About
hidden__north began the way most obsessions do: quietly, without a plan.
A camera. A habit of walking. A particular interest in what gets left behind when a city accelerates forward. Brunswick, Fitzroy, Collingwood, Northcote, Thornbury. The inner north of Melbourne has been remaking itself for two decades, and most of what’s being lost was never documented.
That’s the gap hidden__north sits in.
The project now spans more than 530 images and continues to grow. It is not archive photography in the institutional sense. It’s a sustained act of attention: walking slowly, looking closely, making photographs that hold still long enough for the subject to matter.
The archive is organised into four ongoing series.
Facades documents the exterior faces of Melbourne’s inner north buildings: rendered brick, painted bluestone, corrugated iron, the layered surfaces that accumulate meaning over time.
Ghost Signs captures the faded commercial lettering still visible on the walls of buildings throughout Brunswick, Fitzroy, Collingwood, and surrounds. Hand-painted signs for businesses that no longer exist, on walls that still carry the weight of them.
Details is a close study: the hinges, tiles, window frames, and surface textures that identify a building as belonging to a specific time and place.
Fading North is the flagship series: a curated collection of the strongest images across the archive, available as limited edition fine art prints.
The photographer
hidden__north is the work of Lesley Bourne, designer, photographer, and resident of Melbourne's inner north. The project runs alongside Bourne Creative, her branding and photography studio also based in Brunswick East.
The camera is a constant presence. The inner north is home.
Selected images from the archive are available as archival fine art prints: limited edition and open edition, printed on museum-quality paper. No canvas. No gimmicks. Just the photograph, printed properly.
Get in touch
For print enquiries, commissions, or to talk about the project:
