Disused railway yards, Patea, New Zealand. Image: Su Leslie 2017
Old shop and dwelling, Whanganui, New Zealand. Image: Su Leslie 2018
Farm shed, Taranaki, New Zealand. Image: Su Leslie 2019
Architecture
Shelter once, and perhaps again
Image: Su Leslie 2019
Nothing left but the facade. Heritage buildings in Cuba Street, Wellington, NZ undergoing redevelopment in the wake of the 2016 Kaikoura earthquake.
Image: Su Leslie 2019
Retail and apartment living; redeveloping heritage buildings in Wellington’s Cuba Street.
No visitors today — or any day soon
The Bath House, home of Rotorua Museum, closed until further notice. Image: Su Leslie 2019
The 2016 earthquake centred around Kaikoura in the South Island, left its mark on many other parts of New Zealand.
Seven hundred kilometres away, the much-loved (and much-photographed) 1908 Bath House in Government Gardens, Rotorua, was deemed unsafe for use and closed for earthquake strengthening.
North Wing, The Bath House, Rotorua. Image: Su Leslie 2019
The processes of working out how strengthening can be done, how long it will take — and how much it will cost — are underway.
Meanwhile, there are no visitor voices in the rather lovely galleries, and no footsteps on the parquet floors.
Posted to Silent Sunday
Silent Sunday
Waikumete Cemetery Chapel, Glen Eden, Auckland. Image: Su Leslie 2019
The will of an epoch?
Downtown Auckland, from Devonport Ferry. Image: Su Leslie
Last week for Debbie’s One Word Sunday, I showed you the lovely old Ferry Terminal in Auckland — only slightly dwarfed by its new neighbours.
This week the theme is new — so I’m giving a bit more context. At street level, it’s clear that some heritage architecture remains, but as with most cities, new-builds dominate the skyline.
Leaving the city behind; view from departing ferry. Image: Su Leslie
The Ferry Terminal is still partly visible behind some white sheds, but steel and glass rule in 21st century Auckland.
“Architecture is the will of an epoch translated into space.” — Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
For a slightly different take on “new”, the photo below of the Ferry Terminal was taken in 1916.
The catalogue description says:
Looking south from the jib of a floating crane near Queens Wharf over the city towards Karangahape Road and Mt Eden, showing Quay Street West along foreshore, with the Ferry Building (left), Auckland Harbour Board offices, Albert Street (to the right), Auckland Sailors Home (extreme right), and the Ferry Wharf with the ferries Kestrel, Britannia, Pupuke and Osprey (from left to right)
Photo Credit: Winkelmann, Henry. Taken 12 January 1916. Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, 1-W1732
Posted to One Word Sunday | new
Older than the neighbours
Ferry terminal, Auckland. Designed by Alexander Wiseman and completed in 1912. Image: Su Leslie 2018
Not old by international standards — nor even amongst the earliest buildings in Auckland — but the Ferry Terminal is one of the few remaining stone buildings in a CBD increasingly crowded with steel and glass towers.
Posted to One Word Sunday | old
Daily Post Photo Challenge: unlikely
Christchurch Cathedral; extensively damaged by earthquakes in September 2010, February 2011, June 2011 and December 2011. Image: Su Leslie, 2018
Christchurch Cathedral has a long history of “unlikely.”
It was first planned (and land set aside) in 1850, the year in which the first four ships carrying European settlers began to arrive in the area. (1)
It was a hugely ambitious project for a city that existed largely on paper, and it took a decade for plans to be drawn up (by British architect George Gilbert Scott, who never actually visited the site). Scott’s original plan was for a wooden church in his signature Gothic Revival style, but the then Bishop of Christchurch, Henry Harper, wanted a stone building. Revised plans were drawn and the cornerstone was laid in December 1864.
Lack of money — hardly surprising in a settlement of less than 1000 European settlers — held the project up for almost another decade, and it must have seemed unlikely that fledgling Christchurch would ever get a cathedral.
Christchurch Cathedral was consecrated 1881, and finally completed in 1904. (2)
Christchurch Cathedral, shored up after the spire and Rose Window collapsed during the 2011 earthquakes. Image: Su Leslie, 2018
But New Zealand is not called “the shaky isles” for nothing, and earthquakes have repeatedly damaged the building — beginning in 1881, within a month on consecration.
During the terrible period between September 2010 and December 2011 when the Christchurch area suffered repeated, large-scale (and fatal) quakes, damage was so extensive that the cathedral had to be completely abandoned.
The February 2011 quake, which claimed 185 lives, completely destroyed the church spire and initially there were fears that up to 20 people may have been inside at the time (it was a tourist attraction). Thankfully, that was not the case.
Since 2011, there has been an on-going battle over the future of the cathedral — between the church which wanted to demolish it, and heritage groups arguing the building is an important part of the city’s heritage and should be preserved.
For a long time it’s seemed unlikely that Christchurch Cathedral would be re-built. But in September 2017, after intervention from the New Zealand government, the uncertainty ended and it was announced that the cathedral will be re-instated. (2)
Daily Post Photo Challenge | unlikely
As an aside: two separate lines of the Big T’s ancestors arrived in New Zealand on the fourth of those ships, the Cressy, in December 1850.
DP Photo Challenge: serene
Christ Church, Coromandel town, New Zealand. Image: Su Leslie, 2017
Although I’m not religious, I do find churches places of great serenity.
DP Photo Challenge: experimental
Awhitu Central Church, Awhitu Peninsula, NZ. Image: Su Leslie, 2017
There are lots of way to experiment in photography; many in-camera (aperture, shutter speed, etc) and many more in post-processing (everything from cropping to applying filters).
Most of the time, most of us would probably say we experiment to make a “better” photograph. This of course raises the question of what makes one image better than another. Much of it is technical stuff: is it in focus? Grainy? Blurry? Have we managed not to cut granny off at the neck? Is the horizon actually horizontal?
But beyond that, how do we feel about an image? What emotion does it evoke? What story does it tell — about the subject? About the photographer?
Photography is a language which — whether we realise it or not — we are all quite adept at reading. Constant exposure to professionally produced photographic images (still and moving) in newspapers, magazine editorial, advertising, TV shows and movies — and more recently social media — has developed our photographic literacy.
So my experiment for the Daily Post’s Experimental Photo Challenge is to take a single image and create multiple edits. Do these differences in editing affect how you read the image?
You tell me?
Awhitu Central Church, Awhitu, NZ. Image: Su Leslie, 2017
Awhitu Central Church, Awhitu. NZ. Image: Su Leslie, 2017
Colour shot of Awhitu Central Church, Awhitu, NZ. Image: Su Leslie, 2017
Aged black and white shot of Awhitu Central Church, Awhitu, NZ. Image: Su Leslie, 2017
Awhitu Central Church, Awhitu, NZ. Image: Su Leslie, 2017
Awhitu Central Church, Awhitu, NZ. Image: Su Leslie, 2017
colour shot of Awhitu Central Church, Awhitu, NZ. Image: Su Leslie, 2017
Awhitu Central Church, Awhitu. NZ. Image: Su Leslie, 2017
Seven Day Black and White Challenge, day 3
Palais Theatre, St. Kilda, Melbourne, Australia. Image: Su Leslie, 2017
I’m inviting Aggie at Nomad to join the challenge.
Zimmerbitch 