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Photographer Don Urban


Half Painted Boards. The beautiful artwork made unwittingly by someone just doing a job. Without knowledge of modern art, the builder slapped on some paint and screwed some boards together. I wish I could take the whole thing home. It looks like a Mark Rothko or Robert Rauschenberg piece of mid-century art.
Half Painted Boards. The beautiful artwork made unwittingly by someone just doing a job. Without knowledge of modern art, the builder slapped on some paint and screwed some boards together. I wish I could take the whole thing home. It looks like a Mark Rothko or Robert Rauschenberg piece of mid-century art.

My name is Don Urban. I am a photographer in Sydney, Australia. Perhaps I could be shooting sweeping landscapes or our unique fauna, but I'm more interested in the discarded, the mundane and the 'accidental' art that forms when junk, paint or other materials come together in a random, yet harmonious way.

Reflections, Waterloo Sydney, Australia Shopping mall. The reflections off multiple angles creates a confusing and rhythmic play of light. By focusing on just this small element, the skylight is taken out of context and becomes it's own piece of artwork, disconnected from the banality of a shopping mall.
Reflections, Waterloo Sydney, Australia Shopping mall. The reflections off multiple angles creates a confusing and rhythmic play of light. By focusing on just this small element, the skylight is taken out of context and becomes it's own piece of artwork, disconnected from the banality of a shopping mall.

I'm looking at the overlooked. Hidden in plain sight, are these wonderful non-creative artworks. They are there to serve a purpose first, yet to the creative eye, and contained by the frame of the camera, they become something more.  

Plywood boards screwed together with a slip of hessian. I adore these muted tones and the simplistic craftsmanship. It is pure and primitive. The lack of self consciousness is always refreshing. It does the task (which I am unsure of- perhaps to keep dogs out or just a repair to his fence) and nothing more.
Plywood boards screwed together with a slip of hessian. I adore these muted tones and the simplistic craftsmanship. It is pure and primitive. The lack of self consciousness is always refreshing. It does the task (which I am unsure of- perhaps to keep dogs out or just a repair to his fence) and nothing more.

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