James Brickwood - Schoolies Week
Sydney Sun-Herald photographer James Brickwood, 25, covered the Boxing Day Tsunami in Sri Lanka and is a nominee for Young Australian Journalist of the Year 2008. His documentary photos of Schoolies' Week on the Gold Coast are showing at the ACP
By Nick Dent
Be honest: you were just looking for an excuse to go to Schoolies, weren't you? I guess the thing that attracted me was that every year it would be covered by every media outlet and the story being portrayed didn't seem reflective of all the fun that everyone seems to talk about. I had a neighbour who was going up there and I told him I wanted to document it, and he was all for it.
What surprised you about the event? I wondered, where's all the violence? I went two years in a row and in that time I saw just one fight and it was two girls scratching each other. The other thing was how much everyone seemed to look after each other in the groups. Everyone made sure they had their alcohol, but they all stuck together.
Did people think you were there to pick up schoolgirls? I did get branded a ‘Toolie' [mature age Schoolie] a few times but it was all in good fun. I was well behaved. There was one girl that tried [hitting on me] but I wasn't even going to go near there.
What was the worst thing you saw? The worst thing was called ‘Taking the Cake'. I was in the Surfers Paradise RSL and everyone rushed into the toilets all of a sudden. "So and so's going to take the cake!" This guy got a urinal cake out of the trough, dropped it in his schooner and sculled it. That's the filthiest thing I've seen up there.
The photos are surprisingly sensitive and lyrical, like the one of the kid looking out his hotel room window. He's reminiscing on the week he'd just had. And I'm telling you, these guys had pushed the envelope. I've never seen people go that hard.
Schoolies is showing at the Australian Centre for Photography until 30 Aug.