Warauwerawera #toru

Recently I did three things. First, spend less time on social media. Second, read a few books. Third, went for a few walks.

The first book I pulled off the shelf was ‘The Dark Is Light Enough by Vincent O’Sullivan, a biographical portrait Ralph Hotere. The second was Victory Over Death: The Art of Colin McCahon by Rex Butler and Laurence Simmons. Once I’d finished these books, it led me to visiting places like the Hōtere Garden Oputae in Port Chalmers and Long Beach near Purakanui. Rather than simply photograph what was in front of me, I wanted to create a response to what I saw. What I wanted was to create an artwork that was a response to my time in a time and place. So, I asked myself, did I have anything to say and what was it?

Today: Warauwerawera #toru

Warauwerawera #rua

Recently I did three things. First, spend less time on social media. Second, read a few books. Third, went for a few walks.

The first book I pulled off the shelf was ‘The Dark Is Light Enough by Vincent O’Sullivan, a biographical portrait Ralph Hotere. The second was Victory Over Death: The Art of Colin McCahon by Rex Butler and Laurence Simmons. Once I’d finished these books, it led me to visiting places like the Hōtere Garden Oputae in Port Chalmers and Long Beach near Purakanui. Rather than simply photograph what was in front of me, I wanted to create a response to what I saw. What I wanted was to create an artwork that was a response to my time in a time and place. So, I asked myself, did I have anything to say and what was it?

Today: Warauwerawera #rua

Warauwerawera #tahi

Recently I did three things. First, spend less time on social media. Second, read a few books. Third, went for a few walks.

The first book I pulled off the shelf was ‘The Dark Is Light Enough by Vincent O’Sullivan, a biographical portrait Ralph Hotere. The second was Victory Over Death: The Art of Colin McCahon by Rex Butler and Laurence Simmons. Once I’d finished these books, it led me to visiting places like the Hōtere Garden Oputae in Port Chalmers and Long Beach near Purakanui. Rather than simply photograph what was in front of me, I wanted to create a response to what I saw. What I wanted was to create an artwork that was a response to my time in a time and place. So, I asked myself, did I have anything to say and what was it?

Today: Warauwerawera #tahi

I wanted to create an image where the eye moved across it in one single and deliberate direction. My first thought was of the fence line and the different wires and textures that ran across the scene. The closer I looked the more I noticed how they seemed to break the foreground up into tiny sections, each with their own unique characteristic.

From there I wanted the eye to slowly move up the image having to refocus and adjust on what was there until they reached the top. It’s an image where I wanted to encourage the viewer to have a long stare and ask their own questions about the different textures and shape formations they could see.

The Experience Of Seeing
#theexperienceofseeing  #johncaswellnz #fineartphotography #artphotography

I saw all these selves and displays lined with antique car and sign memorabilia. They had been quite deliberately organised and setout. So when I looked at what was on display my eye travelled along the shelf, focusing on different objects and thinking how all the items were related. So, I wanted to take a photo that what’s just like what I was seeing.

The Experience Of Seeing
#theexperienceofseeing  #johncaswellnz #fineartphotography #artphotography

Morning – Coffee – Takeaway Cup – Park – Steam – Fog – Window – Order – Chat – Window – Cactus – Green – Lettering – Black Lettering – Cactus Angle – Window Frame Angle – Lettering – Contrast – Steam – Visibility – No Visibility – Coffee Ready – Shoot – Chat – Collect – Go.

The Experience Of Seeing
#theexperienceofseeing #lovindunners #majesticdunedin #johncaswellnz #fineartphotography #artphotography

The other day I showed this image to someone and they thought I’d lost my mind. I think their words were something like ‘that’s one of the worst photos I’ve seen you take!’

I then explained that it’s a photo about thinking. During the Level 4 Lockdown I would go out walking in the afternoons, generally in the same place but sometimes my routes would vary. On these walks one thing I noticed was the lack of rubbish and it really stuck with me how much cleaner the world seemed. When we moved down to Level 3, I continued my walks when one day I came across a recently discarded McDonalds Cup lying in the grass. I realised how long it had been since I’d seen litter and how ironic it seemed that it was from a recently opened fast food outlet. 

As I wanted to create a photo that reflected my thinking and asked the questions I had, the only way I could do this was to create a photo that reflected these thoughts and questions.

The Experience Of Seeing
#theexperienceofseeing #lovindunners #majesticdunedin #johncaswellnz #fineartphotography #artphotography

The Experience Of Seeing
#theexperienceofseeing #lovindunners #majesticdunedin #johncaswellnz #fineartphotography #artphotography

The Experience Of Seeing
#theexperienceofseeing #lovindunners #majesticdunedin #johncaswellnz #fineartphotography #artphotography

The Experience Of Seeing
#theexperienceofseeing #lovindunners #majesticdunedin #johncaswellnz #fineartphotography #artphotography

The Experience Of Seeing
#theexperienceofseeing #lovindunners #majesticdunedin #johncaswellnz #fineartphotography #artphotography

The Experience Of Seeing
#theexperienceofseeing #lovindunners #majesticdunedin #johncaswellnz #fineartphotography #artphotography

The Experience Of Seeing
#theexperienceofseeing #lovindunners #majesticdunedin #johncaswellnz #fineartphotography #artphotography

The Experience Of Seeing
#theexperienceofseeing #lovindunners #majesticdunedin #johncaswellnz #fineartphotography #artphotography

The Experience Of Seeing
#theexperienceofseeing #lovindunners #majesticdunedin #johncaswellnz #fineartphotography #artphotography

The Experience Of Seeing
#theexperienceofseeing #lovindunners #majesticdunedin #johncaswellnz #fineartphotography #artphotography

The Experience Of Seeing
#theexperienceofseeing #lovindunners #majesticdunedin #johncaswellnz #fineartphotography #artphotography

The Experience Of Seeing
#theexperienceofseeing #lovindunners #majesticdunedin #johncaswellnz #fineartphotography #artphotography

The Experience Of Seeing
#theexperienceofseeing #lovindunners #majesticdunedin #johncaswellnz #fineartphotography #artphotography

The Experience Of Seeing
#theexperienceofseeing #lovindunners #majesticdunedin #johncaswellnz #fineartphotography #artphotography

Recently, I’ve found myself thinking much more about the structure of a photograph than I used to. Instead of following themes and ideas based around capturing scenes when the light was doing something interesting over a dramatic landscape, I find myself more interested in seeing beauty in everyday objects and creating photographs that ask and answer the questions I have. This train of thought isn’t something new, nor a sudden epiphany but a sudden slow growth of thought that has grown over time.

I began becoming more aware of the space and shape between objects in a photograph some time ago. It was born out of a desire to think about my photographs in a new way, partially out of questions I had about what I was seeing and partially out of wanting to view something differently.

I had been looking at the vernacular uses of photography from the 1960’s and 1970’s and there was something in what I saw that simply made sense. I’ve found that by thinking and looking in terms of snapshots capturing everyday life and subjects that I’ve become much more conscious about the experience of seeing.

Take this photograph I took this afternoon. While some might view this as very boring, personally I found it very interesting the way all the lines, shapes and spaces interconnected with each other and the resulting patterns they made. So, I went about taking a photograph the way I was thinking and seeing.

That’s what I’m thinking about with photography at the moment, The Experience Of Seeing
#theexperienceofseeing #lovindunners #majesticdunedin #johncaswellnz #fineartphotography #artphotography

South Dunedin Carpark

This image is all about empty space and shapes. The theme of space and silence is one I keep coming back to time and again. Often I’m looking at empty space and silence out in the country however the recent Level 4 lockdown was a wonderful opportunity to explore the theme. I find it fascinating to see all the lines and shapes that can included into the frame when you remove human activity.

Southern Motorway

I’ve spent the last few days wandering aimlessly around some of Dunedin’s suburbs. I had stuck pretty close to home during the week and come Saturday morning I found myself in need of a decent stretch of the legs. So, the next few days were spent casually strolling through Dunedin streets with no real goal, no real purpose and no real direction apart from to make it back home again. 

I ambled down streets that were near empty and casually gazed into shop windows that were filled with novelty cups and t-shirts that were probably once a Christmas gift. There were restaurants, bookstores, furniture stores, car yards and bespoke gift shops, all of which were closed. I stopped outside a hairdresser and for a moment considered starting a new career as a hair model. I imagined myself on some far distant island, drenched in sunlight effortlessly flicking long locks of hair out of my eyes and over my shoulder like they do on the ads for one those TV programmes featuring celebrities I’ve never heard of. After a moment’s day dreaming I continued on my way occasionally stopping to photograph the empty roads, streets and avenues that I seemed to have all to myself.

I’ve been thinking about this scene for a while and quite deliberately I didn’t finish it until I was completely sure and satisfied with it. The composition came quite quick, what took me so long to workout was if the image was about the house or the letterbox and hedge. Then, suddenly I realised over the weekend when I went back and visited the image that it was really about the driveway and powerline.
@johncaswellnz #lovindunners #majesticdunedin #johncaswellnz

Station Platform at Sutton

Names Etched Time
Wandering finding curious and creative views as of Ōtepoti  I amble down each charter’d street.

This is the old Railway Station at Sutton in Central Otago. I went on a search to find out more about it’s history but sadly I came up rather empty handed. All I can tell you from my google search is that if you go inside you can read names and initials of soldiers who served in the First World War, carved as they left for the front. Also, the station it’s self is only 5 kilometres from Middlemarch, 10 from the Sutton Salt Lake and only a few minutes away from the Orchard Sun Club, a Naturist Resort.

Do you know anything of it’s history?
#lovindunners #majesticdunedin #johncaswellnz

Corner of Papanui Inlet & Sheppard Road

Intersections have a lovely metaphor about them. They can say so much about the human qualities of life and choice, particularly if they remain empty and devoid of human activity. In this image, the two elements that I really think pulls the scene together are the mist & rain, along with the tyre tracks. The entire story of the scene comes together with the mist, the rain, the tyre tracks which are tied into the lovely metaphor that the intersection brings. For me, this is another long stare about life.

Poles at Sunrise (2021)

This is another visit to the central themes and ideas of emptiness, silence, space and how human activity can be dwarfed by nature. Once again it’s an acknowledgement that even now, there are places where all the white noise of the world can be switched off for a while. Following on from the image I shared last Thursday, everything in the image has been included and excluded deliberately to achieve the feeling I wanted it to invoke when I look at it.  It’s another long stare rather than a quick scroll on the screen.

At the moment I’m developing a description and colour palette of Dunedin in winter through single words or short poetic lines. I’d like you to contribute. Using one or two words, describe Dunedin and Otago in winter by commenting below. If you’ve not from Dunedin fear not, poetic winter lines like the one above will help as well.