Raised in a household with Maltese and Australian roots, Dylan says it was like “growing up in your own little world that only you know about”. His childhood was filled with interesting stories; he fondly recalls everyone’s grandparents playing bocce and other games at their primary school, and sneaking into the hall at lunchtime to watch his nunna play bingo.

It was these kinds of niche experiences that Dylan hoped to capture in his work. “I wanted to show what I'd grown up around and how I was moulded naturally by the things I’d seen and experiences I had,” he says.

A love letter to Melbourne

As he filled Garden State Journal’s pages, Dylan also began shooting videos for social media – beginning with a naturalistic video of a friend walking Melbourne’s streets.

“I got some pretty good views on TikTok… that was when I was like, oh, I’m onto something here,” he says.

Often, it’s the simplest things that make Dylan want to pick up his camera and start filming. “When I see an old brick house with a beautiful ’90s Mercedes-Benz parked out the front… or milk bars or fish and chip shops on the corner, they really stand out to me. Not just from a nostalgic point of view, but because this is something beautiful and we should celebrate it, in the same way other people document their city's history.”

His follower count climbed, media outlets got in touch, and he was soon dubbed
the ‘Scorsese of TikTok’. The nickname is an apt one; Dylan’s filmmaking influences include the rough realism of Martin Scorsese’s Mean Streets (1973) and Midnight Cowboy (1969) – including the improvised “I'm walkin' here!" scene with Dustin Hoffman on New York’s Sixth Avenue – and the intimacy of John Cassavetes’s unvarnished domestic scenes.

Dylan’s videos are a tribute to Melbourne’s unique charm. “If I see a beautiful old house, I think, ‘I better get a shot of that. That might not be here tomorrow’,” he says.

The same goes for people. “It may be the only image someone ever captures of them that will ever exist outside of family photos.”