Darren Bell remembers hot sticky school holidays spent visiting cousins in Airds. Now he returns to to the housing estate as an artist participating in Temporary Democracies.  He is astounded at how little has changed with the suburbs only shopping centre; it is still the small, fairly grubby, and sparse late 80s designed ‘Airds Village’.  He was also pleasantly surprised to meet new cousins for the first time at Heathfield place as part of weekend events for Airds Out Loud in August 2013 .

As a photographer, Darren is interested in capturing the ordinary beauty of Airds—its pace of life, the sense of intimacy, and neighbourly relations amongst everyone.  It’s quite a different feel to the cloistered or private arms length distance of say Vaucluse. And, Darren adds, it is very different to what is represented in ‘Housos’.

“They have a strong pride in who they are as people. You know, every suburb has their dickheads.”

We are at Heathfield place, at Lyn’s place  and she is talking about her late husband who she refers to as the blonde Elvis. Darren asks Lyn if she wants a photo taken with her husbands portrait. It is screaming with adoration. As photographer, Darren gets his subjects to talk about things that are special or important to them, so they are able to relax with a smile. Maybe even provoke a laugh.

For 2014 Temporary Demoncracies, Darren is considering installing his photographs as large scale paste ups on the side of the soon to be demolished houses. Reminiscent of the french photographer JR, whose large scale images could be seen from the sky, these images will render visible the residents of this too often stigmatised public housing estate.