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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) - By Daniel Palmer, Professor, RMIT University

Review: Small Business, published by M.33, Melbourne, 2021

David Wadelton understands that photography is a form of time travel. Small Business, his new book of photographs, transports us to Melbourne’s vanishing architecture of interior workplaces created by largely working-class, post-war immigrants from Europe. It forms a natural complement to his first book, Suburban Baroque (2019), which paid homage to their domestic interiors.

Both books are the product of years of wandering, especially in the rapidly gentrifying inner north of Melbourne.

Wadelton has lived in Northcote since 1975, and has long shared his massive archive of initially black-and-white photos of his beloved suburb through his Facebook moniker Northcote Hysterical Society. Social media has proved an ideal vehicle for such obsessive localism, extending to the crowd-funding campaigns he uses to underwrite the publications.

Thornbury Espresso, High Street Thornbury, 2016. Courtesy of David Wadelton and M.33

In some ways, what was once hysterical or obsessive has become the norm. As people spend more time in their local neighbourhoods, interest in their character and the history of the city seems to be flourishing. This is reflected in the popularity of Instagram accounts like @oldvintageMelbourne, with its nostalgic photos from the State Library’s archives.

Small Business apparently started with the decline of local fish and chip shops in Northcote. Over the course of...

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