'93: PUNCHING THE LIGHT

A raw, intimate look at Sydney’s early ’90s rave scene, '93: PUNCHING THE LIGHT blends photos, diary entries, and flyers from my first project at 17—rediscovered decades later and published in 2019 as a vivid time capsule of youth and culture.

Australian-born, New York–based photographer Simon Burstall (b. 1975) began taking photographs at age 15, just as he discovered Sydney’s burgeoning rave scene. In a time before digital media, he slung a camera over his shoulder and began documenting a raw, electric subculture unfolding around him.

The images in '93: PUNCHING THE LIGHT come from the hallways and warehouse dance floors of 1992–1993, when Burstall was just 16 to 18 years old. Shot with youthful urgency and intimacy, the photographs capture the people, style, and spirit of a scene on the edge of cultural transformation.

Revisited some 25 years later, the work is layered with poignant journal entries that contrast the euphoric dreamland of raving with moments of adolescent reflection. '93: PUNCHING THE LIGHT is both a love letter to a formative time and an exposé of a subculture that pulsed beneath the mainstream—restless, creative, and alive.