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April 11, 2009
Christchurch, New Zealand, is my hometown, in the sense of my origins: I was born and educated there. I had to leave because I could not obtain work. I now revisit Christchurch to as a tourist on short visits (and see my mother) when I am on my way to somewhere else in the South Island.
Gary Sauer-Thompson, Christchurch chic, 2009
I thought that I would explore what I could find online about photography in Christchurch. There is Christchurch Flickr group. Digging around I come to realize that there is a history to contemporary photography in Christchurch. A dominant figure in this regional history is Murray Hedwig:
Murray Hedwig, Coca Cola Crates, 1976, Cibachrome Print
The shut-down narrow cultural world of 1950-1960s Christchurch is the background to Hedwig's education at the School of Fine Arts at the University of Canterbury. This did not have a photography department and so aspiring photographers studied graphic design and taught themselves photography.
Around 2005 Hedwig published his photographic essay of Australasian urban spaces entitled--- Public Spaces, Personal Views.
Hardwig says that the medium of photography is so accessible to everyone that if somebody is making images about the banal and commonplace in our environment, then I hope viewers ask themselves: “ Why has he photographed this?”
Murray Hedwig, Garage Doors (Red), 1980, colour photograph
This latter more abstract work is quite different from the work exhibited on the Photo forum site especially Coca Cola and the suburban wires and houses. The latter are more a reworking the alterrd landscape style of the American New Topographics movement of the 1970s.
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Have just seen my images -you are breaching copyright AND allowing my images to be seen as 'stretched' or poorly focused. Please explain yourself!