Week 1 Gallery Field Trip

Galleries Visited: Fresh Gallery, Otara and Mangere Arts Centre

Gallery 1: Mangere Arts Centre
The Heart Derelict by Fiona Paddington (2006)
Size of Work: 875 x 728mm (framed)
Silver Gelatin Print, Edition 5/5


What do you see in this photograph?
At a shallow look, I see a birds nest with 4 eggs inside as the obvious centre of the photograph. The photographs subject (birds nest and eggs) is surrounded by solid black.


What do you think this work is about?
As all of the nests and eggs are each unique in The Heart Derelict, I think Pardington's photographs are focusing directly on the subject and placing it in the middle of what I portray as "silence" (the solid black surrounding the nest) so that the details of the nest and eggs can be seen clearly without any distractions. From this assumption, I assume her work is about focusing on details of birds nests and birdlife that some people may not see at just a glance.


What interested you about this particular work?
What captured my interest the most was the monochrome colouring and the isolated placement of the subjects. To me, it shows how such a simple colour scheme is necessary because the detail of the subject is rather intense. In my opinion, you wouldn't want to overload the photograph with excessive saturation or vibrance to take away from the detail of the nest and eggs. The simplicity of the black background really made the subjects detail stand out.

Gallery 2: Fresh Gallery, Otara

G. G. Talk That Talk by Mahia Jermaine Dean
Size of Work: 841 x 594mm (framed)


What do you see in this photograph?
Without analysing the photograph to intensely, in this particular series of photographs, I see 3 men posing separately. Each photograph in the series is shot in monochrome and the subjects are posed in front of a plain black background.


What do you think this work is about?
I think these photographs portray different personality types and is about discovering and establishing who you are as a person and your identity. Each of the subjects could perhaps be experiencing an identity crisis and the monochrome colouring serves as a barrier for them to break down. In my opinion, Dean's work portrays the idea that identity isn't as simple as "black and white".


What interested you about this particular work?
What captured my interest, even at first glance, was how the photographs all work really well together. 
I like how the photographer used consistent lighting, subject composition and monochrome colouring to establish a connection between each photograph and therefore representing it as a series.