The idea of working from home seems to sound rather glamourous or enchanting to those who don’t actually do it. In films it’s officious entrepreneurs lounging around in satin robes and yelling at desk jockeys down the receiver of a telephone, or endearingly disheveled writers pounding away on a typewriter through a haze of cigarette smoke. The latter is apparently how one guy envisioned my creative space when I told him I was a freelance writer. Since he was so disenchanted to hear that I worked on a MacBook and not an antique Underwood, I didn’t bother mentioning that I don’t even use a desk but do my work sitting on the sofa while trying to type calmly enough to avoid spilling the cup of tea perched precariously on the side of my keyboard.

If you’re also rather disenchanted by this news, don’t be — some people who work from home really do have magically eclectic studios with brick walls, industrial lighting and splatters of paint adorning the floor. These are the people who artist Paul Barbera decided to photograph for his upcoming exhibition Where&What, opening at The Galeries July 25 to celebrate the launch of his book Where They Create, which will document the creative spaces of artists and splice them together with the artworks that have been created there. Barbera is primarily an interior photographer, though he wasn’t always so enchanted by inside spaces. “I actually resisted interior photography for a long time”, he claims. “As a young photographer I wanted to chase fashion and advertising and I did some great jobs in Australia and Asia but when I went to Amsterdam 10 years ago this all went out the window.”

It’s easy to believe that the charmingly antiquated apartments and canal-side villas of Europe are of course going to boast more interesting interiors than the modern terraces lining the streets of Sydney’s inner suburbs — and it doesn’t come as a surprise to learn that he got the idea for Where They Create when he was at a friend’s studio in Rome two years ago — but Barbera finds inspiration from all over the world and, yes, all over the Internet. “I enjoy travelling and meeting people. It’s a bit cliché but life is my inspiration. I am constantly listening to podcasts, talking to taxi drivers and learning about the lives of others, and this all feeds into my work.”

Joining Paul Barbera in this lenticular celebration of artists celebrating each other are local and international contributors Paul Davies, Lucy McRae, James McCready, Collider, 3 Deep, Alpha60 and Tin & Ed, who come from the worlds of art, fashion and technology — and sometimes from all three. Whether you’re seeking creative inspiration, motivation or just a visual escape from the daily grind of a 9-to-5 office job, Where&What has the answer.