Through the Photographer’s Lens: Sydney Drinks

Sometimes photos communicate the essence of a place more poignantly than words can. For our Sydney, Australia, destination feature in the November/December 2017 issue, photographer Alana Dimou beautifully captures the city’s unique drinks scene, which is in a period of transition. “Sydney is in a bizarre, semi-turbulent time with a conservative state government right now,” she says. “Under the guise of ‘safety,’ controversial laws have been passed forcing bars to close earlier, which in turn has lead to a decrease in people traffic in areas surrounding the city center. At its worst, this has resulted in closures of once thriving businesses. I always knew Sydney had it good with its bar scene with incredible people doing incredible things, but it’s now more important than ever to support good businesses.”

In the gallery above, Dimou shares some of her favorite moments from her assignment (and a few images that didn’t make it into the print issue), along with some thoughts about the people and places she captured. “Food and drink photography isn’t only about still life; it’s about observing people make and prepare what they do best,” she says. “Meeting people, learning things—these are all pros of the job, but shooting for Imbibe was a great opportunity to visit some of my hometown’s best venues and provide real insight and understanding into what they do and why, and seeing the results of hard work lead to successful and admired businesses.”

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