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.