In The Beginning

I’ve always had an eye for South Pacific-inspired fashion and have always had a handful of shirts in the wardrobe for the right occasion. I started working for a company where things loosened up on a Friday and started wearing a few and picking up a few more here and there. One particular Friday a colleague by the name of Howard T. commented that he’d seen me in one of them before. It hit me hard.

So I realised I needed many more of them and a way to track which ones I’d worn. Then I saw this article and realised if I was going to catalogue these shirts with a photo, I might as well have some fun with it. Especially after seeing this video of Weird Al Yankovic showing off some of the shirts he picked up during the 80s.

The Formula

There’s no shortage of large second-hand retailers and small charity shops that I can visit on my travels and for every store I hit the jackpot there are several where a donut is rolled. Once I’ve got 5-10 I’ll number them and scope out a route on Google Maps and the local transport agency’s website.

Then it’s just a case of paying one of the kids $2 a pop to take the photos and getting back to base to write them up. At one stage the kids went on strike and I tried using a tripod and a timer. Bad idea. That attracted way too much attention.

Another thing I have noticed is that someone out walking their dog will glance over but not be too bothered as the photo is taken. However, when they come around the corner and you’re at another stop in another shirt – that’s when it’s time to leave.

The template for the photos themselves kind of happened by accident. I took the first few as follows, then that became the thing. If I have a moustache it’s a November photo and if I look more agitated than normal you can bet the kids have had something to do with it.

The Exceptions

Achieving the same picture is usually not a problem, but here are some interesting ones:

• For no reason at all, #265 has been installed side on and in a garden, with the road it services passing through the back of the photo
• #239 backs on to a roundabout and the only safe place to take the picture was around the corner slightly
• I’ll come back to any stops that people are waiting in but with #233 it was the last one that day and I couldn’t wait for this woman to move on. So this is the only one with some company in it
• While not that surprising that a bus would turn up to a bus stop, it is when you’re trying to get a good photo. There are two where a bus has turned up at just that moment: #210 and #206
• #165 had been cleaned out by a car crash at the time the photo was taken. It has since been replaced
• The one that never was: I turned up at Stop#4246 to on Coliseum Drive to find a man living in it so decided to move on.

My Favourite Stops

The local councils seem to have a standard design that has evolved over time. However, some are so old they’ve never been upgraded as if they have some kind of heritage status. These are:

• #281 looks and smells like an old milking shed
• #246 has been designed to look like a small airport
• #227 which is like a small brick chimney that two people could huddle in
• #140, #136, #135 and #132 are like old unfinished houses
• I don’t know how to describe #95. A small house turned inside out?
• #31 looks like a small nuclear fallout shelter

The Future

Unclear. We’re having to go further afield to get fresh stops in and some of the shops I frequent are starting to ask questions about what exactly I’m up to, but we’re still going.