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Andrew Ross Portraits

18/4/2015

Four Wellington Portraits by Andrew Ross, at the New Zealand Portrait Gallery

Correction: 10/3/23, Spelling changed to Swensson

Andrew Ross (1966-) is best known for his often unpeopled photographs of faded, threatened, disappearing parts of inner-city Wellington. His range, of course, is wider than that – tramping huts and abandoned ohu in the New Zealand backcountry, or the
ancient landscapes of England and the United States are among recent projects. But documenting his home territory is at the heart of what he does.

Although Ross is not seen as a portrait photographer, his photographs, however indirectly, are usually about people. For this exhibition we selected four that are more obviously portraits than most. Ross then provided an engaging account of how each photograph
came about.
- David Colquhoun, exhibition curator, 2015

Maureen Swensson and family, Mitchelltown, 21/8/2007

Maureen at this time was the last surviving member of her family who had lived in Mitchelltown since the beginning of the 20th century. They moved into 41 Holloway Road shortly before Maureen’s birth in 1919, she was in fact born in the front room. The Swensons had a small grocery store in the downstairs part of the house. Maureen’s entire life was spent in the bosom of her close-knit family and the community of the ‘Gully’. She attended Mitchelltown School until standard 6, then worked in the family shop.

The Swensons became local celebrities due to the extreme longevity of their father ‘Pop’ (William Swenson), who at his death in 1993 at 108, was the oldest living New Zealander. They became good friends with David Lange, and Gaylene Preston made a film about them – ‘The Gullyites’.

Maureen and her brother George carried on at no.41 looking after each other and enjoying the company of their many friends and extended family. I got to know them in the late 90s and was often summoned to help out with various house maintenance tasks.

Of course I’d often ask if I could photograph them as part of my extended Wellington project, but George in particular was not keen on this at all. After George’s death in 2005, Maureen became increasingly dependent on her community of friends, family and helpers. At the same time, despite her grief, she seemed to blossom in her role as the local matriarch, and last survivor of her immediate family.

I saw a lot of her during the last few years of her life, and am very grateful that I was able to take this portrait and make a number of studies in and around her truly amazing family home – she died a year after this photograph was taken.
- Andrew Ross, 2015

Maureen Swensson and family, Mitchelltown, 21/8/2007 - photo by Andrew Ross, four wellington portraits, NZ portrait gallery, Photospace Gallery Wellington NZ

Maureen Swensson and family, Mitchelltown, 21/8/2007. Photo: Andrew Ross

Matt Brookes (Mr Scoot), Ohiro Road, Aro Valley, 14/12/2006

For those of us who get about on older Italian motor scooters, Vespas in particular, Matt and his partner Jess Corbett could be considered the prime movers and shakers in the local classic scooter scene. Over the years their relentless energy and enthusiasm has been behind many local and national get-togethers and publications.

Matt’s one man business, ‘Mr Scoot’ has soldiered on through the hardships of finding affordable premises in Wellington and the decline of clients due to the motor cycle registration fee hikes. It’s currently run from his home.

Despite having to work in cramped and difficult conditions, often out on the footpath, there are Vespas all over Wellington and beyond that owe their continued operation to Matt’s mechanical ingenuity.

I’ve known Matt since around 2000, we both got interested in old Vespas in our youth (the early 80s).

It’s the improvised third world quality of the Mr Scoot enterprise that appeals to me; survival on a shoe string, and a can-do attitude that anything can be fixed, in whatever circumstances, with whatever’s on hand.

Matt Brookes (Mr Scoot) Ohiro Road, Aro Valley, 14/12/2006 Andrew Ross, Photospace Gallery Wellington, NZ Portrait Gallery

Matt Brookes (Mr Scoot), Ohiro Road, Aro Valley, 14/12/2006. Photo: Andrew Ross

Community Media Trust quarterly general meeting, Kate Sheppard Place – (Rod Prosser, Andrea Bosshard, Russell Campbell, David Grant, Alister Barry, Shane Loader), 4/4/2006

It’s often an interest in a building that leads me to eventually photograph the people that inhabit or use it. In Kate Sheppard Place, the domain these days of grey soulless high rises, there can still be found an intriguing double-storied concrete structure. In fact it is a former sub-station, the ground floor was for the electrical gear and the upper floor a residential flat. Whether or not the flat was intended for those who maintained the station, I can’t say.

Anyhow, it’s been a while since it served its original electrical function, and I believe since the late 70s or early 80s until a couple of years ago, the Community Media Trust have used it as their base. It was through meeting Russell Campbell that I got access to make interior photos of the building.

The group (also known as Vanguard Films) are known in particular for a series of hard hitting insightful films under the directorship of Alister Barry. They document the decline of NZ since the 1980s into a land of have and have-nots, and the handover of our sovereignty to international capitalism. Titles include ‘In a land of plenty’, ‘Someone else’s country’, etc.

Community Media Trust quarterly general meeting, Kate Sheppard Place, Thorndon, 4/4/2006. Photo by Andrew Ross, Photospace Gallery Wellington New Zealand, NZ Portrait Gallery

Community Media Trust quarterly general meeting, Kate Sheppard Place, Thorndon, 4/4/2006. Photo: Andrew Ross

Henry and Crystal, 8 Arthur Street, 6/11/2004

Ever since living in Wellington from the mid-1980s, I had noticed a man walking his dog, or sometimes it seemed the dog was walking the man. He was distinctive for his teddy boy style – ducktail combed hair and studded jean jacket. He looked tough but self-contained and therefore not intimidating, and was in but outside these times. Someone who carried their own world around with them.

In the early 2000s the protests over the proposed inner city bypass gained momentum as the threat to this unique part of the city drew nearer. Upper Cuba Street, Tonks Avenue and Arthur Street would be wiped out. Like many photographers I had been drawn to the area and had been systematically documenting it’s outer, inner and human aspects since 1996.

I’d just discovered Arthur Street soon after coming to Wellington and was blown away by its rows of higgledy-piggledy cottages, it reminded me of 1920s photos of Haining Street. There was some quite militant protest around that time as the City Council were evicting long-term residents like Jim Andrews and bulldozing the houses.

Back in the 2000’s when I was busy with my camera, I was told about the man and his dog at the end of Arthur Street and immediately knew who was being referred to. After being introduced to Henry by another local, I spent the next year pestering him till I got this photo. The picture was pretty much choreographed by Henry himself. I also made a number of interior studies inside his house. It was all very much at the 11th hour, as eviction was imminent.

The house was a world in itself, all its occupant’s interests and memorabilia carefully arranged on display. Henry (I never learned his surname) had lived there for 16 years, and as a young man had been a musterer in the McKenzie country.

Inner city Wellington is no longer a place where outsider types can lead independent self-contained lives, and is the poorer for it.

Henry and Crystal, 8 Arthur Street, 6/11/2004. Photo by Andrew Ross, Photospace Gallery Wellington NZ, New Zealand Portrait Gallery

Henry and Crystal, 8 Arthur Street, 6/11/2004. Photo: Andrew Ross

Andrew Ross - links and info

All prints are 8"x10" (203 x 254mm) POP (printing-out paper), gold toned.
These are the artist's prints, on loan from Photospace Gallery.
More information on photographer Andrew Ross.
Documentary video on Andrew Ross - The Past in the Present - by Kate Logan, 2012 (16 minutes).
NZ Portrait Gallery exhibition - Capital Characters

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

7/4/2015

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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: CommGateway, Ahu Ahu Ohu, 17/7/2009. Toned silver-gelatine print 8

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.

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What We Saw - photographs by Sally Griffin

2/4/2015

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What We Saw - photographs by Sally Griffin
8th May - 6th June, 2015, Photospace Gallery

The exhibition What We Saw at Photospace Gallery is Sally Griffin's first photography show. The images are from the artist’s personal collection of black and white photos. It features well-known, and not so well-known, artists and political figures such as Phil Clairmont, Tony Fomison, Merata Mita, Tim Shadbolt and many more.

Sally will give a a floor talk of stories about the photos on Saturday 16 May at 2pm. Admission is free.

Orlando and Phil Clairmont on the banks of the Whanganui River 1982. Photo: Sally Griffin

Sally Griffin - artist statement

I got a camera when I was six years old for a Christmas present. My father was into ‘quality’ and was friendly with photographers and so when he presented me with a ‘serious’ camera that produced square format photos, I was not surprised. At the time, I would have been happier with a Kodak camera but it was not to be.

Soon, though, I was hooked. I would bring friends home from school, suggest dress ups and set them up in poses around our house for photos. For the next six years I am a domestic photographer around the house, in the garden, of our many animals or when we went on holidays. I would take the rolls of film over to the chemist shop on the corner to get them processed.

At home, we heard stories of our great-grandfather Surgeon Major-General John Colahan Griffin, born in Galway in 1836, who was a very early photographer. He took photos all his life as he travelled – through India, Malta and Gibraltar, Dublin, Capetown and finally settling in Victoria, Australia.

My father was also a documentary photographer of his architectural work, of countryside, family and friends. He took a Kodak Retina camera with him when he enlisted as a soldier and was in the Flash-spotting Battery, travelling around Australia, mostly on flat rail carriages. He was always interested in photographic images and used a camera all his life.

John and Prue Griffin with friends Bill and Lyn Griffin on the verandah of our Melbourne home. 1963 . Photo: Sally Griffin

Pondering my influences, I cannot neglect my mother's best friend, Lyn Sankey (later married to Bill Griffin). My newly-wed parents moved into an old castle, which had huge flats in Black St, Middle Brighton. There they met Lyn and her first husband, John Sankey. The Sankeys ran a photography studio in post-war Melbourne; John taking the photos and Lyn hand-tinting them. From all accounts, the Black St flats gathered up some of Melbourne's characters and living was friendly enough, sharing bathroom and laundry facilities. Lyn was glamorous, outspoken and capable, and one day she left the studio business (and her husband) to become one of Melbourne's first fashion parade comperes, the parades televising from the Myer's ballroom. Lyn was high-powered and always had artistic flair.

When I arrived in Auckland from Melbourne, and was living in Devonport, a flatmate, Derek Ward, said I could assist him with layout work at the City News, a community newspaper. I was then offered the photographer’s job, something Simone Oettli told me recently she had also done. I was taking photographs, developing and printing them, and doing all the repro artwork.

One day a week I would get a list of photos to take of people and places, get the company Mini car and go through the list with the appointments I had set up. Election year was in 1975 and we were doing a lot of interviews with politicians (well-known ‘radical’ Stephen Chan was the editor). So I would either accompany the journalist or photograph separately. I remember one of my briefs was to get a photo of (Sir) Dove Myer-Robinson (the long-serving Auckland mayor) when he looked like he had ‘nodded off’. There were people who wanted Robbie’s long ‘reign’ to be over, but this did not happen quickly!

Althea Whillans, Graeme Whimp and Tim Shadbolt at an all-night protest outside the Hotel Inter-Continental where the All Blacks were staying before flying out to play an all white Springbok team, 1976. Photo: Sally Griffin

I met my long-time partner, writer David Parkyn, at City News and went to the infamous Kiwi Hotel for our first date. I had brought along my friend Angela Middleton and David came in with Gary Baigent and soon enough we had become two couples and moved into a house in Pompellier Terrace. Angela had set up a dark room in our place in Devonport and had taught me a lot about developing. Now living in Ponsonby with other photographers, it was camera vs. camera and a lot of talking. Gary was instructive and positively critical. Angela was with a group who were editing a women’s book of photography, Fragments of a World with Gillian Chaplin and Simone Oettli and I was invited to join – which I did.

David Parkyn and Tony Fomison at Acacia Bay - carvings by Greg Matahiwi Brightwell and Jono Randell, Lake Taupo, 1981, photo by Sally Griffin, Photospace Gallery Wellington New Zealand

David Parkyn and Tony Fomison at Acacia Bay - carvings by Greg Matahiwi Brightwell and Jono Randell, Lake Taupo, 1981. Photo: Sally Griffin

I got in the habit of taking photos all the time. I was in a street theatre group with people who had left Theatre Corporate and wanted a more political and ‘real’ role in theatre – Derek Ward, David Mahon, Judy Boyle and later Richard von Sturmer, Sarah Pierse, Miles McKane and others that came and went. The Zazou Clowns morphed into Ratz Theatrix and then into The Plague, a theatrical punk band. I was designing posters, backdrops, drawing and painting – as well as working at the newspaper.

Art, theatre and music all moved in and out at different times. We did shows in night clubs, rock festivals, the Maidment Theatre, Vulcan Lane, art galleries and many other venues.

Life in central Auckland continued to be busy. David knew Ponsonby artists and the ‘push’. Tony Fomison was living in Gunson St, Freemans Bay and Phil Clairmont arrived in Auckland in the late 1970s. There were also the Huia commune people: Tim Shadbolt, Jill Keogh and her amazing family of children, David’s brother, John Parkyn, Leo and Lynda Thompson.

I knew Odo Strewe and his family from my Devonport days where Odo used to stay when he was in Auckland. I was friendly with Oliver, his photo journalist son and went up North, camera in hand, with the small team Chris Strewe put together, including Merata Mita, to make a film for German television on the Treaty of Waitangi.

Lots of people were moving around – lots of art, music, and politics – and there was great camaraderie. So many interesting people - and times – and I felt compelled to record these experiences and now, looking back on this record of events and characters, I am very pleased I did.

This is a brief summary of the background to the photographs in the exhibition of What We Saw. This is my first solo exhibition of photographs and they are from my personal collection of black and white images from the decade after I arrived in New Zealand in 1974.

Phil Clairmont, David Parkyn, Nigel Brown and Sally Griffin on the banks of the Whanganui River 1982. Photo: Sally Griffin

What We Saw exhibition info

I am showing a series of life-size drawings concurrently with the photography exhibition and it is also called What We Saw.

What We Saw – Photos from a Decade opens at 5pm on 8th May at Photospace Gallery, 1st Floor, 37 Courtenay Place. It runs from 9th May – 6th June.

There is a floor talk on Saturday 16 May at 2pm of stories about the photos. It’s free.

What We Saw – Life-size Drawings opens at 5.30pm on 7th May at Toi Poneke Gallery, 61 Abel Smith St. The show runs from 8th – 30th May. There is a drawing workshop on Saturday 23 May, 2 – 4 pm. Registrations are essential.
Toi Poneke on Facebook

Review - Angela Middleton on "What We Saw"
More info: www.sallygriffin.co.nz

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Andrew Ross Portraits

Four Wellington Portraits by Andrew Ross, at the New Zealand Portrait Gallery

Andrew Ross - links and info

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

What We Saw - photographs by Sally Griffin

What We Saw - photographs by Sally Griffin
8th May - 6th June, 2015, Photospace Gallery

Sally Griffin - artist statement

What We Saw exhibition info

Author

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Andrew Ross Portraits

Four Wellington Portraits by Andrew Ross, at the New Zealand Portrait Gallery

Andrew Ross - links and info

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

What We Saw - photographs by Sally Griffin

What We Saw - photographs by Sally Griffin8th May - 6th June, 2015, Photospace Gallery

Sally Griffin - artist statement

What We Saw exhibition info

Author

Archives

Categories

What We Saw - photographs by Sally Griffin
8th May - 6th June, 2015, Photospace Gallery