‘Mowing the Dream’: Photos of Australian Homeowners Tending Their Lawns

Diving into the everyday drudgery of domestic life, self-taught photographer Paul Hermes chronicles the tedious duties and existential desires of the Australian homeowner in his series Mowing the Dream. For two years, Hermes spent his summers winding through the many neighborhoods of Melbourne, car windows down and senses alert for the tell-tale smells and sounds of the season’s most common weekend chore. The series looks at the settled success of suburbia when juxtaposed against a lifetime of tedious responsibilities destined to be repeated again and again. Mowing the Dream‘s typology of backyard laborers explores the seemingly tiresome nature of “having it all”—the sunny perfection of domesticity paling just slightly when the grass gets a bit high.

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