Ahu Ahu Ohu - photographs by Andrew Ross, Photospace Gallery, 10th April - 6th June 2015

Andrew Ross: Community building, Ahu Ahu Ohu, 18/7/2009. Toned silver-gelatine print 8"x10"

This series of 8 photographs was taken by Andrew Ross while he was Artist in Residence at Tylee Cottage, Whanganui, in 2009. The programme is run by the Sarjeant Gallery, Whanganui, and these photographs were included in Ross's major exhibition of 72 photographs at the Sarjeant in 2010 - see Mark Amery's review 'Shifting Perspectives'.
All but one of  the Ahu Ahu Ohu photographs ('Gateway...', photo below) were taken on the same day. While working, Andrew spent two nights camped in the Community Building (photo above).
The exhibition prints are contact-printed from 8"x10" black and white film negatives, a process that creates prints of the same size as the negatives and with the maximum possible detail and tonal subtlety (as opposed to scanning or optically enlarging the negatives). The prints are gold- and selenium toned to enhance the tonal range and add extra archival stability.

Andrew Ross: Gateway, Ahu Ahu Ohu, 17/7/2009. Toned silver-gelatine print 8"x10"

Ahu Ahu Ohu is in a remote area on a tributary of the Whanganui River. The government's ohu scheme, which allowed communities to settle on Crown-owned land, was announced in 1973. However, the initiative lost one of its main proponents with the death of Prime Minister Norman Kirk the following year. Groups struggled to find suitable land, and only about eight ohu were ever established. Ahu Ahu survived until about 2000, despite difficulties with access and other problems.
Source: www.teara.govt.nz

Andrew Ross - artist information
More photographs by Andrew Ross
'The past in the present' - video documentary on Andrew's photography, by Kate Logan.