Communications
This structure is near the airport in Invercargill. Not sure what it’s for but I like its sculptural quality. Something to do with communications I imagine, perhaps radar. I’ll ask around today.
It does bring to mind the subject matter that two German photographers, husband and wife Bernd and Hilla Becher worked with for nearly 50 years. Bernd Hiller died in June this year.
Burwell House, Invercargill.
The grand house on the left is where I am living. It comes with the William Hodges Fellowship. The house on the right is used by the Southland Museum for storage.
These buildings are an old maternity hospital, and I regularly meet people who say that they were born in one of these rooms. Rohan Wealleans is one.
What theme is that?
I am often asked by interviewers, frequently students, what my themes are.
It’s a difficult question, however the photo above illustrates one that is definitely a theme that pops up again and again in my pictures.
I seem to be interested in the question, is this real or not? In this case the cat is fake, on display in a shop window.
Puffer Fish Lamp
As the William Hodges Fellow I an under the aegis of the Southland Museum. Last Thursday I was invited to have a look at some of the treasures that they have in their stockroom.
Here is one of them. A lamp made from a Puffer Fish aka Fugu a Japanese delicacy. A deadly poison if cooked incorrectly.
There is a frisson here. A fish with a light inside. The Surrealists would have approved.
Titanic
Today I received a kind call on my mobile telling me that at a fair in Queens Park there was an inflatable sinking Titanic that I might be interested in.
I immediately hurried up there, about 2 minutes by car. I hurried in case something changed such as the weather. Some hoons with mullets mocked me as I stood in front of the Titanic with my camera but I ignored them, one advantage of being older and not being so reactive, although secretly I would have liked to have scragged them.
Now I am wondering if I should go back there first thing in the morning and see if I couldn’t reshoot this with the red plastic fence and the ropes removed, with the ship cleaned up there could be a photo here.
Writers who visited New Zealand.
I was recently given a most interesting book: From the Writer’s Notebook , Around New Zealand with 80 Authors, by Lydia Monin pub Reed 2006.
I was surprised at the number of famous authors who have visited New Zealand. Rudyard Kipling, Noel Coward, George Bernard Shaw, Mark Twain, Anthony Trollope, J.B. Priestley, to name a few.
I was particularly interested to read how Mark Twain arrived at Bluff by ship and travelled into Invercargill to deliver a sold-out lecture in the Theatre Royal.
Model
A model in the window of an art material shop in Invercargill.
Now that I have a truly pocket sized camera, I find that I am taking a lot more photos than I ever have before. I seem to have loosened up a bit in my picture making, not that they are all grand opera of course, more like practising my scales.
While out walking one evening, I took this one through a window, using a flash.
Whites Aviation
Whites Aviation since 1945 took thousands of aerial photos of NZ. Many homes and businesses had prints on their walls and books were published.
A couple of weeks ago Art + Object in Auckland had one of these in an auction. Even though they are in Auckland and I am in Invercargill I made an absentee bid on the work. My bid was successful ($350) and the framed work was couriered to me. I bought it partly because I have spent the last 5 or 6 years living in Taranaki and I have a sentimental attachment to the mountain.
The print is a black and white photo that has been hand coloured. A common technique, my father used it quite often. Several of our family photos have been done this way.
Tuatara
At the Invercargill museum there is some pioneering work being done on how to breed Tuatara in captivity. Bit by bit more is being learnt about what they need. It’s a complex problem involving kinds of food, light levels, etc.There is greater and greater success being achieved and currently there are something like 30 tuatara there. Henry, the biggest is more than 100 years old.
Last week I was able to hold one medium sized specimen, but for some reason I find that I have quite a strong fear of touching reptiles. I don’t know why, they have never done me any harm, the fear seems to be built into my brain. They feel so cold which I always find something of a shock.
I don’t know if I am going to be able to take a photo of a real tuatara but outside the museum there is a large statue of one. I’m always a sucker for photographing hands and feet hence the photo above. It’s really no more than a sketch, an exercise, but out of interest I’ve made 2 versions, one in black and white, and one in colour.