Guns, fast cars, Prosecco protests, Tesla – there are a lot of things that could only happen in America. But a recent photo, taken by Sydney resident Amaury Treguer proves – on the flip side – there are a few scenes that could only ever happen in Australia.
Specifically, there are certain images you only see in Bondi, Sydney’s most iconic stretch of sand. Amaury, a Parisian photographer operating the Morning Bondi Instagram account, recently took to The Internet to prove this, showing when they’re not congregating en masse at The Sheaf, Eastern Suburbs residents make time for some truly wholesome living.
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“Only in Bondi,” Amaury wrote. “I love Bondi for a lot of things including all the randomness that you can witness. This morning started with what I thought initially a photo shoot, but it actually wasn’t, it was the filming of a beautiful rap music video with the lady singing along the music pumping from the speakers. The rest was pretty usual and the surf pumping.”
Amaury isn’t the only photographer to cotton onto Bondi’s unique lifestyle. The Instagram account Only In Bondi has collated some classics of late too.
From community spirit…
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… to innovative wintertime solutions…
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… to parking mishaps…
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… these images go against the grain. In fact, somewhat controversially, we’d argue they show Bondi is more unique than its detractors would have you believe. Where else could you find the same mix of budget luxury?
Also, while some of Bondi’s defiant reputation is deserved, much of it is overhyped. As DMARGE recently reported Bondi has become the Sydney media’s perennial punching bag.
Convinced not everyone who lives in the Eastern Suburbs is a smug bastard, DMARGE called Dr Lars Madsen, a clinical psychologist who sits on the board of the mental health charity The Mindshift Foundation, to understand the psychology of living in Bondi.
Lars told us living in a suburb with a reputation can affect your mindset: “What we know is that as people we are affected by other people – we are constantly comparing ourselves to other people no matter whether we like it or not, in one way or another.”
“If you’re in a culture or environment where you have a lot of high achieving people dressing in a particular way or talking about things in a particular way, we will seek to align ourselves to them,” Lars says.
“The same way if you’re in a culture where people are taking drugs, drinking alcohol, not working, we kind of drift that way as well in terms of our attitudes – there’s lots of psychological research that shows that [this] happens – the environment affects people’s behaviour.”
So: could moving to Bondi turn you into someone who wears aggressively sexy activewear? Someone who feels entitled to live it up? Someone who feels obliged to live it up? We put the question to Lars: “Can moving area change your mindset?”
“Absolutely,” Lars told us. “But it depends on who they associate with and who they identify with – if they go to a different area where they are surrounded by different attitudes and different people… then people will gravitate to the norm of that mindset and the people around them.”
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Sunday 830am 😎 #onlyinbondi #bondibeach #bondiicebergs #seeaustralia #sydney #yoga
In terms of Bondi specifically? “Yes, I think so. I think people go and live in Bondi and have an expectation that it is something and that maybe affects how they are, and how they interact with others – probably just like people go to Toorak in Melbourne much the same way.”