Leftbank 3

Click on image for larger viewFurniture shop window and graffiti 09.
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I've cracked another keeper. Found this scene and worked on it for ages, trying about 20 different positions to find this angle. I love the colours, shapes and scribble. These new photographs recharge my batteries everytime.
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The Leftbank locals must have thought I was a nutter up against the glass moving an inch left or right. It's good sometimes to be seen as a bit eccentric because people stop asking questions. I remember reading in a book many years ago: 'Put your camera to your eye and wait. People will stop staring in time and you will become invisible, behind your camera'. It works!!
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I think I have about 7 good photographs so far this year. The one above, Nov 15, Oct 3, Sept 22, Aug 31 (dog), Aug 27 (legs) and Aug 21 (hand close up). Perhaps two will truly last.

Leftbank 2

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Leftbank 1

Click on image for a larger viewThe Leftbank is a bohemian corner of Cuba Mall and is celebrating being ten years old. It is jammed with student flats, cheap cafes, book shops and clothes racks. I went there today to take this photograph.

Ruakokoputuna

Click on image for larger view Spent some time on a south Wairarapa farm today where I photographed a local called Cabby

Airport again

Click on image for larger viewI took this photograph the other day at Lyall Bay. It's a strange scene, but I don't know why. Perhaps the spotter knew something.

Willis St

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Shop window on Willis St today. I like the little man on the push bike.

Plane Spotter

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Watching the surf at Lyall Bay today and I spied this man.

Still on the Ferry

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Seascapes 2

Click on image for larger view Cook Strait 08

Seascapes 1

Click on image for larger view Gisborne 1996

Shaggy Hair

Click on photo for larger view Group waiting for a bus.

On the Road Again

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After three weeks of sick leave I'm back on the road again. I took these photos this afternoon in Cuba Mall. Not a spectacular start, but at least an effort.

Moth on Hat

Click on image for larger viewSigns of spring. A Gum Emperor landed on this hat and then flew away.

Portraits 6

Click on image for larger view Ans Westra Photographer 1991. We were in the Makara forest together waiting for the light to change and it started raining. She was sheltering under a tree with her Rolleiflex staying dry under her coat. If you click on the picture you can see the rain drops.
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I made a new portrait of her a few months ago but I don't like it as much as this one, which appeared in my first book Face Value 1993.

Portraits 5

Click on image for larger viewRussell Kerr ONZM 09. Choreographer of Peter Pan for the Royal NZ Ballet (currently showing). I made this photograph after filming him for an educational resource, three weeks ago. You can see his interview on the RNZB web site. He was born in 1930 and is such an interesting man.

Portraits 4

Click on image for larger view Bride's Maid Town Hall, Wellington 08.

Portraits 3

Click on image for larger view Mike Hoppley old time frailing banjo player 08. Frailing is an old style often associated with Amercan settlers and hillbilly dance music, long before bluegrass and jazz banjo. Mike studies these styles and plays a banjo from the 1830s. These original banjos (which came to America with the African slaves) have gut strings, no frets (like a fiddle) and animal skin drums. My banjo was made in 1885 and frailing takes years to master, if ever.
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'You spend your whole life learning to frail then you die'.
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'I'd rather be an old timey frailer than a frailing old timey'.
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Listen on UTube by entering Old Time Banjo.

Portraits 2

Click on image for larger view Richard Clark film editor of Featherston 09. I talked about Richard in my post (Sept 12) below and he has become a good friend. On this occasion I was in a cafe in Carterton while Richard was in a hair salon next door. He popped in for a coffee halfway through the process with this white stuff in his hair. I instantly saw the Pope in him. Sometimes I even see a hallo!

Portraits 1

Click for larger view Lying low for a while so I thought I'd show some of my portrait work over the years. The man above is Peter Turner. I took this photo shortly before he died five years ago. He suffered from MS and often described his condition as being 'othered'. Towards the end he would often sit, smoke, drink and reminice for hours as he drifted in and out of his otherness.
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Peter was, for many years, the editor of the English magazine Creative Camera (I talked about in a post below - Sept 28th). CC was about the only mag in the world (during the 60/70s) which celebrated photography as the fine art form it is. Peter was a prolific writer and publisher of his own books as well.
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I first met Peter in London in 1975 where I showed him some of my work. He bluntly told me to go away and find direction which peeved me at the time, but was probably true. He came to NZ in the early 90s with his Kiwi partner Heather Forbes (also a photographer exhibiting at PhotoSpace right now, see link) and settled in Wellington. Peter became a good friend and I miss his wisdom.
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I'm othered I'm buggered.
I'm up I'm down.
It's harder It's harder.
Just being around.
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A verse from a song I wrote about him.

Pipi gathering

Click on image for a larger view Titahi Bay Beach is a last bastion of the old Kiwi habit of driving your car onto the beach when there is a cold wind, and having a snooze. For some reason the council haven't put up signs pointing to assigned car parks, well away from the beach. When I park there something always happens.

Bolder Bank and Christians

Click on image for larger view Thanks for the many kind emails. I'm home (feeling sore with stitches) after a week in hospital having my plumbing fixed. Just one more treatment next week and I should be rambling again. These two photographs were taken in Nelsen this year. The car reminds me of the French photographer LH Lartigue's (moving cars) work around 1910 when he was only 16 years old.

Before and After

Just home after three days in hospital and I have to go back in tomorrow. I looked for a photo to illustrate how I feel right now. Brisbane 1993.

In hospital for a few days. Normal post again next week.

Moko

Click on photos for larger view I have been emailed from overseas asking if I have any photos of Maori moko. Well, yes I will have many but these two are interesting. Hawera 1982 on a film set. I asked if I could wander around and take photos. The man above only has a half face moko. I wonder if this is traditional or they were shooting him from one side only? They must have spent hours in make up. I love the photos because it reflects an innocent time, before guards at the gates would have chased me away. Imagine trying to walk onto a film set these days? I'll show some more soon.

Blackball Blacksheep

Click on image for larger view A photograph for Gabrielle McKone.