SECOND CITY is a collection of black and white candid, enchanting and surprising photographs from Jesse Marlow’s hometown, Melbourne, taken from 1998-2004. Restrained and elegant, the work presents a city unrecognisable from the urban playground of coffee, bars and restaurants of today. As we reimagine our cities post-pandemic, Marlow’s SECOND CITY reminds the viewer of the power of a curious, artistic eye and the transience of a moment and an era. Photographed before the boom of the mid-2000s, the collection grew out of the simple practice of exploring the city and surrounds with ‘a camera and a pocket of film’. Now an accomplished and internationally recognised street photographer, Marlow’s early work collected here in SECOND CITY charts the nascent, fertile beginnings of a career and a city. 

Biography

Jesse Marlow is an Australian photographer based in Melbourne. Marlow’s personal work has been published in four books of his own, and in various books with others; his practice has been exhibited in a number of solo exhibitions in Australia, and group exhibitions internationally; and is held in the private and public art collections including the National Gallery of Victoria, Australian Parliament House Canberra, Monash Gallery of Art, City of Melbourne and State Library of Victoria. Jesse attended the World Press Joop Swart Masterclass in Amsterdam, won first prize in the 2011 London Street Photography Festival’s International Street Photography Award, and in the 2012 Bowness Photography Prize. He is a current member of both the international street photographers’ collective, UP Photographers and Institute Artists.

SECOND CITY book and limited edition exhibition prints are available, please contact: store.melbourne@leica-camera.com | 03 9639 3402