At times, walking an Australian street late at night can be a pleasure compromised when encountering pedestrians of uncertain disposition and the decision whether to avoid eye contact or venture a muted hello needs to be made. This wasn't on my mind when I photographed the New China restaurant in Bendigo because of the cheerfulness of its sign clashing with the Victorian primness of the building. The narrative of late night encounters only started to unfold as I began to populate the scene with figures and play with lighting schemas.

As with nearly all of these prints the information gathered in the source photo was inadequate to build a scene although I was pleased that the guy with his back turned was caught in the frame. Like other figures in this series he has been carefully cut out of the source bitmap and form fitted onto what can be best described as a cardboard cutout and moved closer to the camera. The couple walking towards the viewer came from another picture in my urban archive and I was happy that their dress and attitude were a nice fit for the mood of the piece.