Katoomba Noir: Australian Gothic

The Photography of Dean Sewell

Wherever I have lived I have always documented my own immediate environs.

The photograph above is of my front yard.

You don’t get any more immediate.

There is an old quip about Katoomba: The Retired, the Retarded, the Retrenched and the Religious.

No one laughs but us.

Proponents call it the home of The Relaxed, The Rejuvenated, The Recharged and The Revived.

Oh sure.

Katoomba, a small town in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney, is a unique place, rife with colorful characters.

It is a social welfare state.

The bookend suburbs are much more affluent.

It is what it is.

Through a Dark Glassily

Katoomba was built because of coal.