'Don't Look Down' - photographs by Gillian Eva Boyd, John Williams, James Gilberd, Photospace Gallery, 20 Sept-11 Oct, 2025

'Don't Look Down' - Gillian Eva Boyd, John Williams, James Gilberd - Photospace Gallery, 20th Sept-11th October, 2025

'Don’t Look Down' is a collection of photographs by three of Photospace Gallery’s regular contributors; Gillian Eva Boyd (Gil Eva Craig in past exhibitions), John Williams, and James Gilberd. The group exhibition concentrates on subjects found by pointing the camera downwards. Often these images are of the mundane, the obscure, of things simply left behind, overlooked and forgotten.

Utilising a range of technologies from cellphone cameras and laser prints to medium format digital and high end inkjet prints, these images are playful, quirky, fun and often beautiful.

'Dont Look Down' opens on Saturday, 20th September, 11am-1.30pm. You are most welcome to come along. 
The exhibition runs until Saturday 11th October, 2025.
Gallery hours Mon-Fri 10am-3pm, Saturdays 11am-2pm, closed Sundays and public holidays.

Photograph: 'Manhattan #1' by Gillian Eva Boyd, from 'Don't Look Down'

Gillian Eva Boyd

I have never been a  ‘destination’ photographer, preferring to meander through time, place and space. I consider myself a ‘flâneuse’ -  ‘the feminine form of flâneur, an idler, a dawdling observer, usually found in cities’. As a result, the majority of my images are psychogeographic in nature, a kind of personal cartography.  My holiday photographs always disappoint - as no one can tell where I have been.

My images in Don't Look Down were taken from 2019 - 2024, in Wellington, Hamilton and Manhattan. They range from over 9m above the subject to a metre or so - my eye height. 

‘Manhattan #1’ shown here,  and its companion image ‘Manhattan #2’ were taken looking down from the High Line in NYC. The two images were taken 1804 days, or, if preferred, 155,865,600 seconds apart in 2019 and 2024.  It’s not the exact site each time  - on my return, I couldn’t find the 2019 location as the area had been developed. 

My other images in Don’t look Down also have their own cipher. One stands alone and spans a couple of centuries and others are connected to each other, by me, in relation to time and distance. All however, are connected by the spirit in which they were made - somewhat aimlessly and always unhurried.

Photograph: 'Manhattan #2' by Gillian Eva Boyd, from 'Don't Look Down'

Gillian Eva Boyd (aka Gil Eva Craig)

Gillian  first started photography in the late 80’s, originally  as an adjunct to painting, but it soon became her primary medium. She refined her photographic and artist practice parallel to her career as a sound designer, composer and audio engineer.

Her first exhibition was  in January 2013 at Photospace as part of a group show called 17 Projects. She has since been part of 10 group shows and has had two solo exhibitions.  Gillian's work has been shown in Auckland, Wellington, Japan and in online exhibitions. 

She also produces her own photographic prints and has printed many exhibitions for other photographers. Gillian lives in Hamilton, New Zealand.

Photo: John Williams, from 'Don't Look Down'

Don’t Look Down - Photographs by John Williams

The purchase of a new cellphone just before I travelled to India in 2015 was the beginning of these images. It’s not that these images are technology driven but rather that the new technology allowed me to make images of things I wouldn’t normally photograph. I could now photograph the small oddities of life that although I may have noticed previously, I may not have made a photograph of. Many of these small, humorous and mundane scenes just happened to be things that I found lying on the ground, so I began pointing the camera downwards more often.

This was something I became even more conscious of during the Covid 19 pandemic, something of a boon time for things found on the ground. With masks, lines, vinyl gloves and X’s littering the footpaths, beaches and gutters. The ephemera of a pandemic was a rich source of subject matter and the medical nature of a pandemic seemed to lend itself to the near forensic nature of photographing things on the ground, discarded and left behind. As usual a tension or a dance between art and documentary exists in these images. Am I  drawn to making a beautiful image of something or simply recording it? Indeed, are those desires mutually exclusive?

Photo: John Williams, from 'Don't Look Down'

John Williams is a photographer and photographic educator who trained initially at Wellington Polytechnic and then Massey University Wellington. He holds Bachelor of Design (Hons) and Master of Education (Adult Education) degrees.

John’s work displays a strong commitment to the documentary tradition and he has exhibited regularly in Wellington and other centres over the past twenty years.

He is a longstanding contributor to the educational programme at Photospace Gallery and the Wellington High School Community Education Centre as well as having taught at a number of tertiary institutions.

'Smashed Avocado, Hawker St, Mount Victoria, Wellington, 2023' - cellphone photo by James Gilberd

James Gilberd

My contribution to 'Don't Look Down' comprises colour laser prints of photos taken with my cellphone, mostly between Photospace and where I park my car, so Courtenay Place/Majoribanks St/Hawker St over the last few years. There's a smattering of photos from other locations, too.
Someone said, 'The best camera to use is the one you have with you.' I've found that even fairly average cellphones (like my $500 Oppo) have sufficiently good cameras to render detail well, and they have the advantage of good close-up focus. I mostly use a phone for personal projects these days as using a 'proper' camera brings me too close to my day job.

James owns and has run Photospace Gallery since 1998 and only occasionally exhibits his personal photography work. He works as a professional photographer and plays drums in several local bands. Instagram: jamesgilberd_photospacegallery  and silverbadgerdrums

Photo: 'New Zealand Lager can, Hawker Street, Mount Victoria, Wellington, Jan 2023' - cellphone photo by James Gilberd