Marlborough Daisy
This is growing in a street planting near me. Last year I took this photo, but wasn’t entirely happy with it. Right now, though the plants are reaching the same stage again so I will go down the road and have another attempt.
In 1985 I did the lower version, which I did like. The original is not quite as dark and contrasty as this. It was taken in Otari Gardens, a native plant reserve in Wellington.
Kereru
This native pigeon is sitting on the powerlines outside my studio, on a perch that is directly above my neighbours guava tree. The tree is, during the fruiting time, a daily feeding station for two or three kereru. The only down side is the concern at how far and wide they are spreading the seeds of this rather invasive tree.
Poppies
Much of my life I have been interested in plants, and this interest is often reflected in my photography. These are the buds of Iceland Poppies, an out of fashion flower, which my parents used to grow for the house. This year I decided that I would try to grow some for myself. I bought about 40 plants and put them into the magnificent Taranaki soil that I have a small patch of. They did not simply grow, they erupted and for four months I was able to pick a bunch most days. Only in the last week have they come to an end so now I have to wait for the autumn before I can repeat the experience. One of the greatest joys of having such an abundance of blooms was being able to give them to neighbours and friends.
Bulls
I came across a friend’s collection of these tiny plastic bulls. They used to be on a string around the neck of bottles of Spanish wine, perhaps they still are. I arranged them on a Formica table and made this tiny little photo.
The first is the question of scale. Often with my work it is a little difficult
to work out just how big the subject really is.
The second is the theme of whether or not the subject is real, or fake.
The third theme that I recognise is the way in which I seem to be interested in
the spaces between obects within the frame. In fact sometimes the spaces seem
to be one of the main reasons for taking the photo in the first place.
I don’t deliberately set out to take photo that illustrate these themes, they just
seem to pop up.
Herald Island is named after HMS Herald, the ship which,in 1840, took the
Treaty around NZ as signatures were collected. During the few days in Auckand it
explored the upper reaches of the harbour and circumnavigated what was to become known
as Herald Island. There is no known Maori name, although in later years it also became known as Pine Island.
When married to Kendrick Smithyman, who was teaching in the tiny sole charge school,
Mary Stanley wrote a poem which went ‘cut off by tides, we here are islanded.’
