Like many people living in Ballarat in the 1960s, Max Harris has very fond memories of the decade - from the Saturday night dances to driving laps of Sturt Street.
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The Ballarat photographer is currently producing a new book to celebrate the city in the 1960s, which will feature photographs from a huge collection he amassed and some he meticulously restored.
He said he had reconnected with some people and received some amazing photos while working on the book, Ballarat the Swingin 60's.
"It's pictorial but there are little gems and stories. I want people to open the cover and say, 'I remember that'," Mr Harris said.
He was aged 14 to 25 and lived near the Eastern Oval in the 1960s.
"Now because I grew up in the 1960s and have very fond memories of a time in Ballarat that can never be repeated and I know all of you who grew up in this era enjoyed their place in a Ballarat that was unique," Mr Harris said.
"The images in my new book will certainly bring back memories for all the Baby Boomers of this time, and you may even spot yourselves or loved ones within the pages of the book."
Mr Harris said he was interested to hear from organisations that wanted to be included in the book.
He said he was particularly keen to find a photograph of 'Crosby's on the Bridge', a shoe shop located on Coliseum Walk, and a picture of people dancing in front of a band on the stage at the Civic Hall in the 1960s.
"I have some amazing stuff people have been bringin in to me," Mr Harris said.
Mr Harris said producing the book was a tireless job and at age 76, it would possibly be his last adventure which he had loved from the onset of his 1997 book Panoramas of Ballaarat.
His other historical books of Ballarat include Recollections published in 2003 and Recollections 2 published in 2009. Mr Harris' last book, An Historic Cameo was published 12 years ago.
His mate and associate Peter Butters has helped the process of restoring photographs and producing his previous books, along with design and layout guru Steven Crowe.
The Max Harris Collection now resides in the Ballaarat Mechanics Institute, thanks to the Haymes family, and is in the slow process of being digitised.
Mr Harris, who lived in Ballarat for 73 years, moved to Ocean Grove in 2019 but he still calls Ballarat home.
Pre-orders can be made for numbered copies of Ballarat the Swingin 60's, which will be published later in 2023.
The book will be a landscape format, mostly pictorial and feature a special front cover that Mr Harris is keeping under wraps until it is launched.
To contact Max Harris to be included in the book, email maxsharris50@gmail.com
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