Month: May 2017

Regular Random: five minutes with Lt Col. Percival Fenwick (1870-1958)

/ Su Leslie / 26 Comments
Detail; model of Lt. Col. Percival Fenwick from Gallipoli: The scale of our war exhibition at Te Papa, Wellington, NZ. Image: Su Leslie, 2017

Detail; model of Lt. Col. Percival Fenwick from Gallipoli: The scale of our war exhibition at Te Papa, Wellington, NZ. Image: Su Leslie, 2017

While in Wellington last week, I went to the exhibition Gallipoli: The scale of our war at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.

Created in partnership with Weta Workshop, the exhibition explores the WWI Gallipoli campaign through the lives and memories of eight individuals who served there. For each of the eight, a giant (2.4 times normal size) life-like model was created by Weta, showing them at a particular moment.

Lt. Colonel Percival Fenwick, who features in these photos, was a 45-year-old surgeon with the New Zealand Expeditionary Force. He was amongst the first New Zealanders to land at Gallipoli on April 25th, 1915 and remained there for two months until evacuated; sick and exhausted.

The Te Papa model shows Fenwick on May 4th 1915, leaning over Infantryman Jack Aitken of the Canterbury Infantry Regiment, in despair at not being able to save the man’s life.

Model of Lt Col Percival Fenwick. Te Papa. Image: Su Leslie, 2017

Model of Lt Col Percival Fenwick. Te Papa. Image: Su Leslie, 2017

Model of Percival Fenwick at Gallipoli: The scale of our war, Te Papa. Image: Su Leslie, 2017
Close-up #2 from model of Percival Fenwick at Gallipoli: The scale of our war, Te Papa. Image: Su Leslie, 2017
Close-up #1 from model of Percival Fenwick at Gallipoli: The scale of our war, Te Papa. Image: Su Leslie, 2017

Percival Fenwick survived WWI and returned to New Zealand where he continued to practice medicine. He died aged 88, in 1958.

This is a much more sombre subject than I usually post for the Five Minutes of Random (the RegularRandom challenge), but the exhibition was very moving and worthwhile.

Five Minutes of Random is a weekly photo challenge hosted by Desley Jane at Musings of a Frequently Flying Scientist.

DP Photo Challenge: evanescent, take 2

/ Su Leslie / 8 Comments
Sharing secrets? Girls at the LUX Light Festival, Wellington, NZ. Image: Su Leslie, 2017

Sharing secrets? Girls at the LUX Light Festival, Wellington, NZ. Image: Su Leslie, 2017

The LUX Light Festival of Wellington has ended. Over 10 nights, thousands of visitors came to watch an ever-changing play of light and dark in a series of sculptures and installations around the city.

The cinema of the washing line. Images projected onto giant petticoat and bloomers. The Light Launder, by Raysordoll, seen at the LUX Light Festival, Wellington. Image: Su Leslie, 2017

The cinema of the washing line. Images projected onto giant petticoat and bloomers. The Light Launder, by Raysordoll, seen at the LUX Light Festival, Wellington. Image: Su Leslie, 2017

Woman standing against projection of the word LUX, at the LUX Light Festival in Wellington, NZ. Image: Su Leslie, 2017

LUX. Light Festival in Wellington, NZ. Image: Su Leslie, 2017

The word LUX in lights, seen in Eva Street, Wellington during the LUX Light Festival. Image: Su Leslie, 2017

LUX. Light Festival, Wellington, NZ. Image: Su Leslie, 2017

Daily Post Photo Challenge | evanescent

 

On public art, festivals and the power of community

/ Su Leslie / 12 Comments
Out on the street. Couple at the LUX Festival, Wellington, NZ. Image: Su Leslie, 2017

Out on the street. Couple at the LUX Festival, Wellington, NZ. Image: Su Leslie, 2017

I spent last weekend in Wellington, visiting friends and enjoying the LUX Light Festival; a free public event that attracts thousands of people onto the streets and waterfront area  to enjoy clever, whimsical and creative light sculptures.

LUX is incredibly family-friendly; the works are easily accessible and there are performances, activities, street food, and a range of glow-in-the-dark merchandise (including ice-cream) to delight kids.

Visitors to LUX gather around 'Control, No Control' by Daniel Iregui (Iregular), Frank Kitts Park, Wellington. Image: Su Leslie, 2017

Visitors to LUX gather around ‘Control, No Control’ by Daniel Iregui (Iregular), Frank Kitts Park, Wellington. Image: Su Leslie, 2017

A good night out. Girls enjoying the night market at LUX, Wellington. Image: Su Leslie, 2017

A good night out. Girls enjoying the night market at LUX, Wellington. Image: Su Leslie, 2017

On Tuesday as I waited for my flight home, news of the Manchester Arena bomb began to appear. By the time I reached Auckland, it was known that people had died, amongst them children.

With each terror attack, each mass-shooting and atrocity that occurs in the world, I struggle to comprehend how anyone can feel enough hatred and anger to knowingly kill and maim complete strangers going about their day-to-day lives.

I think of the people who rugged up and went out to enjoy street art, and of the people who dressed up and went to a pop concert; of those whose memories are of a fun night out, and those whose lives were taken or forever damaged.

Festivals, concerts, public events; these things are essential to the fabric of our communities. They build and strengthen the bonds between us though the sharing of food, music, art and fun. That they seem increasingly a target for terrorism, is worrying. If we become too afraid to go out and share in the joy and camaraderie of public events, we lose not only personal happiness, but community strength.

Yet in adversity people do come together, looking for ways to connect with our shared culture and common humanity. Manchester’s Tony Walsh has shown how art is integral to this, reading his poem, This is the Place at a vigil for the Manchester Arena victims.

Written for Sally D’s Mobile Photography Challenge at Lens and Pens by Sally.