Working Peel Street

This series features portraits and street scenes from the 1992 Tamworth Country Music Festival. Taken over over the Australia Day weekend, the photographs focus on the buskers, hawkers and punters on Peel Street in the centre of Tamworth. This collection contrasts with the scenes at formal venues and awards ceremonies that are often presented as the face of the Festival.

At the time they visited the Festival, Spiros and collaborator Peter Wright intended to turn their photographs and audio recordings into an article on the busking scene on Peel Street. The article never happened and the photographs and recordings were shelved. The work was eventually exhibited during the 2022 Tamworth Country Music Festival in co-operation with the Tamworth Regional Gallery. The exhibition incorporated 19 photographs and two video portraits that integrated the sound and pictures gathered at the time. The 2022 Festival marked 30 years since this work was created and 50 years since the Festival began.

Peel Street is the heart and soul of the Festival and this collection gives a sense of the look and feel of the street back in 1992.