North Shore Beaches by Moonlight I grew up and live on the North Shore and love it’s beauty. Its coastal environment still fills with me with pride to this day. I have wonderful memories of long summer days playing on Takapuna Beach as a child; evening BBQs at Long Bay as a teenager and moonlit nights gazing out to Rangitoto Island as I walked through Kennedy Park time and again as an adult. The work is digital photography taken under moonlit conditions with long exposures on a Canon 20D SLR. In spite of the perceived lack of available light, the works posses an unexpected boldness of colour and intensity – a surreal beauty that adds to the already inherent sense of romanticism and nostalgia associated with Kiwi beach culture. The interpretive composition within the landscape, the subtle southern stars in the night sky and the expressive movement of cloud formations give each image a sense of wistfulness that borders on idealism – qualities more in line with impressionist painting than the realism photography is more commonly known for. It is the artist’s hope, however, that these images operate within the larger genre of social documentary, by stimulating discussion regarding localised environment to ensure its healthy preservation for the youth of tomorrow as it was for us. |
