Melbourne is a city that bursts with photographic potential. From its iconic landmarks and bustling laneways to its sprawling gardens and hidden gems, there’s something for every photographer to capture. Whether you’re a seasoned pro or just starting out, here are the top 10 photography locations around Melbourne that will inspire your next photoshoot:

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Flinders Street Station

This grand dame of Melbourne’s architecture is a must-visit for any photographer. The ornate facade and bustling crowds provide endless opportunities to capture the city’s energy.

Royal Botanic Gardens

Escape the urban jungle and delve into the serene beauty of the Royal Botanic Gardens. Lush greenery, vibrant flowers, and tranquil ponds create a picturesque backdrop for any portrait or landscape shot.

Hosier Lane & Street Art

Melbourne’s laneways are a haven for street art enthusiasts. Hosier Lane is particularly famous for its ever-changing murals, providing a vibrant and colorful canvas for photographers.

St. Kilda Beach & Pier

Capture the essence of Melbourne’s beach culture at St Kilda. The iconic pier, colorful bathing boxes, and playful penguins offer a variety of subjects to photograph.

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Princes Pier

Visit with Melbourne’s history, a favourite for long exposure with local photographers.

Carlton Gardens

Home to the magnificent Royal Exhibition Building, Carlton Gardens is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The sprawling lawns, ornamental gardens, and historical architecture provide a touch of grandeur to your photographs. Don’t forget to take a tour of The Dome too.

The Yarra River

The Yarra River snakes its way through the heart of Melbourne, offering a variety of photographic opportunities. Capture the city skyline reflected in the water, photograph rowers gliding downstream, or take a scenic stroll along the Southbank promenade.

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Williamstown

This historic maritime village boasts charming waterfront cottages, cobblestone streets, and a relaxed atmosphere. Capture colorful boats docked in the harbor, wander through the Nelson Place Shipwreck Galleries, or photograph the historic lighthouse at sunset.

Melbourne Zoo

A must for animal lovers, with exotic and endangered animals. My favourite is the Butterfly house and the Lions.

Fitzroy Gardens

Visit Cooks Cottage, the Conservatory and more. Also a short stroll from The Shrine.

This is just a starting point, of course. Melbourne is a city that’s constantly evolving, so keep your eyes peeled for new and interesting places to photograph. With a little creativity and exploration, you’re sure to capture some stunning images that capture the essence of this vibrant city.

Bonus tip

Venture beyond the city center and explore Melbourne’s suburbs and surrounding areas. You’ll find hidden gems like Brighton Beach with its colorful bathing boxes, the Dandenong Ranges with their lush rainforests, and the Mornington Peninsula with its stunning coastline.

So, grab your camera, get out there, and start exploring! Melbourne is waiting to be captured through your lens.

Things to consider

• Melbourne’s weather can change from hot to cold, so check daily temperature guides and dress in layers.
• Bring a hat, sunglasses and good walking shoes.
• Public transport can be an easy way to get around, but you need a Miky card.
• Wide-angle or prime lenses like 35mm or even 50mm are great for architecture, street photography and more. A wide-angle to get you shots in confined spaces like Melbourne’s iconic alleyways.
• Don’t forget to try a coffee in one of the many Melbourne cafes. We’re famous for it!

The Sony World Photography Awards (SWPA) 2024 winners have been revealed, hand-picked from a staggering 380,000 entries. I was one of the lucky few to attend the press conference, exhibition and awards ceremony for the public announcement on April 18. 

The legendary Sebastião Salgado was there in person to receive the Outstanding Contribution to Photography accolade – do check out his vast and profoundly moving catalog of black and white photos – as were the 10 award winners across categories such as Creative, Portrait and Still Life, plus the sustainability, youth and student winners.  

Some pictures stopped me in my tracks, pulled me in – revealing hidden details as I ruminated on the backstory – and left me wanting to know and see more, especially the series A Thousand Cuts by Sujata Setia from the UK and Father and Son by Valery Poshtarov from Bulgaria. The creators being there to personally walk me through those stories and peel back the layers, made it all the more special.

During the exhibition, a topic that’s been buzzing around in my mind for over a year came to the fore – AI-generated images in photo competitions. It was a headline that dominated the previous year’s awards: one of the category-winning images was generated using AI – the result of a few word prompts and millions of random pixels from unknown sources coming together faster than it takes my kettle to boil.

Even now, twelve months later, AI is a topic that photography awards organizers appear keen to avoid and there was no acknowledgment of its presence during the awards.

Appreciating the superb photos on display: the time, expense and dedication of the photographers, and the bravery of their human subjects, I was keener than ever to discuss the subject that largely stood at odds with what I was witnessing. Is there a place for AI-generated images in photo competitions? How should photo competitions respond?

I sought out my favorite creatives from the awards, including ‘Portrait’ category winner Valery Poshtarov, ‘Creative’ category winner Sujata Setia and ‘Still Life’ category winner Federico Scarchilli from Italy with his Flora series, to find out what they think.

“I’m a hardcore traditionalist. For me, I haven’t tried to create yet with AI”

In Sujata Setia’s words, A Thousand Cuts is “an ongoing series of portraits and stories that present a photographic study of patterns of domestic abuse in the South Asian community. I have borrowed the metaphorical meaning of lingchi to showcase the cyclical nature of domestic abuse.

“The continuous act of chipping at the soul of the abused is expressed by making cuts on the portrait of the participant, while the prints are made on thin paper to depict the fragility of the existence. The final artwork is photographed in a tight crop to create a sense of suffocation and absence of room for movement.”

We spoke at length about her moving series and I urge you to discover A Thousand Cuts for yourself, too. Here’s what she said about AI:

“I’m a hardcore traditionalist. For me, I haven’t tried to create yet with AI. I find it fascinating, but it’s a completely different genre. It’s nothing to do with photography and I don’t think it should be brought into the same domain as human-produced photographic images.

“SWPA could definitely have a category for AI-generated images, which is a different category of course, but I believe it’s not part of a portrait category or a creative category.”

“The tech is going forward and as artists we need to follow the tech as it develops.”

Flora won the Still Life category at SWPA 2024. Created by Federico Scarchilli who says, “Plants are among the main suppliers of medicinal substances and should be considered as the producers and dynamic containers of chemical substances. In their evolution, they have developed innumerable secondary metabolites that perform various ecological functions for the plant, such as repellence, defense from herbivores, fighting against other plant species for resource control, defense from parasites and attraction to pollinators.

“These secondary metabolites have also shown important pharmacological activities in humans, which constitute the active ingredients or the main components on which the curative action of a drug depends; in fact, 40 percent of monomolecular drugs derive from plant species. This series highlights the important role of pharmacognosy in modern biology.”

Federico has a different stance on AI-generated images to Sujita.

“Yes, I think AI-generated images are totally fine. AI is a normal part of the process, the tech is going forward and as artists, we need to follow the tech as it develops. However, whether on the internet or those that are visiting exhibitions – it’s a must that the viewer knows what they are seeing is generated by AI.

“Photography is developing more and more every year, but as artists, we must follow the new way of doing art. It’s not a problem. But the viewer needs to know it. People not knowing it’s AI is the problem. Reality can be manipulated by not knowing what you are seeing – if it’s used in the wrong way it could be the worst thing. But it’s up to us how we use it.”

“These people are authentic human beings… present and connected”

Every man that I spoke to at the awards was touched by the symbolic action of holding hands in Valery Poshtarov’s Father and Son photos – we’re sons, many of us fathers. Here’s what Valery has to say about his ongoing project:

“In a world that is already growing apart, holding hands becomes a silent prayer – a way to come together again. While posing, fathers and sons hold hands for the first time in years, sometimes decades. It’s a powerful moment, often filled with hesitation or even resistance. This act of intimacy became the project’s main purpose, the photographs being just a mere testament to the long-unspoken love between the men.

“Spanning cultures, reaching corners of Bulgaria, Georgia, Turkey, Armenia, Serbia and Greece, this project has become a beacon of emotional expression and cultural preservation. It serves as a global stage, encouraging fathers and sons from around the world to join the act. By leaving the narratives behind, these portraits become open to interpretation and I invite viewers to add their own layers of meaning, making us all contributors to this evolving story of humanity.”

Valery passionately spoke about AI with me in the context of his work.

“These people are authentic human beings, living, experiencing something that they have never experienced before, being present and connected, is unique in its own way and cannot be replicated. If AI is able to produce aesthetically pleasing images with an infinite number of creative ideas, what would still be missing is this presence of real life. This forces me to continue, with each new portrait, with each new father and son, I see a completely new story. There’s two more people holding hands. There’s humanity waiting to be involved in this shared act.”

A deafening silence

For me, photo competition organizers’ silence regarding AI is deafening, and open conversations like the ones I had with several professional and award-winning photographers need to take place. We human creatives cannot afford to ignore AI image generation. 

The people I spoke with had wide-ranging stances on utilizing AI and its potential place in photo competitions. But a common thread throughout our conversations was one of transparency. Better to allow AI by creating a defined space for it within competitions – an AI category, if you will – than to cut it out altogether, although the issue of copyright cannot be ignored. 

Will organizations like Creo and the World Photography Organisation, which look after the Sony World Photography Awards, create an AI-generated category? I think there’s an element of wishful thinking within such photography circles that AI image generation is a fad. Better to let in blow over than to adapt. Beyond a vague sentiment from Creo Founder and CEO Scott Gray to TechRadar in February 2023 that “photography is at the forefront, constantly adapting and evolving”, we simply don’t know its stance, and that’s more worrying given the need for transparency.

• The Sony World Photo Awards 2024 exhibition is open to the public from April 19 to April 25 and takes place in Somerset House, London. Tickets can be booked on the SWPA website, starting at £7.50.

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GREENSBURG – Art on the Square Gallery and the Decatur County Arts Connection are hosting a regional community photography show at the gallery May 3 through June 1.

Photographers of any age from Decatur, Rush, Shelby, Bartholomew, Ripley and Franklin counties are invited to submit photographic works to the gallery before April 27 for inclusion in the show.

Each may submit up to three photographic works of any topic no larger than 16” x 20.” Each should be framed, matted or on canvas and ready to hang.

Photos will be judged in three categories: the Critics’ Choice Award (winner to receive $100), the Adult People’s Choice award ($50), and the Youth People’s Choice Award ($25).

Winners will be announced at a wine and cheese reception set for 4 to 6 p.m. May 10 at the gallery. The reception is open to the public.

The paintings and stained glass works of Ed Parker and Margaret Couch Parker will be on display at the gallery through June.

Coming June 24 to 27, kids 6 and up can register for the gallery’s annual Summer Art Camp; visit www.artonthesquaregallery.com/ to download an application. A $15 non-refundable fee will secure a child’s place at the camp; the $30 balance must be paid by June 10. Make checks payable to Decatur County Arts Connection.

Art on the Square Gallery is located at 114 E. Washington Street on the Greensburg Square.

Gallery hours are 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday, 2 to 6 p.m. Friday, and 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday.

Stage four Parkinson’s patient pursues dream of vintage car photography project – PembinaValleyOnline.com – Local news, Weather, Sports, Free Classifieds and Business Listings for the Pembina Valley, Manitoba

<meta content="Steve Van Vlaenderen was diagnosed with Parkison's Disease in 2011, but that hasn’t stopped him from pursuing his dreams of body building, sailing, and photography. This year, he was able to publish his first book of photography called Vanishing Wheels, capturing images of vintage vehicles in their final resting place on the prairies, including Southern Manitoba. Van Vlaenderen, currently battling stage 4 Parkinson's, together with his partner, Darlene Hildebrand, are currently on tour in Southern Manitoba, visiting local libraries for book signings. The couple fondly reminisced of falling in mud, dealing with tumultuous amounts of mosquitos, and being on the lookout for bears during photo shoots for the book. googletag.cmd.push(function() { if($(document).width()<900) { s = googletag.defineSlot('/50748803/pvol-all-bigbox', [300, 250], 'div-gpt-1648064209272-bbm1'); s.setTargeting('URL', [window.location.pathname]); s.setTargeting('position', [1648064209272]) s.addService(googletag.pubads()); googletag.pubads().refresh([s], {changeCorrelator: false}); } }); “It has been fun. The book opened my eyes and I saw parts of Canada that I would have never imagined seeing. I met people and heard stories that are so revealing of who we are as human beings and how unique Western Canada is. It was a great experience and I would do it again if I could.” The book of photography, Van Vlaenderen hopes, will bring awareness and raise funds for Parkinson’s research. “We don’t know enough about the disease. I hope we can fund Parkinson's association and Parkinson's research to find a cure. I'll never see a cure in my lifetime, but I'm hoping that my efforts, and Darlene’s efforts, will yield some research, and not just a cure, but to make it easier to live.” googletag.cmd.push(function() { if($(document).width()<900) { s = googletag.defineSlot('/50748803/pvol-all-bigbox', [300, 250], 'div-gpt-1648064209272-bbm2'); s.setTargeting('URL', [window.location.pathname]); s.setTargeting('position', [1648064209272]) s.addService(googletag.pubads()); googletag.pubads().refresh([s], {changeCorrelator: false}); } }); Van Vlaenderen gives advice to those that want to support those facing a degenerative disease, “When you see a person with a degenerative disease, they're not looking for pity. They are looking for understanding and patience. People want to be understood, and hopefully the support will be there.” Van Vlaenderen encourages those facing their own battle to keep pushing forward. “If you have Parkinson's disease or any degenerative disease, you don't have to stop. Pursue your dream. Don't stop. Just continue. Keep working.” The message of recognizing the caregiver is also important to Van Vlaenderen, suggesting that caregivers have the most important job. Caregivers are not only living for themselves, but for the person with the disease. googletag.cmd.push(function() { if($(document).width()

<meta content="Steve Van Vlaenderen was diagnosed with Parkison's Disease in 2011, but that hasn’t stopped him from pursuing his dreams of body building, sailing, and photography. This year, he was able to publish his first book of photography called Vanishing Wheels, capturing images of vintage vehicles in their final resting place on the prairies, including Southern Manitoba. Van Vlaenderen, currently battling stage 4 Parkinson's, together with his partner, Darlene Hildebrand, are currently on tour in Southern Manitoba, visiting local libraries for book signings. The couple fondly reminisced of falling in mud, dealing with tumultuous amounts of mosquitos, and being on the lookout for bears during photo shoots for the book. googletag.cmd.push(function() { if($(document).width()<900) { s = googletag.defineSlot('/50748803/pvol-all-bigbox', [300, 250], 'div-gpt-1648064209272-bbm1'); s.setTargeting('URL', [window.location.pathname]); s.setTargeting('position', [1648064209272]) s.addService(googletag.pubads()); googletag.pubads().refresh([s], {changeCorrelator: false}); } }); “It has been fun. The book opened my eyes and I saw parts of Canada that I would have never imagined seeing. I met people and heard stories that are so revealing of who we are as human beings and how unique Western Canada is. It was a great experience and I would do it again if I could.” The book of photography, Van Vlaenderen hopes, will bring awareness and raise funds for Parkinson’s research. “We don’t know enough about the disease. I hope we can fund Parkinson's association and Parkinson's research to find a cure. I'll never see a cure in my lifetime, but I'm hoping that my efforts, and Darlene’s efforts, will yield some research, and not just a cure, but to make it easier to live.” googletag.cmd.push(function() { if($(document).width()<900) { s = googletag.defineSlot('/50748803/pvol-all-bigbox', [300, 250], 'div-gpt-1648064209272-bbm2'); s.setTargeting('URL', [window.location.pathname]); s.setTargeting('position', [1648064209272]) s.addService(googletag.pubads()); googletag.pubads().refresh([s], {changeCorrelator: false}); } }); Van Vlaenderen gives advice to those that want to support those facing a degenerative disease, “When you see a person with a degenerative disease, they're not looking for pity. They are looking for understanding and patience. People want to be understood, and hopefully the support will be there.” Van Vlaenderen encourages those facing their own battle to keep pushing forward. “If you have Parkinson's disease or any degenerative disease, you don't have to stop. Pursue your dream. Don't stop. Just continue. Keep working.” The message of recognizing the caregiver is also important to Van Vlaenderen, suggesting that caregivers have the most important job. Caregivers are not only living for themselves, but for the person with the disease. googletag.cmd.push(function() { if($(document).width()

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Written by Connie Bailey
Sunday, Apr 21 2024, 6:58 AM

One of the many vintage car photos highlighted in the Vanishing Wheels book.

Article continues below advertisement ↴

Steve Van Vlaenderen was diagnosed with Parkison’s Disease in 2011, but that hasn’t stopped him from pursuing his dreams of body building, sailing, and photography. 

This year, he was able to publish his first book of photography called Vanishing Wheels, capturing images of vintage vehicles in their final resting place on the prairies, including Southern Manitoba.  

Van Vlaenderen, currently battling stage 4 Parkinson’s, together with his partner, Darlene Hildebrand, are currently on tour in Southern Manitoba, visiting local libraries for book signings. The couple fondly reminisced of falling in mud, dealing with tumultuous amounts of mosquitos, and being on the lookout for bears during photo shoots for the book. 

“It has been fun. The book opened my eyes and I saw parts of Canada that I would have never imagined seeing. I met people and heard stories that are so revealing of who we are as human beings and how unique Western Canada is. It was a great experience and I would do it again if I could.” 

Steve Van Vlaenderen reminisces about the bears that might be hiding in the bushes during this photo shoot.

The book of photography, Van Vlaenderen hopes, will bring awareness and raise funds for Parkinson’s research. 

“We don’t know enough about the disease. I hope we can fund Parkinson’s association and Parkinson’s research to find a cure. I’ll never see a cure in my lifetime, but I’m hoping that my efforts, and Darlene’s efforts, will yield some research, and not just a cure, but to make it easier to live.”  

Van Vlaenderen gives advice to those that want to support those facing a degenerative disease, “When you see a person with a degenerative disease, they’re not looking for pity. They are looking for understanding and patience. People want to be understood, and hopefully the support will be there.” 

Van Vlaenderen encourages those facing their own battle to keep pushing forward. 

“If you have Parkinson’s disease or any degenerative disease, you don’t have to stop. Pursue your dream. Don’t stop. Just continue. Keep working.” 

The message of recognizing the caregiver is also important to Van Vlaenderen, suggesting that caregivers have the most important job. Caregivers are not only living for themselves, but for the person with the disease. 

“They feel the pain, and yet they don’t have the disease. That is one of the things I really want to advocate for. The fact that the caregivers and care partners are the most important. They are the heroes of the story.” 

You are able to meet Steve Van Vlaenderen at the Altona Library’s book signing on Saturday, April 27 at 1 pm.  

Learn more here. 

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In an exchange with a student in 2015, the Russian photographer Gueorgui Pinkhassov said that one goal of taking pictures was to “transform everything into form”. His experience, he suggested, showed that the more “irresponsibly” a photographer approached the high seriousness of getting a good picture, the more likely they were to succeed. He referenced something that the French poet Paul Valéry wrote in 1894: “Most people see with their intellects much more often than with their eyes. Instead of coloured spaces, they become aware of concepts.”

Pinkhassov, mentored in Russia by the film-maker Andrei Tarkovsky, was elected to the Magnum agency in 1988, just before the collapse of the Soviet Union. He put his philosophy of concentrating on “coloured spaces” into practice in his 1998 book Sightwalk, a collection of photographs from the streets of Tokyo. This image from that book, taken in a hotel in the city – and included in the forthcoming Magnum square print sale – reflected all of his thinking about framing and light. Our minds may want to reduce the scene to a mundane idea of hotel foyers, but our eyes are thrilled by the patterns of shadow.

During that journey in Japan, Pinkhassov observed some calligraphy artists going into a trance as they worked, becoming as one with their brushes, oblivious to external realities. His ambition was to find that engagement with his camera; the moments he stilled in Japan included images of a schoolgirl seen through a subway window and curious glimpses of road junctions from high-rise vantages. In all cases the scenes threaten pure abstraction, surfaces always complicated, as here, by the play of light. Pinkhassov’s work brings to mind a line from another poet, Gerard Manley Hopkins: “Glory be to God for dappled things… Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)…”

April brings a new slate of hard to miss physical media releases.

This month, our favourites include a French Cinema modern classic that focuses on the lives and struggles of minorities, one of BB King’s greatest albums re-released pristinely for a new generation and a Star Wars Disney+ show that has been praised for its maturity and depth.

Jeff Wall (Released April 9)

What’s the best way to describe the work of Jeff Wall? The Canadian photographer, who has been operating since the 1970s, often calls his work “cinematographic”, but it might be more simply understood as staged photography.

An artist more than a documentarian, Wall, 78, takes inspiration from literature, film and art history, with work that is reminiscent in theme to legendary creatives such as Manet, Kafka, Ellison and Hokusai. Cataloguing the more than 50 works collected at the large-scale solo exhibition at the Fondation Beyeler in Riehen, Switzerland, the book has large-format slides in light boxes, black-and-white photographs and colour prints.

There’s no one quite like him, so there will be no book on your coffee table quite like it, either.

William Mullally, arts and culture editor

La Haine (Released April 2)

Mathieu Kassovitz might be most recognisable for his role in whimsical romance film Amelie, but he also directed one of the angriest and most artistically constructed films about the state of youth in 1990s France.

La Haine, which translates to hatred, was released in 1995 during a time when France was mired by constant clashes between the police and the youth living in impoverished housing estates. Presented in black and white, the film tells the story of three French teenagers (played by Vincent Cassel, Hubert Kounde and Said Taghmaoui), each from a different ethnic background, and their odyssey to Paris in search of solace from the chaos of their community.

The film is being released by the Criterion Collection in 4K UHD, having been released previously by them in Blu-ray. La Haine is beloved many actors and filmmakers around the world, including Oscar winner Jodie Foster who previously said: “There’s a movie I didn’t even make, that I helped release in the US, called La Haine. It’s the one I’m the most proud of, even if I had nothing to do with how wonderful it is.”

Faisal Salah, gaming and social writer

In the minds of many, there is simply no more influential artist to emerge from the New York subway art movement than Lee Quinones. Since he first started spray painting murals on the city’s underground at the age of 14, he moved from a precocious young graffiti artist into something greater. He is credited with inventing the free-standing urban mural with his famed Howard The Duck piece in 1978, and his work only got better and bolder from there. By 1980, he also helped legitimise the art form with his ground-breaking show White Columns.

He had a direct impact on luminaries such as Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring and David Wojnarowicz, and indirectly, on the thousands of anonymous artists worldwide who looked to the New York scene for guidance.

This new monograph includes his street art and paintings as well as his drawings, all with their deft social commentary put in focus and cultural context.

William Mullally, arts and culture editor

Lapsed Pacifist – Hypatia (Released April 12)

A sound engineer by trade, Colin Dunkerley had also built a humble fan base through his electronic works as Negative Neuron.

Under the Lapsed Pacifist moniker, he began to slowly but steadily explore a more ambient soundscape. The album Hypatia is the result of that exploration, bringing together field recordings and audio loops that Dunkerley collected on his travels and then processed.

The album was released this month via the record label A Strangely Isolated Place. Its vinyl edition has a beautiful transparent copper design that will definitely stand out on your turntable. The eight tracks on the album are, as the record company puts it, “a scrapbook of senses”, filled with sonic textures that inflict a gamut of emotions.

“The experience of moving between places so frequently can be fascinating but also dislocating and often quite lonely,” Dunkerley said of the album on its website. “I have so many small stories about places I’ve been, but I often think they aren’t necessarily real reflections of anywhere, no more real than anything Invisible Cities author [Italo] Calvino dreamt up.”

Razmig Bedirian, arts and culture writer

The Departed (April 23)

One of the most exciting and nail-biting films to come out of Hong Kong is Infernal Affairs from 2002, starring Andy Lau and Tony Leung, directed by Andrew Lau and Alan Mak. The film is an action thriller depicting two moles, one embedded with the police while the other is within a local gang.

The film became a cult favourite among many, including legendary director Martin Scorsese, who remade the film in 2006. Starring Jack Nicholson, Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon and Mark Wahlberg, The Departed is set in Boston and depicts both the seedy underbelly of the town as well as the strength of its police force.

The Departed was a box office success, making more than $290 million in global ticket sales. It was also nominated for five Academy Awards, taking home four Oscars, including Martin Scorsese’s only win for Best Achievement in Directing.

The film is being released in 4K UHD in two editions, one of which is a limited-edition steelbook with new artwork on the cover.

Faisal Salah, gaming and social writer

BB King – Blues is King (April 22)

BB King’s seminal live album Blues is King is getting its first official US vinyl release in more than 40 years.

Coming out on Monday, the album captures a 1966 performance in Chicago. The legendary bluesman, who died in 2015 aged 89, is accompanied by trumpeter Kenneth Sands, saxophonist Bobby Forte, Duke Jethro on organ, Louis Satterfield on bass and Sonny Freeman on drums.

The record contains emotive interpretations to several jazz and even country standards. In Night Life, King puts his own twist on the Willie Nelson song. In Buzz Me, he offers a bluesy take on the track made famous by Louis Jordan, also honouring the saxophonist with a rendition of I Know What You’re Puttin’ Down. Of course, he also plays originals, including Waitin’ on You and Gonna Keep on Loving You. In Gambler’s Blues, King arranges a track that, through its title, can be seen as a novel imagining of the folk song that also goes by St James Infirmary Blues.

Overall, Blues is King is sure to be a noteworthy addition to your record collection and offers a sharp insight into King’s legacy and soulful craft.

Razmig Bedirian, arts and culture writer

Andor (Released April 12)

For the uninitiated, the world of Star Wars is often dismissed as infantile – something adults cling to from their past that has no real value without the nostalgia one has from discovering it as a child. The problem is, as fun as Star Wars can be, the uninitiated often have a point.

That’s especially been true since Disney took over. Even promising starts such as The Mandalorian‘s first season end up devolving into childish fan service, and flashes of brilliance such as The Last Jedi are often met with backlash from the toxic subset of Star Wars fans. Possibly as a result, the majority of the franchise’s content these days feels like boys playing with their toys.

Andor, however, is something very different. In fact, the Disney+ original series, now lovingly released in a deluxe 4K set, is the only Star Wars content I’ve ever recommended to the uninitiated and had them fall in love with it. And curiously, its greatness was not achieved by dismissing the franchise’s key tenets. Rather, it’s great because its creator Tony Gilroy, the man behind Michael Clayton and the Bourne trilogy, takes Star Wars so seriously.

The Rebellion are treated as the true political radicals they are, and their attempts to destabilise the evil empire are treated with the stark realism of the world we live in. Meanwhile, the perspective of those working within the autocratic government are also deeply considered, giving them a similarly uncanny and disturbing humanity to that found in Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone of Interest.

This is the best Star Wars thing ever made, worth watching even if you have no interest in the rest. And this set is the best way to experience it.

William Mullally, arts and culture editor

Updated: April 21, 2024, 3:01 AM