Luna Park turns 100
11.42AM 30-11-2012
One hundred years ago children were not entertained by hand-held computer games.
They did not listen to iPods filled with music.
Teenagers did not text on mobile devices and update on Facebook, but 100 years ago Melbourne was entertained by Luna Park.
On December 13, Luna Park celebrates its 100th birthday.
I don’t know whether Mr Moon will receive a letter from the Queen but there’ll definitely be celebrations.
Many of us have childhood memories of Luna Park.
It seemed so much bigger then but just as much fun – coloured flashing lights in every direction, kids running from ride to ride and parents trying to keep up.
I wanted to photograph Luna Park like that, the way I remember it from childhood.
Big, bright, colourful and buzzing with movement, with whirling rides beckoning, offering to launch us into space and then hanging us upside down to dry out.
So I focused my camera on the colour and movement of Luna Park at night.
I used long exposures to show what it looks like if we slow down and let the colours move; I went to the top of the ferris wheel to capture the view; and I photographed a family in front of the famous face with glittering lights.
I don’t know what kids would have thought of iPods in 1912 but I’m pretty sure they loved Luna Park just as they do now.