Capture by A photoblog

Billy Bragg, Auckland Town Hall, 12 October 2012.

I first met Billy Bragg in 1987, when he did a record signing at Sounds on Queen Street.  My musical historian friend Matt, who sat next to me last night, tells me he asked why my badge was upside down.  'So I can read it' I reportedly replied.  Smart-arse 19 year old that I was.

He signed my 'Greetings to the New Brunette' EP, and we then went to see him at the Galaxy (Powerstation) where he played with Wiggy on bass, including finishing off with a Clash song, Garageland (Thanks Jonathan K).

I missed him in 1989, then saw him again in 1992, his last Town Hall appearance.  Then there was the Big Day Out 1996, and again in 2007.  You'd think he'd get sick of us, but apparently not.

Last night was a concert in two parts.  The first a seated sojourn into the history of Woodie Guthrie and Bragg's involvement in the Mermaid Avenue project.  Apart form the few songs he's sung over the years, like All You Fascists, his Guthrie songs were a bit lost on me, truth be told.  Feel I'm possibly letting the fan club down, but I was there for the 80s songs, and there's no point pretending otherwise.

In the second part he didn't disappoint, with his typically stripped bare renditions of all my favs, including Milkman of Human Kindness, Levi Stubbs' Tears, Great Leap Forward (with the ever changing lyrics, including, inevitably, a call to 'Free Pussy Riot'), Must I Paint You A Picture and in the encore everyone's favourite sing along song, New England.

There was a lot of politics thrown in the mix, and on occasion it felt a bit like we were being lectured, or at least reprimanded, for being a bunch of cynical bastards who allowed the ruling classes to... well you know, 'There's Power in the Unions'.  Perhaps as some kind of silent protest against the Tea Party, he was drinking a cup of tea the whole way through the show, and then at the end threw the tea bag into the audience.  Strange souvenir.

One of the nicest stories he told during the evening was about his son Jack, who has taken up the guitar, and is reportedly even better than Billy was at the same age.  I'd go see his son play in a band.  It's possible I've reached my limit with the Bard of Barking himself, but then again I said that the last time.  And the time before that. 

Maybe the glass is still only half full.

Capture away.

Feathers are flying in the Bird of the Year contest, with wits and twits vying for top tweeter in support of our fine feathered friends.

You could compare it to the American election campaign, but as much as I think David Slack has been guilty of Romney Jazz in his relentless spruiking of the Kokako, I probably wouldn't go that far.

At the start of it all my own leaning was heavily towards the Kakapo, represented by Sirocco, the Rock Star of the bird kingdom in New Zealand, with some pretty powerful celebrity endorsement.  Well, if you count Stephen Fry watching on as he attempts to mate with a zoologist's head as endorsement, then he's your bird!

But there is a serious side to all this.

The list of endangered bird species in New Zealand is growing*, and many in the running for Bird of the Year are in the critically endangered category, including the Kakapo, the Chatham Island Black Robin, the Storm-Petrel, to name but a few. 

Saving them costs money, and an article in the Dominion today discusses The Commercialisation of Conservation (cheers Sacha), and how the survival of birds like the Kakapo has become dependent on donations from corporate interests.  There is a big debate there, which we might leave for another day, or for those inclined in the comments.

If the contest helps raise awareness, and perhaps encourages people to support the plight of these endangered birds in some way, then it can only be a good thing, right?

In light of this, I'd like to encourage everyone, if you haven't already, to go and vote in The Bird of the Year before the 10 October deadline.  You should feel free to choose the bird you want to, and I won't even trick you by making the link go automatically to the Kakapo, to save you the time in scrolling down to find it.

And I certainly won't offer you a prize of this print by Sam Clark for the best bird photo or feathered story posted in the comments, as that would be bribery. 

Ok, maybe I would.

Capture away.

* I have struggled to find a more recent update of this list online. If anyone can, please email or post it in comments.

Seems a few round here have a bit of a thing for our blustery, but beloved, capital.  I'm one of them.

Wellington is my favourite choice as a runaway destination.  My first escape from Auckland was in 1989, where, through various fortuitous turns of events, I got a job at the National Art Gallery (NAG), while they prepared for the big shift to what would become Te Papa, but at that stage was called, unaffectionately, The MONZ (Museum of New Zealand).

I joined a team of locals, armed with my picture framing credentials, and we undertook to shift, hopefully without mishap, the entire national collection into a temporary storage facility behind the NAG on Buckle Street, while the new site was developed.

We lugged around 20,000 art works over the 12 months, and I'm happy to report only damaged one 'minor work', which had something inadvertently leant against it, and was easily restored.  Although, from time to time I still wake up in a sweat thinking of the day we took the over-sized Alexis Hunter out the front of the gallery in gale force winds, trying to lift it into a diesel truck while our dear Registrar hid behind his hands.  There was a moment we thought we might become notorious for choosing life over art.  Luckily it ended well.

Anyhoo, I digress.

The weekend before last I escaped again for a few days.  Arriving on a Saturday afternoon, in worsening conditions, I had visions of the Wellington of my dreams, which, as the saying goes, you can't beat, on a good day.

It was a bit average, weather wise, but the city still turned on a welcome, a warm embrace even, which hit the right spot.

Here's a few captures from the weekend.  The photography plans got a bit derailed too, both by atmospheric conditions, and being sidetracked by spring flowers again at the botanical gardens.  Seems I caught spring fever.

Capture away.

Last week I ventured into Kitchener street to see the Marti Friedlander exhibition at FHE Galleries.  Stumbling into the wrong one at first (they have two adjacent, separated by Fingers Jewellery), I encountered the photographic works of Gordon H. Brown for the first time.  One thing led to another, and with thanks to FHE, and Gordon H. Brown himself, who firmly believes photos are for sharing, we are pleased to present a selection from;

Gordon H. Brown - The Camera’s Eye.
August 18 - September 30, 2012,
FHE Galleries, 2 Kitchener St.

A retrospective showcasing a selection of photographs from one of New Zealand’s pre-eminent yet previously unsung photographers.

Born in Wellington in 1931, Gordon H. Brown has made a rich contribution to our cultural heritage. He brought an international perspective to antipodean New Zealand. As a young art student at the University of Canterbury, Gordon H. Brown felt little enthusiasm for a curriculum that during the 1950’s, focused on still life, landscape and antiquity drawing. He comments “anything modern had to be done outside the classroom.” Gordon H. Brown’s quest for knowledge outside the insularity of then New Zealand society began when he discovered the world of Modernism through a book he came across in Roy Parson’s bookshop in Wellington (1949). This book was Laszlo Moholy-Nagy’s, Vision in Motion, (Chicago: Theobald 1947). Brown was introduced to the principles of the Bauhaus and given a blueprint of education through art. This was also the time he first viewed a Colin McCahon painting Takaka: Night and Day (1948), in the Helen Hitchings Gallery. Years later, while working as a curator at the Hocken Library in Dunedin (1971 to 1974) Brown became close friends with many of New Zealand’s most important artists, in particular Colin McCahon. Beginning a life-long friendship - Brown worked alongside McCahon documenting the artist, his life and work. He continues to work on this project to ensure McCahon’s records are preserved with complete accuracy for the future.

Gordon H. Brown has moved between various roles in the New Zealand art scene: curator, art historian, collector, donor, documenter, academic, university lecturer and writer. From 1960 – 1977 he worked in art galleries and libraries around New Zealand. Since 1977 Brown has worked as a freelance contemporary arts writer, contributing to various magazines, periodicals and gallery publications on numerous topics. He has published numerous important books on New Zealand art and has received many awards, including a distinguished OBE for services to art history.

Gordon H. Brown as an artist exhibited with several dealer galleries during the 1960’s. He has been included in major surveys of contemporary New Zealand painting at the Auckland City Art Gallery. He has documented over five generations on film and the changes that have occurred as our country has matured into the 21st century. 

The Camera’s Eye offers us a time to look back and forward simultaneously. The earliest images seen here, from the1950’s, were all taken on borrowed cameras. The Addington Railway Yard images from Brown’s art school period were taken on a roll of negatives with only 8 shots. Brown’s Woman leaning back, arm overhead (1954) was taken when he lived in Quambly Old Folks home in Christchurch where he worked as a self-proclaimed ‘handyman’. Caught in a pose of seemingly ultimate surrender – she bares all to the camera. The artist portrays the body as a composition of shapes and forms. The subject remains anonymous. The juxtaposition between the pale flesh and the dark curtains in the background reference European avant-garde photography such as Man Ray’s Primat der materie uber das denken / The primal matter of thinking (1932).

Gordon H. Brown has an eye for cropping to create both drama and formal qualities – such as seen in Car Park, with two cars, back of the Auckland Museum, (1960). The dynamic line cuts across the picture plane and more is said in the absence and the spaces between the parked cars.

Testament to Brown’s integral part in the development of Modern Art in New Zealand, this barely exhibited selection of photos is currently under consideration for the collection of the National Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.

We invite you to share with us a wide-angle view of a practice spanning over half a century and celebrate Gordon H. Brown – an uncovered treasure in New Zealand’s art historical canon.
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Introduction by Claire Ulenberg - FHE Gallery Manager

I was too young for Zwines. I never made it to Liberty Stage or the Rumba Bar. In 1979 I desperately wanted to see Toy Love and the Terrorways at the State Theatre on Symonds St - my mates from school all went - but not me.

Since then I have seen bands play in church halls and war memorial halls, in practice rooms and living rooms, parks and festivals, backyards and graveyards. There have been pubs, clubs, cafes and dives. At the start of this project I began to list some of the venues I knew of, and also some of the places the musicians lived, wrote their music, rehearsed and recorded. Then I got out there with my camera.

The result is not a definitive look at Auckland's musical landmarks. These are the places where our shared musical history and memories collide with personal significance for me. I concentrated on buildings and locations that are extant, because many of the venues are now either gone or unrecognisable, or are buried beneath carparks and apartments, or beneath Britomart and the Downtown mall.

Thanks to Graham Reid for his article on Elsewhere that got me thinking about this. Thanks also to John Baker.

Feel free to capture and add the memories and photographs of your own musical landmarks, wherever you live.

Jonathan Ganley