A series I’ve been working on in colour is an exploration of film and medium format is looking at the decay of small towns throughout New Zealand.
As the number of people living in major urban centres like Auckland goes up, populations of small, rural and often isolated communities dotted around the country are stagnant, or in decline as factories close down, industries restructure and people age.
For some reason, I think this subject lends itself quite nicely to film is at feels appropriate for the age of the buildings.
The photo on the other page of the warrant of fitness station is personal to me as it is in the town of Waimangaroa where I spent several years as a child.
On this particular visit I went back to the house I lived in over 30 years ago, and it had been completely overgrown and abandoned so when I see this photo it evokes the emotions that go with that.
Waimangaroa sits at the bottom of Denniston, which is a now-defunct coal mine. This feature is in one of my writing project’s as well, and I took many photos on this visit.
