Sometimes it works, sometimes it absolutely doesn't, but that's kind of the point. Yeah Rad's Joel McDonald weighs in on loose plans in the Top End. Overflowing with 98 octane fuel, and a much cruder combustible XXXX Gold Lager, Joel finds freedom in good company on the road.
Photos: Joel McDonald.
Isn't that what life's about? Nowhere else to be, but in the company of friends. A retrospective four years in the making, Joel shares treasured memories from outback Australia. Country miles of conversation between national parks, each with it's own scenic swimming hole. Keep your wits about you though, if the crocs don't get ya, that XXXX barbed wire will.
In April 2022, my partner and I flew up to the Northern Territory with two of our best mates. 2 weeks. A beast of a camping ute. A loose plan and a map. Every morning we'd wake up and decide where we were heading that day. I'd forgotten what that kind of freedom felt like. Shooting commercially every day had taken its toll on me, but taking my Canon AE-1 to the Top End with no expectations was exactly what I needed.
It's crazy to write this 4 years after the trip, as these photos are kind of the only things I remember about it, but I guess that's why we do what we do, right? To remember. To document, so that one day we can look back and relive the moments. Hella cheesy, but this is my first crack at this writing stuff, so soak it up.
I'm usually shooting gigs, so taking to landscapes was pretty new for me. I hadn't really done it since being in the US in 2019. We ended up booking a six-person plane and flying over the national park, these are some of my favourites.
I love fucking with my camera and the film. Half the fun with film is not really knowing if you've pulled it off until weeks later. Double exposures, long exposures, weird old cameras... I even dragged a panoramic film camera around for the trip. Sometimes it works, sometimes it absolutely doesn't, but that's kind of the point.
Daly Waters Pub completely blew my mind. It's basically one tiny town built around one iconic pub. The old owner cruised around on a mobility scooter, feeding the local wildlife while tourists wandered around having a beer. It felt like the closest thing I'll ever experience to Mad Max.
One of the most significant things about this trip was my friend Millsy. Millsy was a pretty fresh mate to me at this time, but we'd gotten along so fucking well every time we'd crossed paths. Mostly house parties and an absolute belter of a New Year's camping trip. I saw he was in Mataranka with his partner, Sam, after they'd been working up in Arnhem Land, so we decided to link up and spend a couple of days smashing XXXX and playing Greed with dice. We didn't know how good we had it.
When we both got back to Sydney, we discussed going back up there and running photography workshops for the kids, they loved cameras. Millsy sadly passed away later that year in a rock climbing accident. I still think about that conversation every time I look through these negatives. I'll get back up there one day.
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