oliviamartinphotography

[oliviamartinphotography]

Contextual statement

Where in the world am I? What stories can I tell? I’ve lived in Auckland my entire life. I come from the North Shore but moved to the city this year for university. This photographic assignment tasked us with telling our story of place. My location focuses on Karangahape Road, and some streets connected to it. I hang out on K’ Road frequently with friends, for work, shopping or passing through. I really identify with the creative, queer culture found there and as a result I’ve become really drawn to it. To tell my version of Karangahape Road I wanted to focus on certain places that have meaning to me such as my workplace, People Being People, an iconic K’ Road op shop, the Underground where I attend gigs frequently, and my boyfriend’s apartment which also provides a wide view of the road. Through practicing photography, I’ve found that I enjoy shooting buildings and locations without people in them. I didn’t feel too safe shooting people on K’ Road either. Shooting without people has allowed me to focus on the place and buildings themselves which have become even more interesting after researching the history. I find heritage buildings so beautiful and they’re such an important timestamp of the past. 

The genres I’ve been drawn to while shooting have been street style and documentary photography. Photographers in particular that have informed my practice are William Eggleston, and David Cook. I’ve found Eggleston’s colour, style and subject matter inspiring as well as Cook’s framing. I’ve tried to apply elements of their photography to my own to create a narrative that shows the way I see and experience K’ Road. My narrative forms a diamond structure. It starts off wide, zooms into specific subjects, then zooms out again at the end. The wide shot of K’ Road from the apartment establishes the setting. It’s taken in the morning which adds the time of day as an element in the story. Shots from the ground show the road and its buildings in more detail as I make my way to my workplace. I include some interior shots that hint at what the store is like but don’t show it outright. There’s a sign that says “dead people’s things for sale” which many people that come in the store, including me, find funny given that it’s a secondhand store. I’ve included in my series a shot of a bus stop with the word “fart” graffitied on it. The shop sign and this moment are some examples of the humour and culture we see on K’ Road. From there I move to a shot on Pitt Street and some of the Underground. These shots are telling of the things I notice most when I’m in these locations. I have a few low angle shots of other buildings that I’ve photographed along K’ Road as well. The low angle does well to accentuate the presence they have on the road. I conclude with another wide shot of K’ Road out of the same apartment window in the afternoon. My series provides a very soft and glamourised outlook of K’ Road as this is how I experience it – I think that providing a gritty view would do injustice to another's story of this place. 

[oliviamartinphotography]

My final 12 images

Image 1:

Establishes K' Road as a setting with a wide shot

Morning light highlights K' Road

Apartment window creates a frame, provides context and uses rule of thirds

Soft interior juxtaposes the brutal exterior view beyond

Warm morning light

Image 2:

Fart graffiti is funny and speaks to the culture of K' Road

Well known bus stop - is also visible in the first shot

Strong lines and colour

Image 3:

View from the street shows buildings in more detail

Strong lines and hierarchy with a clear foreground, midground and background

Looks back on the apartment I took the first shot from which offers a very different perspective

Image 4:

View over the road from my work

Lines of the crossing lead into it

Rule of thirds

Shows People Being People sign but not too clearly

Strong lines

Image 5:

Getting inside my workplace

"Dead peoples things for sale" sign accompanied by the clothes rack in the bottom of the frame hints that it's a second hand clothes store

Dark K' Road humour

Zooms in on an element more than previous photos

Sign is slightly skewed which enhances it

Image 6:

Light on the ceiling of my work

Interesting wires and composition - inspired by William Eggleston

White in colour yet lots of tonal variation

Zooms even further in to an element

Image 7:

View out the back door of my work onto Mercury Lane

Doorway frames red cars outside and the interior provides context

Dark interior contrasts the light outside which allows the focus to fall on the exterior

Morning light creates a triangle shape in the doorway and illuminates the wire texture on the gate

Image 8:

Cars create hierarchy

Bright colours

Cooler light to reflect time of day (midday/afternoon)

Lines of the building and fence lead in toward the black car

Barbed wire creates interesting shadow

Brutal looking

Image 9:

Shot from the Underground out into the carpark

Another interior to exterior shot of a car through a doorway

Dark interior and shadow on the ground create a frame for the scene beyond

Yellow lines lead into the car

Image 10:

Shot from the carpark featured in the previous photo

Strong lines and looks geometric

This building dominates this area which I've emphasised with a low angle

Graffiti adds a pop of colour

Afternoon light

Image 11:

Another low angle which emphasises the presence this building has on the road

Graffiti says "we up here"

Strong lines + golden ratio

Shot on the Queen Street/K' Road corner

Image 12:

Wide shot from apartment again as we zoom back out

Perspective is slightly shifted but still features K' Road

Interior is super dark and creates a cool shaped frame for the bright scene outside

Shapes in the interior look interesting - particularly the couch, fan and plant

Window frames create different sections to break apart the exterior view

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More of my photographer models

Brendan Kitto

Brendan Kitto is a photographer from Aotearoa, based in Whanganui. His work is a visual diary, showing what he finds intriguing in his surroundings – similar to me. I was drawn to his photography as there are lots of similarities between his subject matter and framing and my own. I particularly like his photos of buildings. He portrays his surroundings in such a hostile way which is really emphasised by his lack of colour. His images feel really bleak and the absence of human life in them really adds to that. I find his images really inspiring as my own photos deal with old buildings, no people and a brutal sort of setting. He captures this in such a simple yet interesting way which I’ve tried to practice in my own photography.  

David Cook

Although I've done previous research on David Cook, I went back a while ago and looked at what photos of his applied particularly to my own subject matter. Brutal at times (especially his Lake of Coal series), his documentary style photography is inspiring. I thought his use of line when photographing interior spaces was super interesting. I also loved his shots that photograph an exterior space through a window frame or door from an interior space - this is something I wanted to achieve in my own practice. I really like how he provides context of the interior while still including what's outside. His photo with the TV and the window is really interesting as the large creepy face on the TV contrasts the soft, suburban setting of both the outside and inside of the house.

Lucia Moholy

Lucia Moholy was a photographer that attended the German Bauhaus art school. While there, she documented the architecture of it. I was drawn to her because of her subject matter and the way she uses strong line, framing and depth of field to capture it. The compositions are very beautiful and calculated. Her use of light is also very strong - especially the way she's captured the shadows of the balconies and the shapes these create. I love the way she's framed the building on the bottom left as well - another exterior shot through interior which I love. The strong lines that lead to a vanishing point and the dark interior create such an interesting image.

Ann Shelton - Red Eye

NZ photographer, Ann Shelton, was originally from Wellington but then moved to Auckland to attend Elam, studying fine arts in the 90s. Although her subject matter doesn't align with mine, her book, Red Eye, documents K Road personalities in the 90s. I thought this would be worth looking at given that K Road is the location I'm focusing on. The name comes in part from the fact that during this time K road was a known red-light district and also the red-eye that shooting up close with the flash created. I find her work interesting as it captures the queer, creative, party culture that was prevalent on the road during this time - a lot of this still remains today. If I was to describe K Road, these are the photos I would show someone.

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[oliviamartinphotography]

Week 10 contact sheet

Creating a photobook with 'finalist' images in week 9 allowed me to see my images together and helped me identify the gaps that needed to be filled in my K'Road narrative. My final shoot in week 10 was about taking the images to fill these gaps and improving on images taken previously. On the first day, I shot in the afternoon. I went back to the Underground and took shots of the carpark outside it from the inside. I've got framing as a strong convention in a lot of my photos so I wanted to continue this. I really like the look of shooting an exterior with the interior space still in frame eg through a doorway or a window. The interior tends to turn out quite dark in comparison to the exterior (depending on lighting) which really highlights what's in the frame. I then moved outside, to the carpark, and took shots of the buildings there that I found interesting. They look quite brutal and have graffiti on them which I think looks cool and has a bit of narrative to it. Additionally, the afternoon sun really lit them up well. I focused on the line and shapes they created when taking these. I then moved on up the road getting various shots of buildings - I didn't end up liking most of these as they weren't strong and didn't contribute to the story I was trying to tell. I then visited my boyfriend's apartment where I took some photos of K' Road through the window. I wanted to include the window frame and interior space as context - it really juxtaposes the brutal cityscape beyond. I wasn't really fond of these compositions however. The next day I took the same shots but in the morning. The morning light lit K' Road up, highlighting it amongst the sea of buildings which I thought this was really cool. I knew that I wanted my sequence to start with one of these photos - it made sense to start with a morning photo. From there, I made my way to work. I took lots of photos from the ground as I was lacking good street view shots. My favourites were some that I took that look back on the apartment which I wanted to include in my series as it shows a great change in perspective. I got some shots of my work building from over the street which establish it as a setting - I also got some up close ones of the signs and door but I didn't like these very much as they seemed to obvious and didn't have strong composition. In week 9 I noticed that the lights and wires on the ceiling were really interesting so I wanted to get better shots of these, using William Eggleston as an inspiration. I found that with the light on it was too hard to get the exposure right - my favourite ended up being a photo of a light turned off. The wires on the ceiling and the light-shade create an interesting composition. The only colour in it is white yet it's still an interesting photo. The texture on the ceiling is also interesting. I then took shots out of the 2 doors that lead into my work - 1 leads onto K' Road and the other onto Mercury lane. Again I was trying to bring in the 'shooting an exterior through a frame from an interior' element. I liked the Mercury lane photos the best as the red cars are super eye-catching and go with the colours present in my images. The morning light creates an interesting shape in the doorway too. The photos from the other doorway were at a weird low-angle with less interesting subject matter. The cars through the Mercury Lane doorway also fit in with other images I have that include cars.

After testing out these images with my existing images in a photobook I was able to fill in the gaps to create my narrative.

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K' Road History

To better my understanding of the history of K' Road I did some research...

The Karangahape and Symonds Street ridges are the oldest paths in this area of Auckland. For hundreds of years before Europeans settled here, the Karangahape ridge was part of a well-traveled route used by Māori to get from the Waitemata harbour to the Manukau harbour. Fast forward to the 1950's, Karangahape Road was a popular shopping destination for locals. This changed when the Newton motorway system was built between 1965-75. The construction of the motorway meant many buildings had to be demolished thus forcing people from their homes. This drove a lot of local businesses out and the space left was filled with strip clubs, bars and cafés. Karangahape Road acquired a new culture after this. Being a known red-light area in the late 80’s and 90’s, gave it a bit of a seedy reputation. K Road nowadays remains as an iconic Auckland street and while still having a reputation of being a bit rough it’s home to an artsy culture, lots of second-hand shops, restaurants, ethnic food places, bars and clubs. It’s also home to a lot of homeless people which K’ rd icon, Six, covers in her paper ‘The K’ Road Chronicle’ which has since been turned into a web series. The paper gives a voice to street people and contains stories, profiles and information for them. The shared information acts as something to bond over. Six herself was a part of the homeless community on K’ Road for several years so they hold a special place in her heart.  

I also found some photos of heritage buildings on K' Road when they were new compared to them now. It was interesting to see as buildings act as such a timestamp of history.

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Henri Cartier Bresson

Henri Cartier Bresson was a French photographer that pioneered the genre of street photography. His photos seem to capture the moment in a scene where all the elements come together perfectly. The way he uses line, shape and shadow to frame his human subjects is really beautiful – he does this in quite a geometric way as well, which I appreciate. The black and white photographs allow us to focus more on the composition too. A lot of his photography utilises depth of field with a clear foreground, mid-ground and background. To me his compositions feel very mathematical, often using the golden ratio which is very pleasing to the eye. His work has certainly influenced mine in terms of composition. I’ve been working on creating a distinct foreground, mid-ground and background in some of my photos as well as creating frames out of shape, line and shadow which I already enjoy doing. It’s been very helpful as his work has a lot of architecture in it like mine so it’s interesting to find new ways to shoot the same thing.  

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The photo at the top is ‘The Red Ceiling’ by William Eggleston. I’m really drawn to it and I think that the colour and the leading lines are very powerful. I found that the lightbulb and wires in this image resembled the ceiling at my work. I want to go back and shoot at there to try and achieve something similar to William Egglestons work as my photos look too dark. I find myself quite drawn to his style so I want to explore him more.

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Photos I'm thinking could make the final cut

I'm noticing lot's of similarities between the photos I'm liking the most. I'm seeing lots of blue, orangey reds, neutral grey/creamy colours and greens. There's similarities in architecture too with prominent straight lines and some arches/curves. There's some shadows too like the ones on the shop signs and cars. I've also found that I often shoot upwards so I need some more ground level shots to balance this out I think. From here I aim to fill visual gaps and reshoot some of these images to tell a more complete story. This week I'm going to do research into some street/documentary photographers as those are the genres that are jumping out to me the most. I also aim to do research into K Road's history and the K Road Chronicles series.

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Week 8&9 shoot

During week 8 I explored the streets close to my apartment, looking closely at graffiti, shadows, shop signs, buildings etc. After my talk with Emil during the week 9 session I figured that I need to focus soley on K rd and streets in close proximity such as pitt street. It's an area I visit frequently for work, shopping, passing through and socialising. The variation of people, shops, buildings, culture and history really interest me. After the class I visited to take photos - I photographed an area on city rd which is an interesting backstreet that comes off K Rd. I also went and shot the underground. Most photos I was unhappy with due to the weather being rainy and no bright daylight so I aim to shoot these areas further. I've noticed that most of the photos I've taken have no people in them so I want to keep with that theme - I think shots that have no people in them in an area that should be bustling with people look interesting. Later that week I shot inside my workplace. There's a funny sign that says "dead peoples things for sale" which people comment on often when they come in so I thought I'd capture this. The ceiling and lights are quite interesting because of the lines and shadows that the shapes create - I got a few interesting shots but definitely need to reshoot this week.

After compiling the photos I think are working the best so far into a photobook I've realised that I've got a few gaps to fill which I will focus on this week. I want my narrative to begin with a shot of K rd from above in an apartment - I have some shots of this already but aim to explore these further. This establishes the setting I'm working with. I then want to see K rd at ground level and gradually get deeper into documenting the details, lines, shapes, shadows, light of buildings and structures in this area. I want to explore the areas significant to me. Until I shot inside my work, all the photos I had of K rd were predominantly exterior so I will further practice shooting inside there. I need more establishing shots of the street as I have either far away or right up close. I also want to establish my workplace more from the outside rather than jumping straight inside. I want to show the entrance, have an inside shot then maybe a shot through the doorway from the inside to show that I'm leaving. I've found shooting the outside through a frame in an interior space quite interesting as the inside is quite dark and highlights the view through the frame/doorway.

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Week 8 technical shoot

For this weeks technical shoot we were required to capture 28 photos of a location while standing within a 1 metre square. I shot in 2 places - under and on top of the foot bridge over Wellesley street. The perspective from below the bridge was interesting as the lines the bridge overhead created were very long and dynamic. Above, I was able to capture the cars below (I tried a slower shutter speed for this), behind the signs on the bridge which had graffiti on them, the railing of the bridge which provided framing and interesting lines, shadows of the railing, vanishing points of the bridge and in general a higher perspective. I found this exercise really helpful and interesting as it made me realise how much potential lies in one square metre of space. It forced me to look deeper into the location so I noticed things that I normally wouldn't such as the variety of shadows, shapes and compositions that I can capture in such a small area. I definitely want to apply this exercise to future shoots that I do. 

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Tom Gould

Tom Gould is an incredible NZ photographer and director. He’s worked for huge global names including the New York Times, Ralph Lauren, NBA, British Vogue, Nike, New Balance, MTV, Vans and many more. He so artfully captures the black experience and hip hop culture through his photography and film making. He brings such a unique perspective to commercial photography as it still maintains such an artistic quality especially with the colour, lighting and portraiture. His balance of vivid, earthy colour vs black and white photography is also very well done. What I found particularly interesting when looking at his short films/ads was his Bury Me With The Lo On work for Ralph Lauren. The Archival footage takes us back to late 80’s New York where groups of teens came together to form a crew. Their goal was to accumulate as much Ralph Lauren clothing as possible – an act meant to empower them as young black peoples. The footage gives us a quick snapshot into their culture – their clothing and hip hop music being key ways of expression for them. I find it so beautiful how their shared experience and values brought them so close and created such a special culture despite the difficulties of being people of colour.  

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David Cook

David Cook is an NZ photographer. A lot of his work focuses on capturing people in their environment. I particularly loved his work Meet Me In The Square from the 80’s in Christchurch which he recovered after the 2011 earthquake. It provides such interesting snapshots into society at the time from punk fashion and rebellion against the status quo to an empty stadium full of beer cans, illustrating NZ drinking culture, university graduates, schoolboys learning to shoot a gun, a nun, a girl riding a bike. The black and white photos allow us to focus on the scene and leave colour to our imagination. I think black and white also creates a feeling of something in the past like a memory or something you haven’t experienced. His work Bledisloe & Jelicoe from 90’s Hamilton is also really interesting. It shows the average life at that time through images at parties, interiors and people on the river. I love the way that he portrays seemingly mundane settings in such a special way. He captures people being people which is the beauty of it. My favourite photos in particular of his:

Lady on the phone - I think this image has a strong composition uses aspects of the golden spiral. The woman on the phone in the foreground is lit by the lighting coming from the room she's in. The lighting is warm which gives a homely feel and the woman's face clearly shows she's having a good conversation. The doorframe and phone wire beautifully frames a woman and the living room beyond where there are a few more ladies sitting around a red table. This image creates a sense of community and friendship.

Man standing in stadium - I think this image is interesting as the man is situated in a stadium after an event. He's the only figure we can clearly see but there are some figures that are pictured far in the background. There are beer cans littered everywhere which creates an interesting scene as well as the lines of the steps that lead to the man in the foreground.

River through the window - I love this photo as it captures both the interior and exterior. The framing of the river and trees through the window frame is beautiful and contrasts the more dark interior. The edges of the room create leading lines into the frame. We can see a coathanger and shower curtain so we can assume this is the bathroom. The window is split into 2 frames which divides the river in the bottom half from the bush above. I like the tranquility of this image - no people.

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Over the break shoot

I started this shoot by photographing my living room. I haven't taken many interior shots so wanted to play around with this. They were taken around 11 when the sun was shining in perfectly through the window. I thought this cast great shadows into the space and illuminated it beautifully. I played around briefly with capturing different angles of the space, noticing the shapes that the light and shadows created which provided some nice still life shots. I wanted to explore my street a little bit more too - I find it very interesting and there's lot's to look at so I expect I'll be revisiting it as a subject many times. It's a great back street - I've been finding back streets very intriguing as they tend to contain the more run down buildings with lots of graffiti and cheap apartments. As usual, graffiti caught my eye so I played around capturing some. There was a red car parked up against a building that I find quite brutal looking - it's old and fully grey with no windows on one side. I thought the red car created an interesting juxtaposition amongst the mostly colourless setting. I've noticed that I find shots like this interesting - images that contain one pop of colour where the rest of the colours are very dull/grey. It makes the colour in the image pop. Again I wanted to capture the shapes that the shadows created and also the dynamic lines of the buildings. These initial images were shot in the morning but I continued later in the afternoon around 3. I love shooting at this time as the colours are very warm and the shadows cast are very dramatic and long. I work on K road so afterwards I explored Pitt street, Hobson street and K Road. Another thing I've found interesting to capture is scenes that should be busy yet have no people in them - they look quite apocalyptic especially if the setting is a bit rundown. The presence of cars also hints at the presence of people without them being there which is also cool. I captured more graffiti as I went too - what I find interesting about it is that it's people marking their place. It's another reminder that we share our environment with so many others. It's also cool when I notice the same tag but in several different places. In week 7 I took a photo of an old bank building on the corner of Queen street and K road. During this shoot I shot the same place and when comparing the 2 I noticed that in the second one, the graffiti was gone. I thought that the impermanence of graffiti was interesting and also the fact that our environments are everchanging - photography really allows me to note those small changes that are happening all the time as I have a photo record of it. After exploring some scenery in the Jewish cemetary at the Grafton Bridge intersection, I went back to shoot on my road again. I found it interesting to compare the same scene at a different time. The light and shadows were totally different which alters the lines, shapes and colours of the location. The photos taken at the beginning of the day compared to the end have such a different feel to them.

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Week 7 SDL

My photos in week 7 followed me walking from an apartment at the Ponsonby end of K Road, down K Road and to my apartment just off Symonds street. I've been particularly interested in shooting buildings and how they fit in together. I find the lines that they make very interesting and also the hostile, man-made landscape they create. I find that the brutal or rundown nature of them can be quite beautiful. Being in the city means that the view of all of these buildings is being shared by so many other people - each having a different perspective of what they're seeing. I like that photography allows me to capture the way I experience my environment. I enjoy capturing the way that the light interacts with these buildings and the dynamic lines that can be found in so many places around my home. This wasn't a walk where I took much time to assess my surroundings properly and because of this most of these photos are quite shallow - they don't explore the potential of the environment which is what I aim to start doing more of.

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[oliviamartinphotography]

My photo series takes a journey through my urban environment, and I’ve focused predominantly on street photography to document this. There are only 2 photos that have people in them which is interesting as the city is bustling with life. The rest of my photos suggest life is there rather than show it outright by capturing scenes with cars or areas that seem inhabited. What I notice particularly on the street is the architecture and graffiti. I find the combination of decaying buildings, old, classic architecture, and new buildings really visually interesting. Graffiti brings a sense of identity to the street even though it's anonymous to most. I love the way tags and graffiti get layered up to form a wall of personas. I move from deeper documentation of my environment on the street up to an apartment that provides a much wider view of Auckland. It’s interesting to compare the way my environment looks from both perspectives as they’re so different. I love the shots I have out of the apartment windows too. The darkness of the inside heavily contrasts the bright light coming in from outside which frames the landscape.  

Where to from here? 

Look for dead ends in the city 

Wide shots of graffiti 

Close ups of graffiti 

Look for shadows and bright light 

Work in daylight/cloudy white balance for warmer photos 

Focus on purposefully empty compositions 

Take low angle photos 

Find lines that can lead into my subject