Author(s): Nic Bezzina

Photography

Newtown has always been a place to shop. Since the 1870s visitors have caught thetrain, or later the omnibus or tram to shop along thehigh street of Newtown. The contempory stories and documantry photographs recorded by Nic Bezzina provide an intimate view of small business in the inner city. While individually they are charming vignettes, together the stories of Newtown Shopkeepers touch on larger historical themes of migration. Entrepreneurship, the retail economy and gentrification of the inner city. The photographs are portraits, but also studies of shop interiors. Over time these stories and photographs will become a vital addition to the historical record. Newtown Shopkeepers ia a celebration of one of Sydney's most valuable suburbs: it's a place that is bustling and always changing.