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2023 -
A Subtle Thief of Youth is an ongoing exploration by Billy Hemmingson. It focuses on a small port town on the southern coast of Western Australia, a place where he spent his teenage years, often overlooked, wedged between a sprawling metropolis and a playground for the wealthy. The town, he notes, “exists primarily to house, feed, and occasionally employ those who remain. Most who leave never return. Most who stay never leave.”
Hemmingson reflects on his formative years with clarity and unease. “Growing up there, I witnessed firsthand how limited the prospects were, and how few opportunities awaited. Friends around me fell into cycles of social disobedience. It felt like an inevitable trap, one that I, like many others, was quickly falling into.”
His photographs capture more than decay; they navigate the emotional and psychological landscape of a place held in quiet tension between past and present. Shadows stretch across dirt jumps and vacant skateparks, while disapproving eyes peer through chain-link barriers. These images reveal the fragile, complex social fabric, where long standing family ties entwine with unspoken struggles, and the push-pull tension of belonging and escape.
The work presents a nuanced and deeply personal study of place, youth, and endurance. “Amidst the decay and hardship,” Hemmingson discovers, “there are moments of resilience and unexpected beauty, stories of those who remain, shaping the town’s fragile future. But at times these are counterweighted with stories of loss and lives left unfulfilled.”