MELBOURNE.- The National Gallery of Victoria at the Ian Potter Centre at Federation Square presents The Paris End: Photography, Fashion and Glamour through October 1. During the first decades of the twentieth century the ‘Paris end’ of Collins Street, as it was affectionately known, was a popular home to the artistic community of Melbourne. Many artists, musicians, writers and theatre performers lived and worked at the top end of town. A number of Melbourne’s leading photographers including Athol Shmith, Jack Cato, Julian Smith, May and Mina Moore, Ruth Hollick and Wolfgang Sievers also established studios in this thriving arts precinct. This exhibition brings together commercial and fashion photography from the 1900s to the 1950s reflecting the changing face of Melbourne.

The exhibition comprises around eighty photographs and associated ephemera. It is presented in four sections; fashion photography, advertising illustrations, portraits and theatrical studies.

Collins Street is a major street in the Melbourne central business district and runs approximately east to west. As designed by Robert Hoddle, it is exactly one mile in length and 99 feet(one and half chains) wide. Collins Street is named after Lieutenant-Governor David Collins who led a group of settlers in establishing a short-lived settlement at Sorrento on the Mornington Peninsula south of Melbourne in the early 1800s. He subsequently became the first governor of the colony of Van Diemens Land, later to become Tasmania. It has always been at the centre of Melbourne history.

Collins Street is well known for its 'Paris end' (Eastern end). Although modern development has destroyed some of the European flavour of the top-end of Collins Street it still retains designer boutiques and cafes. The length of Collins Street between Elizabeth and King Streets has long been the financial heart of Melbourne and is home to the stock exchange, banks and insurance companies.

Collins Street was recently extended west beyond Spencer Street, and currently ends in plastic barriers and a T intersection with Stadium Drive. It is expected to extend further west in the future, as part of the new Docklands redevelopment. This will create an intersection between Bourke Street and Collins Streets, Melbourne´s two most important streets, something previously impossible.

Collins Street also has some of Melbourne's largest churches such as the Collins Street Baptist Church, the Scot´s Presbyterian Church and the St. Michael´s Uniting Church. The Melbourne Club is on Collins Street, and so is the Reserve Bank of Australia's Victorian branch.

Collins Street is also home to the Atheneum and Regent theatres and the Rialto Towers observation deck provides the best view of Melbourne. Trams also run down Collins Street, mainly to Melbourne's eastern suburbs and the Docklands precinct.