72 Hours in Australia
A whirlwind adventure with The Pink Bear
In the first week of 2018, I get a flattering email from Prue Freeman, one of the founders of the Daisy Green Collection — an Australian-inspired group of restaurants in central London. She wants to chat about the possibility of a Pink Bear commission for their new flagship restaurant opening in the heart of Soho.
Straight away, I’m excited. The email mentions they’ve got over 4,000 square feet of space to play with, and that I’d have the freedom to incorporate some large-scale pieces. I love working big, so that definitely grabs me. Then she casually name-drops a few artists she’s worked with before — and Sir Peter Blake is on the list. That really gets my attention.
A few emails bounce back and forth, then the following week we meet in person over some seriously good food at their Victoria branch. We throw around a bunch of ideas — palm trees, beaches, pools, colours — drawing from a recent trip I’d taken to South America. By the end of the evening, I’m buzzing about the commission and loving the vibe with Prue and Tom, the other Daisy Green founder.
A week later, we meet again, this time on-site at the new location on Noel Street in Soho. It’s a two-floor building site at this stage, but I get a real sense of the space and the possibilities for where work could hang.
By the third meeting, I pitch something slightly wild — a brand new Pink Bear shoot, done on location in Australia. But not your usual relaxed three-week trip. I pitch 72 hours. Fly in, shoot around the clock, then fly back to London. To my surprise, they’re into it.
So that’s what I do. I land in Sydney at 6am and have my first shoot at 8. Every day, I’m up for sunrise and shoot until just after sunset. It’s intense. I’m racing against time, chasing the right light, trying to capture as much as I can across the city and the coast. There’s no time for jet lag. Just work, move, shoot. By the end of day three, I’m running on fumes and beyond grateful to collapse into a fully flat bed on the upper deck of the flight home.
The trip’s been full-on, but I’ve created work I’m genuinely proud of. You can check out the results below — or better yet, pop into Scarlett Green in Soho and see it in person.
