31 Beach Looks

The casual foundations of beach culture and beachwear are intrinsically recognisable to those who have spent time anywhere near the Australian coast. Chanel, selfie sticks, and illuminated screens are rarely our frames of reference. Shot on location at one of the world’s most iconic beaches, Banjo McLachlan’s new book, 31 Beach Looks, reads like an alternative manifesto for the beach experience.

Young tourists, ageing locals, Speedo-clad amateur action photographers, passersby – no one escapes the Sydney-based photographer’s humorous, hyper-observant gaze. Disappearing into the crowd and shooting in the pressure of the moment, Banjo gains intimate access to his subjects, even if fleeting. On spending time with this series, it comes as little surprise that the now editorial and documentary photographer’s early career was spent as a paparazzo in the US, shooting some of the world’s biggest stars. Back on the beach, key themes and details emerge amidst the tight framing and emphatic zooms. Luxury accessories, faded tattoos, perfectly lacquered nails, and idiosyncratic beach fashion choices punctuate this playful series. But perhaps the most resonant motif is that of the camera and the screen itself. For all the beachgoers’ enthusiasm for their locale, they seem one step removed. In the vast majority of these 31 Beach Looks, we observe the subject experiencing the beach through the mediated space of the smartphone screen. We look at them through Banjo’s lens, while they look at the beach through their own.

But rather than tending to some cultural or technological critique, these images feel lively, playful, even democratising. There is no singular way to experience the Australian beach. It is a reflection of us all.

Banjo McLachlan (b. 1987, Sydney) is an editorial, fashion, and documentary photographer based on Sydney’s Northern Beaches. After leaving school at sixteen to train as a photographer, he began working as a paparazzo while still in his teens, shooting some of the world’s biggest stars in Australia and the US, including his first ever assignment – to photograph Paris Hilton and her then little-known assistant Kim Kardashian. He later moved to New York for the best part of a decade, where he began to develop his art, editorial, and documentary practice. He has self-published multiple books, and he has held three solo exhibitions, including Big Deal (2019) at Monster Children Gallery in New York. The launch of 31 Beach Looks coincides with an exhibition of the same name at China Heights Gallery in Sydney, in October 2024