14-year-old student photographs all 222 of Metro’s train stations
14-year-old student photographs all 222 of Metro’s train stations
If there’s anyone that’s a Metro Trains stations expert, it’s 14-year-old secondary school student Caspar.
This year, Caspar travelled on every part of the metropolitan rail network, photographing all 222 of Metro’s train stations and turning them into a 168-page photobook.
Caspar first got the idea for the project in 2019 when he was just 11-years-old.
He decided to complete the project as part of a school assignment this year.
An inner-north local, Caspar was inspired to start the project as he was interested in documenting the different station designs and wanted to visit all parts of Melbourne’s metropolitan rail network.
Over a period of five months, Caspar rode on the network most days after school and on weekends to take the photographs.
“I started the project by just taking photographs on weekends, but realised that I was running out of time, so I started doing it after school as well.”
For Caspar, it became his part-time job.
Caspar worked out that he needed to photograph about sixteen stations on the weekend, and five stations after each school day to complete the assignment on time.
Using his parents’ camera and the online design program Canva, Caspar created the 168-page book all by himself – from capturing the photos, to designing each of the pages and eventually hitting print.
When he is older, Caspar would like to become a journalist. He thinks that creating this book has given him some good experience.
Of all the stations he has visited, Westgarth (a station Caspar frequents) remains one of his favourites. Of the newly opened stations, he likes Coburg the best.
This week, Caspar caught up with Metro’s Head of Stations Jenna Yeats to present her with one of his books, and Metro organised a ride in the front of a train to say ‘thank you’.