Morning Coffee Pages
Stories from a creative life.
From wheat & sheep country to Strictly Ballroom and beyond.
Artist, photographer, curator & accidental archivist.
Welcome to Morning Coffee Pages.
I’m Raymond Mather.
From wheat and sheep country to Strictly Ballroom and beyond, I’ve spent a lifetime moving through dance, theatre, galleries, photography, community arts and now ART1.
Along the way I’ve lived in many places, met remarkable people, witnessed enormous cultural change, and accumulated an archive of stories, photographs and memories.
This account is where I share some of them.
Not in chronological order.
Just as they arrive over a morning coffee.
Welcome.
Dirty Dancing XYZ
Life rarely changes direction with a grand announcement.
Usually it happens quietly.
A dance class.
A chance meeting.
A photograph.
A conversation.
In 1988, Dirty Dancing arrived and, for me, became one of those moments.
Looking back, I can trace a line from those dance floors through theatre, galleries, photography and eventually ART1.
At the time, I was simply dancing.
The rest only became visible in hindsight.
Taken
One never knows who you will meet at the morning coffee spot.
On this particular morning, coffee was accompanied by a Portuguese tart and a conversation with the café owner about the local arts scene.
As we talked, someone walked towards the café and the owner remarked, “You should talk to her.”
That simple introduction became something much more.
Here is that person, Karen, the subject of Taken – the portrait selected as a Finalist in the Percival Photographic Portrait Prize 2026 and exhibited at the Perc Tucker Regional Gallery in Townsville.
A beautiful and brave soul.
Coastal Noir
Some photographs arrive by planning.
Others arrive by accident.
For years I drove thousands of kilometres throughout regional Australia.
One wet day, looking through a rain-soaked windscreen, something shifted.
The landscape became memory.
The road became narrative.
The rain became atmosphere.
What I was seeing was no longer documentary photography.
It was the beginning of what would eventually become Coastal Noir.
Looking back, I can see that some of the most important creative developments in my life arrived quietly, while simply going about everyday things.
Driving in the rain was one of them.
What’s in a Name
A strange thing happened recently.
I discovered that one of my photographs had been credited to someone called Ray Matter.
The only problem was that Ray Matter doesn’t exist.
I do.
One missing letter had quietly created a different person.
It made me think about memory, identity and how we are recorded.
For most of history, our stories were carried by people.
Now they are carried by systems.
And sometimes systems get things wrong.
An unexpected lesson in authenticity.
The Most Interesting Person I Know – MIPIK
Morning coffee with a writer opened an entire chapter in my portrait photography journey.
As the subject of The Most Interesting Person I Know interview series by writer Stephanie Hunt, the connection was immediate. Intelligent, curious, and deeply engaged with people, Stephanie had a remarkable ability to uncover the stories that make us who we are.
That first meeting led to more than a decade of friendship, collaboration, and creative exchange.
Along the way, I had the privilege of photographing the portraits that accompanied her wonderful publication, meeting and photographing many extraordinary people from across the Coffs Harbour region.
It remains one of those projects that reminds me how a single conversation can open unexpected doors.
The Other Portrait Exhibition
Morning coffee and the curator.
My regular café in downtown Murwillumbah opened at 6am. I have always loved early mornings.
One morning, a spontaneous conversation began with another customer. As it turned out, she was a curator putting together a local exhibition.
The exhibition, The Other Portrait Exhibition, offered an opportunity to experiment and play with ideas.
Drawing on my own experience of homelessness, I developed what became the Trolley Dolly series.
The work explored the numerological significance of the number six – often associated with care, protection, and the maternal – and contrasted those symbolic meanings with the reality that many people affected by homelessness remain largely unseen, despite the profound impact on their lives.
A chance conversation. An exhibition opportunity. A body of work.
Ah, the smell of freshly ground coffee beans.
Studio 112
Memories of Ivy
Morning coffee and Studio 112.
Following my departure from Teachers College in Armidale, during a time when many gay teachers were being pushed out of the profession, I headed to Sydney and disappeared into the relative safety of Oxford Street.
Above a doorway at 112 Oxford Street, Darlinghurst, were the names Froulop & Paton.
It was more than a dance studio.
It became a creative home.
Founded by ballroom champions Ivy Paton and Charles Froulop, Studio 112 occupied a former public dance hall dating back to the 1940s. For many of us, it was a place of friendship, expression, learning, and belonging.
Dance changed the direction of my life.
Today the building is gone, lost to redevelopment, but the memories remain.
And yes, there were many fabulous coffees after many late nights.
NIDA
Keith Bain on Movement
Christmas morning coffee.
Life is full of unfolding connections.
My life partner was also my dance teacher and through him I came to know Keith Bain and Joyce Lofts.
Some of my fondest memories are of Christmas morning breakfasts at Ginahgulla, also known as Fairfax House, in Bellevue Hill, with Keith and his remarkable mother.
At the time, they were simply people in my life and part of the Sydney dance community.
Years later, in 1991, I discovered that Keith Bain had become the inspiration for Baz Luhrmann’s Strictly Ballroom.
Joyce, of course, was Keith’s dance partner.
Looking back, it is fascinating how people, places, and moments connect across time, often revealing their significance years later.
Paint My Place
So many coffees, so little time.
Most of my friends are artists, and coffee and conversation have always been part of the creative process.
Projects in development. Oil paint drying on the latest canvas. Exhibition submissions. Future plans. The daily life of artists and the people who support them.
During one of those conversations, a gallery director approached me about documenting an artist retreat.
Set amongst the coastal landscape of Moonee Beach and the Coffs Coast, the retreat provided the perfect environment for exploration, discovery, and expression.
What emerged became Paint My Place, an exhibition presented at Coffs Harbour Regional Gallery.
Sometimes a coffee and a conversation are the beginning of something much larger.
The Tanks Art Centre
Coffee on the deck at Cairns Regional Gallery.
I started chatting with the lady at the next table. There were no smartphones in those days, and being new to town, I was happy to talk to almost anyone.
As our conversation unfolded, I mentioned my interest in the arts and asked about creative opportunities in Cairns.
She suggested I visit the Tanks Arts Centre.
Only later did I discover that the friendly woman sharing coffee on the gallery deck was the Mayor of Cairns.
That conversation changed the direction of my life.
The remarkable Tanks Arts Centre became a creative hub for the next five years, opening the door to community arts, education programs, exhibitions, collaborations, and countless creative experiences in tropical North Queensland.
Sometimes the most important opportunities begin with a simple conversation over coffee.
Wallflowering
5, 6, 7, 8…
Down the stairs from the Writers Cottage, just behind the Peacock Theatre.
Turn left.
Cha Cha Cha.
Coffee in Salamanca Place, Hobart.
Before photography there was dance.
A newspaper clipping from Tasmania in 1990 when Sonia Kruger and I travelled south to perform in Wallflowering.
At the time it felt like another job.
Looking back, these small pieces of paper become evidence of a creative life unfolding.
Urban Commute
Tram. Train. Bus.
On the way to morning coffee and the daily writing, rain upon the window.
Snap.
City Extra at Sydney’s Circular Quay, a place I have visited since it opened in 1988. It’s still there.
Reviewing the images while sipping coffee, the concept for a collection was unleashed.
Obsessively, for the remainder of that day and the following wet ones, I continued the process.
For several months, whenever it rained, I searched for windows with abstracted views into reality.
The Bureau of Meteorology became a regular informant.
Fairground Carnival Lights
Up. Down. Gone.
Whirling carnival lights at night.
The Coffs Harbour Jetty Fairground, appearing for only a short time on the coastal foreshore.
A photography challenge, followed by late coffee and cake.
Yes. I slept.
Dancing into the Light
Dancing Queen.
Spinning around, freestyle and flowing to the music.
Camera in hand, long exposure sequences and blurred light drawing.
Playful motion and a movement series evolves in the light.
The morning after, just down the road.
A long black coffee at The Hilltop Store in Sawtell.
The review and conceptual development continued.
The Kitchen Sink
Location. Location.
More than 160 homes.
Photography became a way of seeing and connecting with place.
Morning pages with coffee at the ready.
Reflection, expansion and integration.
Vivid is the unfolding life.
Burke’s Backyard Magazine
Tropical Life.
Coffee at a friend’s house in Holloways Beach, Far North Queensland.
A chance encounter with another guest and a location photoshoot was conceived.
The projects to be photographed were in Port Douglas and designed by landscape architect Andrew Prowse.
These were the days of film and slide stock.
The transparencies were posted to the magazine for publication.
I loved film and slide image making.
Valla Beach
Headland Cafe
House Sitting.
My solution to homelessness was to house sit.
Morning pages, consciousness-streaming writing and a long black coffee became the treat of the day, with the local cafe an essential support.
The writing placed the negative narratives onto the page in a few lines. Everything reset to a more realistic scale and understanding.
These reflective moments created spaciousness of mind.
Lifes a Cliche
Hours and Lists.
Once a concept is launched, I research the hell out of it.
Language, everyday interpretation and play transformed into visual form became the challenge for this series.
Morning pages have one rule for me.
Write three A4 pages. No editing. Just write.
If another thought appears, a concept or project idea, I turn to page four and write it there, then return to the writing stream.
Returning to page four can make for a long morning.
Coffee is essential.
Art Prizes and Competitions
Following the Artwork.
Places appear and are visited as part of the continuing participation in making art.
The camera is the tool and daily pages lead to insight through reflection.
The morning ritual is accompanied by one coffee, occasionally two, depending on the flow of thoughts and ideas that emerge.
A recent adventure: Magnetic Island and Cafe Nourish at Horseshoe Bay.
Every location visited and experienced has been part of following the art.
Art ConneXions Network 