Dungog Love
PHOTOS | HELEANA GENAUS
Geordie and Zaya have become good friends of ours since they both turned up to Rising Sun Workshop with their Honda CB550 ready to work on it. At first glance they're both super cool and really nice, but once I got to know them and their story (both as a couple and individually) I instantly thought these are the sort of people everyone needs as friends.
G & Z met and fell in love on the Ice Run through Siberia where they partnered up on Urals and braved the ice cold on these unreliable bikes with side cars. After that run, Zaya had India and then the Mongol Rally to complete, however they stayed together and since moved back to Sydney to share their lives and plan their next adventure.
Geordie is from the small town of Dungog in New South Wales where we shot most of Zaya's portrait series. His mother Nancy is a gasoline nut and uses their 100cc brappy Yamaha to run the dogs (even after both hips and knees were reconstructed!).
It was a fun weekend away with these two, both suffering chest infections, but moods always high and up for a ride. Geordie can't tell enough people how incredible Zaya is, he does everything he can to live a great life and was my right hand man on this shoot, swapping bikes, guiding us through roads he was so familiar with, reminding Zaya how to do a burn out and apologising to train drivers.
Heleana is a force of nature. The founder of In Venus Veritas and The Petrolette, and a co-founder of Rising Sun Workshop. Heleana shares her love of vintage cars, riding motorcycles, and (not-so-secretly) dreams of flying planes and piloting a riva aquariva (a la Sophia Loren) very fast through the canals of Venice. Supportive and connected, community is her lifeblood, and she is as real as they come.
