This is the outer suburbs of Melbourne, the very edge of the city’s expanding body – the growth zone. Just a few years ago, this land was raw and unclaimed; wilderness stretching into the horizon. The city, driven by the forces of profit and migration, sent in developers to strip that emptiness and convert it into something predictable – the housing estates. Spreading like a virus, these suburbs devour the earth without regard for nature, or for the people who will live there. This series documents the edge where nature turns to suburbia.

The new master-planned communities come with glossy-brand identities, yet in the end they all look the same. The landscape is artificially empty – freshly laid asphalt, endless fences, fake ponds, and the skeletons of unfinished houses. Neighbor is isolated from neighbor, each in their own box.

While traveling through these lands, I found myself slipping into a dreamlike state.

Affected by the mind-numbing sameness of the landscape, I could not stop to wonder – what kind of future will these suburbs bring?

Biography

Anton is a Russian-Australian photographer based in Melbourne. Working with film and Polaroid, he explores emotion, isolation, and the quiet impact of societal structures on the individual.

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