Vittorio Bianchi, owner, Piccolo Bar Kings Cross

Mamiya C220 + Kodak Portra 400

Kings Cross in Sydney Australia, is one big diversion. The prostitutes are still there, so are the drugs despite numerous clean-up campaigns, but a lot has changed over the years. Long-time residents say the bohemian atmosphere of the sixties and seventies is all but gone. Many artists have been forced out by rising real estate prices and most of the old entertainment venues like Les Girls have closed down. Outlasting them all is a tiny, run down coffee shop called the Piccolo, where you can still catch a whiff of bohemian attitude.

I have always been fascinated by this café as a kid and as a young teenager roaming the cross for anything but sanity I would often wonder in to grab a coffee. The flamboyant owner would smile and was always willing to have a chat. The atmosphere was always smokey and colourful and filled with interesting speak about almost anything.

Vittorio Bianchi has been serving coffee in the piccolo for nearly 45 years and has seen “the cross” change from its bohemian days with its jazz clubs to its dark days where even the young were spared no mercy on the streets of Kings Cross.

During Xmas I wondered back to Sydney and made sure I checked out if the piccolo was still around. It still is and the owner was none to happy to chat as always. He moaned the change that had swept throughout the cross and about a building across the road which used to house barons, a seedy but trustworthy wine bar complete with it’s sticky décor and deep hues, that is soon to be demolished for up market shoeboxes that will forever change the whole urban landscape of that famous street. Viva Gentrification, developers win again..

During this discussion this portrait was born.

edit: this shot was choosen as a finalist in the sydney now competition which i am thrilled about.

I found these youtube videos about the piccolo:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_DzfzVFt8o
www.youtube.com/watch?v=BToLl0wwM6o
www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4Fmn9UBaqo

Taken on: December 27, 2007

Tags:

Mamiya C220

Kodak Portra 400NC

most viewed

Medium Format

120

Film

C-41

TLR

Twin Lens Reflex

Diego DeNicola

Kings Cross

Sydney Cafes

Sydney

Piccolo Bar

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Groups appears in: • Portrait (real persons only)

Stats: 12,455 views / 34 comments

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