We’ve invited some of the most excit­ing cre­at­ive stars of our region to give us their take on #cre­at­iveasia.

Cybele’s port­fo­lio is a vir­tual who’s who of Aus­tralian musicians

Sydney pho­to­grapher Cybele Malin­owski spends her work­ing hours as Prin­cipal Pho­to­grapher at Blue Murder Stu­dios, and her port­fo­lio is a vir­tual who’s who of Aus­tralian musicians.

Cybele and her part­ner Daniel Boud dis­play their dis­tinct­ive cov­ers for JMag, The Brag, TimeOut and more at Cov­ers, an exhib­i­tion run­ning from Feb­ru­ary 5 — 12, at Sydney’s Mart Gal­lery.

1. Where do you live?

My home and stu­dio are in Annandale, Sydney. We moved here last year, and it’s the best thing I have ever done. We had the stu­dio cus­tom built for us, for max­imum shoot­ing space, and our adjoin­ing house is light bright and per­fect. For me, my boy­friend Daniel Boud (also a pho­to­grapher) and our cat Pushkin. It’s so won­der­ful liv­ing and work­ing in the same space.  I never leave home, I never leave work, and that’s the way I like it. It’s impossible to dis­con­nect the two.

2. What makes your city creative?

Sydney is a city of a series of diverse and com­plex stor­ies. We have a vast array of cul­tures, foods, art, and land­scapes. As we are smal­ler than some of the lar­ger inter­na­tional cap­it­als, and yet are in dir­ect com­pet­i­tion with them, I find that Sydney­siders take their work very ser­i­ously; there is a lot of com­pet­i­tion here, and yet we can still go and hang out at the beach on the week­end. We have a hard-working ethic, and yet we real­ise the import­ance of relax­a­tion and the great out­doors. It is so import­ant as an artist to have down­time. Time to think, dream and cre­ate. I find my best ideas come when I am driv­ing through the streets at night, or hav­ing a cof­fee and read­ing a book down at Bondi Beach or Bronte.

3. Which city, in your opin­ion, is the most cre­at­ive city in East Asia?

I am really inspired by Shang­hai. It has such an incred­ibly toxic com­bin­a­tion of old and new, ripe for artistic inter­pret­a­tion. I would love to spend a year or so there; there is such great art, archi­tec­ture and pho­to­graphy com­ing out of there. Every time I see my mum, who works at Sothebys, I go home with a new cata­logue of con­tem­por­ary Chinese art, and I lux­uri­ate over the pages, in awe. Invari­ably my favour­ite works come from Shanghai.

Tell us what inspires you in your city, and which city you think we can learn from, and help us list the best our region has to offer. Answer these three ques­tions below to share your per­spect­ive.