In collaboration with Australian MensLine and Lifeline charities.
A new photographic publication by Simon Bernhardt, exploring Australian masculinity, grief, memory, and car culture through a deeply personal, visual narrative set within the streets of Sydney.
Hoon retraces a familiar walk he once shared with Howard — a close friend, collaborator, and fellow photographer who tragically took his own life after a lifelong struggle with depression.
Rather than constructing a traditional documentary, Hoon operates as a psychological journey. The photographs look downward toward roads, gutters, oil stains, footpaths and fragments of suburban infrastructure.
At its core, Hoon examines male silence and the ways grief can inhabit ordinary environments long after a person has disappeared. The repetition of walking the same route becomes both ritual and mourning; a quiet attempt to remain connected to someone no longer present.
The publication also reflects on broader conversations surrounding Australian men’s mental health, particularly within environments where emotional restraint, stoicism, and performative masculinity are culturally embedded. Through its restrained visual imagery, it invites viewers to consider the emotional weight carried silently by many men, often hidden beneath routine, humour, obsession, work, or subculture.
The title Hoon references a distinctly Australian archetype often associated with rebellion, cars, noise, masculinity, and performance. Within Bernhardt’s publication, however, the term is recontextualised into something more vulnerable and reflective. The work asks what exists beneath these performances of toughness, and what emotional realities remain unspoken amongst Australian men.
Bernhardt’s practice has long explored identity, vulnerability, body image, and the psychological landscape of contemporary Australian life. With Hoon, these themes converge into one of his most intimate and emotionally charged works to date.