The Whare

When I took this I dubbed it the "Wharekohu continuous self portrait". It's a fairly self-explanatory title really. It was the first attempt at an idea which never took off. I don't know why it never took off as I think it is an idea which works rather nicely. Yet another patented Andy Palmer subversion of the landscape photograph.

The image was taken in early 2001, when I managed to score myself a few days on Kapiti Island. As is often the case when I stay there, we ended up going to a part of the island I hadn't been to before. This part of the island so inspired me I almost volunteered to go back and base myself there cutting tracks and so on. Needless to say, lazy bugger I am, I didn't.

My mate Nic (who also crops up in some of these frames) got me on to the Kapiti, and down to Wharekohu, then made me get up at some godawful pre-dawn hour to sit in the bush and listen to him play a tape recording of some bloody bird call - kokako from memory. Anyway, tonight I'm heading down south to catch up with Nic, see a bit of the country and probably have him get me up at some godawful pre-dawn hour to sit in a river and listen to him play a tape recording of some bloody bird call - black stilt probably. It'll be fun.

PS: for those of you interested and with fast connections I've uploaded a larger scale image to my website - click on the image to enlarge it.

PPS: by way of clarification, the images are chronological as shot, the first three frames were test shots.

The Art

Three images from two art galleries in Auckland. Above is St Paul St Gallery at AUT where we (me and a few others) hung out with Lewis Baltz, Slavica Perkovic and Harvey Benge for a few days. Below are two shots from the ArtSpace building on K Road. The gallery was shut so we had to make our own art.

The Father

Merry Christmas. From Levin.

The Advertisement

Having finally gotten my hands on a copy of the latest NZ Journal Of Photography - thanks to David Langman sending me a copy without any prompting from me - I can proudly announce that it contains a review of the Approaches show written by the wonderful Peter Ireland.

I haven't read much of it but early on Peter says that "Approaches is a timely and deftly-curated scratch to the Postcolonial itch." Isn't that lovely?

I've always wanted to scratch the Postcolonial itch.

It's always good to have a review in print, especially a national publication like the Journal. So thanks Peter, much appreciated.

Also in the Journal are a couple of Andrew Ivory's images from the show, and a bunch of other lovely water themed shots.

Buy it. Love it.

The Kevin

None of these fellas is 'The Kevin'.

It's the infamously profound fp4 and the ever lovely Lee - all class that girl.

This is 'The Kevin'. From Alleluya Bar & Cafe, Shop 12 - 14, St Kevin's Arcade looking out to Karangahape Road to be precise. It's one of my favourite spots in the AK.

This guy is just down the hill from St Kevin, so I had to throw him in too.

The Last

Well I'm back from Auckland. May have some tales to tell, some photos to show. Sometime later.

For now, here is the last shot on the roll from "The Birds And The Trees". It was a roll of roll-your-own Delta 400, left over from a project I shot in 2001 - when I was still studying.

Needless to say it had been around a bit - flats/houses, cars, the country.
But you get way cool random effects from munted film. Nice.

The Mahara

I'm heading to Auckland and other places tomorrow. But before I go I have to tell you about my upcoming show, and tell you all to come along to the opening. I'll be there - all going well; though still on my way home from those other places.

I've got six works in the show - four previously unexhibited, and one or two shot especially for the show.

The opening is on Saturday 16 December from 5pm at Mahara Gallery, Mahara Place, Waikanae (park in the Woolworths carpark and head into the mall, can't miss it).

EYES WIDE OPEN: Looking at Landscape

Mahara Gallery, 17 December 2006 - 25 February 2007

Twenty-four artists, most of whom have some connection to 'The Coast', have responded to its land, sea and skies, and our relationship to it, in Mahara Gallery’s major summer exhibition EYES WIDE OPEN: Looking at Landscape.

The exhibition includes many well-known contemporary artists and some exciting new names working in painting, works on paper, photography, video and sculptural installatiion.

Kapiti is a beautiful place to live and brands itself as Nature Coast, but like everywhere else, it is now facing the critical challenges posed by climate change. Extreme weather conditions, pollution, erosion, expanding populations and stretched transport and water infrastructures are serious local issues.

Some artists treat the natural world and its inhabitants - animals, bird and marine-life -with equal interest to the man-made environment.

Others see natural beauty and the other life-forms we share the land with as being under threat, conveying this in a mournful or ironic tone.

Landscape-based art can also be an imaginative or psychological construction, or reflect critically on the intersection between the human and natural world, in a way that stretches traditional approaches and can act as a sounding device for the ways we interact with the natural world.

Collectively these artists approach their practice with eyes wide open to current issues facing landscape and its treatment in art. They ask us as viewers to open our eyes to and consider the environment we cohabit in fresh and thoughtful ways.


Exhibiting artists

Catherine Bagnall & Julian Bishop, Darcy Parata, John Baxter, Hilary Robson, Paul Dibble, Catherine Russ, John Fuller, Simon Shepheard, Gary Freemantle, Amanda Smart, Himiona Grace, Neville Smitheram, Paul Gummer, Jo Torr, Peter Ireland, Edward Walton, Julie Midgely, Alan Wehipeihana, Anne-Marie O’Brien, Brett Whincup, Andy Palmer, Christopher White, Prunella Wylde

Curated by Janet Bayly, Acting Director, Mahara Gallery

The JRE

A few years ago I hung out with this chick who worked part-time at the local camera store. I can't remember if it was her, or one of the boys (quite possibly the Lovely George who is no longer there), who told me to try some T-Max 3200 film - on the basis that grain is good, and the more grain the better.

So I did.

Some shots of (one of) my favourite contour's ever.

And the water between us.

And some shots of aforementioned shop worker - who is no longer JRE, is no longer at said shop, and can be found here.

The Crossing

Being the highly conceptual photographer I am, a few years ago I came up with a plan. And it was going to be big, impressive and costly. It was to photograph every bridge over the Hutt River. And it was going to involve both still and moving imagary.

The first step was to take the photos. And being the highly conceptual photographer I am, I set in place clear constraints - 1) all photos had to be taken on the same day, 2) all photos had to be taken looking in the direction the water was flowing, 3) all photos had to be taken chronologically from the northern-most to the southern-most, to imply that we were following the same 'piece' of water.

Sound easy? It took me a whole day - and even then I missed two bridges (the first one below taken a couple of days later, and one I still haven't photographed). The main struggle was turning up and working out a decent vantage point for each bridge without falling into the trap of making them all look the same. And naturally I hadn't bothered scouting the locations, so I was just winging it wildly.

Here are the bridges, from north to south.


At the time it was a huge buzz taking the images - but then photography usually is a big buzz. But I remember being a little disappointed when I got the shots back from the lab. There seemed to be something lacking. Something I couldn't put my finger on.

Now with years of ignoring them, that disappointment has gone. I think some of the shots are pretty cool actually. And I may even tackle it again - doing it properly this time.

The Birds

In June I started yet another bloody body of work humorously titled "The Birds And The Trees". (Get it?!)

I think the inspiration was two fold. Firstly the fact that I had a suitable location nearby (ie in the back yard), and secondly Lee Friedlander and in particular this book, and maybe a hint of this one (note: click on booktease).

Naturally I let the film sit around until a couple of weeks ago before developing it - just to add to the whole affect.

So here are a selction of shots (in no particular order).
I reckon I might do more of this shit, eh. Especially now the trees have leaves and fruit.

The Industrial

That Sunday David and I went out, I also came up with this idea (please refer to last paragraph here). Currently the series consists of two shots - taken on the same day, within 50metres and 15 minutes of each other.

Some may argue that much of my work, exhibition work anyway, asks questions of our use of land/the environment. I've played around ideas of the natural versus the unnatural in a few bodies of work, though in a quiet, non-confrontational kind of way. I'm not interested in the big blunt message, which only really allows for one interpretation.

The idea behind these works was to explore the way we add 'nature' to our very unnatural settings. In an effort to beautify? To hide the development? To pretend we care about the environment? I don't know.

What I like about these is how the trees are so very obviously cared for; the pride of the factories on whose land they sit.

The Lewis

That man with a camera is coming back to Wellington shortly to open his show at Photospace.

Here are some shots I took early last year when David and I decided we needed to waste a few hours one Sunday cruising a nearby industrial 'estate'.

Independently, both of us had come up with the idea of ripping off American photographer Lewis Baltz, though naturally doing it in our own way and with local locations. (Buggered if I'm going to fly to San Francisco to rip off someone else's idea).

Although aware of his work, wasn't didin't realise I'd done such a good job of ripping it off.

But Your Honour, we were just using Baltz's work as a springboard to our own work, how dare you suggest we were plagiarising him?

By a nice coincidence in timing, Lewis Baltz is coming to Auckland to take a masterclass a couple of days after David's opening. So he and I, and a few other local boys, are heading up to meet the master himself. I think I may have to take these along, just for humour's sake.

As I've no doubt lamented elsewhere, I find it all too easy to take shots which have the potential to be the start of a bigger better body of work, and then forget about them. This is one of those - along with this, and this, and this, and this, and this, and this, and even this potentially (and that's just from the shit I've blogged!!!).

The Stadium

On a nice near stormy day four years ago.

Sadly some bugger has now repainted this a horrible purple - Speights colours even (from memory).

The Microphen

You know the other day I developed some film in microphen, well here's the results.

You may recognise the above building from here - or not.

I was trying a new film too - some cheap Forte stuff I picked up in Auckland a while back.

I've long had a thing for lonely empty seats - surprised more haven't turned up in this blog actually.

And the obligatory self portrait - just to test for skin tones and so on (he says somewhat defensively).