small outback town exactly halfway between Adelaide and Darwin. It was a one way ticket.
I've moved to Alice Springs for a job with News Corp. Starting tomorrow I will be the new in-house photojournalist for the Centralian Advocate, which is pretty amazing to me. There aren't many full-time jobs for photographers these days, especially photojournalists.
When I graduated from my photography course hoping to pursue photojournalism I accepted that I would probably be toiling away as an overworked and underpaid freelancer for the rest of my career. My plan was to shoot projects between portrait and wedding work, submit stories to magazines, and publish books and hold exhibitions on my own coin hoping to get some exposure.
It seems incredible that not even one year after leaving RMIT I'm going to be working full-time as a photojournalist — and getting paid for it.
This initial post is to say farewell to Melbourne, which I will miss dearly, and introduce the project I have planned for Alice Springs.
There are a lot of things I'll miss about Melbourne, like my daily walk through Carlton Gardens on my way into the city, secret cafes and bars in hidden laneways, sitting by the Yarra on a sunny day, and the beaches in the south-east.
Carlton Gardens
It's funny thinking back to the first time I said goodbye to Melbourne — I'd just walked away from my marketing job and was getting ready for a year of travel. Beyond that I had no plans as to what I'd do next, photography was nothing more than an expensive hobby.
That moment was only four years ago. Life has certainly taken me in a new and exciting direction since then! This latest move is by far the biggest leap I've taken.
Much of my final week in Melbourne was spent catching up with friends and whittling my worldly possessions down to fit the 46kg weight limit. This kind of purging might strike terror into some people, but I bloody love it.
Checking-in at Melbourne Airport — everything I own fits in these bags
During my time in Alice Springs, on top of my job at the paper, I'll be working on a long-term project to document life in and around the town. The working title for the project is 'The Alice Years'. I'm hoping I haven't been too presumptuous with the name and won't need to later revise it to 'The Alice Months' or 'The Alice Weeks'.
I'm not really sure what to expect when I get to Alice Springs, apart from sunburn. Early research suggests that my work days will be spent covering the local footy, exhibition openings, and camel races (if you think I'm joking about the last one, just Google 'Alice Springs Camel Cup').
The red landscape of Alice Springs, taken from the plane just before I landed
I'm anticipating the job to be hard at first because I've never worked at a paper before. No doubt it will be a steep and uncomfortable learning curve and I'll make mistakes. I hate making mistakes.
But that's the whole point of the move; to challenge myself and do something new. Well, that, and I really like akubras, and Alice Springs is one of the only places I can legitimately wear one everyday.
My first akubra on Mt Wellington, Hobart. Image: Nick Heather
If you're keen to hear more about my outback adventures I'll be posting here regularly, so make sure you stop by from time to time. If you're lazy like me you can just follow me on Instagram and I'll let you know when a new post is up (@emma_louise_murray). There are bound to be some entertaining stories in the coming years.
For now I'll just say farewell Melbourne, hello Alice Springs.