The Head

A few weeks ago I decided I wanted to start being a bit more actively 'political' with my photography. There have been moments of 'politics' in my work (like shooting the opening of Parliament last year!!), but I felt I needed to push the idea somewhat. I will always argue that there is an underlying 'political' message to most of my exhibited work. Whether people pick up on it or not is another matter, and not the (whole) point.

I am involved in an ongoing project, which I kind of hope is objective and 'apolitical', although the reality is that it is the sort of project that would only be undertaken by someone with my viewpoint - or by someone getting paid to do so. I have been trying to create a web archive of these works but am struggling with the format.

Anyway, this new project I decided to get started on (before it was too late), actually proved harder than I thought. But maybe that was just because I decided to do it on 4x5, rather than Hasselblad/Holga/Canon/Agfa/Agfa/Agfa/Agfa (honestly I don't have a 'thing' about Agfa cameras, it just turned out that way).


So, there I was, on a beautifully sunny Sunday (not really great light for taking photos), wandering around the head (ok so it's really a point, but head is such a romantic word), wondering how I was actually going to photograph the bloody place.

Then I saw this little rise and went "Ooh, I wonder". So I trotted up, framed it up and went "Nah, it's shit".

Then I thought "Hey, how about a panorama?".

So I did. That's it up there.

Then I wandered around and took a few more shots. These ones. To be precise.




I don't know if it's obvious to you, but a ladder would have been really handy.

Okay. Enough already! I hear you. Here's the explanation.

Te Raekaihau Point is the proposed site of the Aquarium of New Zealand. For some reason it isn't as newsworthy as the Stadium of New Zealand, but it is the cause of some aggravation here in Wellington - well on the South Coast anyway. Read the arguments here (for) and here (against).

Do you need to know where I stand on the issue? Really it should come as no surprise to most of you. You should have realised by now that I am against change in any form. And being a luddite I greatly disapprove of the so-called 'progress' capitalist culture is dependent upon in an ever worsening vicious circle of destruction and environmental catastrophy borne out of arrogance and ignorance.