Award winning photographer captures America’s darker side.

If you’re the kind of traveller that likes to get off the beaten track and experience a slice of American life not often seen, a photographic exhibit by Craig Buchanan, the Creative Director at The Brand Agency, is perfect for you.

Entitled ‘America,’ the exhibit contains 43 images taken during Craig’s three month trip across the United States last year and it captures homeless people, landscapes and streetscapes in New York, Las Vegas, San Francisco and Washington DC. “I think the best way to describe the images would be street photography, it’s a kind of photo-journalism style that shows the grittier side of life in America,” Craig said.

“I have this fascination with the US, particularly New York City (my wife thinks it’s my spiritual home). It’s an amazing melting pot of so many cultures and influences, it’s the diversity I’m really interested in. I’m naturally curious so I’m always finding myself in the back streets and the seedier side of a city.”

“In New York you can be walking around the crowded streets of Soho amongst the fashionable one minute and next you find yourself outside the Hells Angels headquarters in the Bowery.”

“It can be quite confronting when you stick a camera in someone’s face. With the homeless, I always try and strike up a conversation and get to know their story before I ask their permission for a portrait. The thing is to get them to trust you, once you find out why they’re living on the streets you realize the line between ‘us and them’ is pretty narrow. Most of the time these people aren’t that scary but every now and again someone will get a little crazy. One guy threatened to kill me once. Needless to say I got out of there pretty quick.”

“Another time my youngest and I got caught up in a brawl on a subway in the Bronx.”

“You’ve got to keep your wits about you, the irony is I find New York relatively safe. I feel very much at home there.”

The exhibition is Craig’s first solo photographic exhibit but more are in the pipeline.

“I have a black and white nude series, a collection from a recent trip to Los Angeles and I’m currently working on a series of landscapes using an old fashioned wooden pinhole camera.”

“Film is my preferred medium. Digital has it’s place, particularly with commercial photography, but I’m much more comfortable with film. I love the fact that’s it’s not instant. The anticipation of getting the contacts back is part of the process. I just find it so much more satisfying. I found in America that film is still big particularly with art photography.”

Even before the exhibition opens Craig’s collection has already received critical acclaim. Two of the photographs recently won awards in Australia’s inaugural Corbis Creatives “Behind the Lens” photographic competition.

Craig’s ‘America’ exhibition opens at Studio Red Dust, 152 Scarborough Beach Road Mt Hawthorn, on Friday February 15 and runs until March 15.