Item MM 110669 Digital Photograph - Public Speaker at City Square, Melbourne, 1990s

Description of Content

A public speaker standing on a stone bench at the city square. He is dressed in a black coat, and there is a box with the words 'Speakers forum' in front of him. This photograph shows a public speaker, Jeff (surname unknown), in the Melbourne City Square, 1990s. According to the photographer William Bowers, 'He used to speak on topics like economics in the city square on Sundays. One of the few unflappable ones. You couldn't provoke him.' The city square has been used as a forum for public speaking every Sunday for many years. The practice is now continued outside the Museum. William feels that the quality of speakers has declined. In the 1990s William would walk through the City of Melbourne and the other suburbs to take candid photographs, 'moments of life in the city that took his fancy.' They were all taken between 1992 - 1997.