Author: Katarina

Recovering has many processes, either to unearth or to use material to recreate a new. I want to extend my idea of my relationship with Tāmaki Makaurua and work with the relationship I have with myself. I want to try portray how I have experienced trauma in life and how it has left laws in my identity as well as the idea of me being a human and repairing myself, growing into the person I am today and tomorrow. To do this, I want to experiment using my photos from Discovering and uncovering and rip them up, piece the, together to create a new image. I have drawn inspiration for this idea from Hedi Brickell’s work, Kahukura–Maker–Shadows–Whai–Buttons (2018) where she stripped away pieces of material and pieced them together to create a new whole.

I edited my photos from discovering (tile floor and trees) to black and white to compliment my pin hole photography and so the colour is all cohesive. I am really happy with how this image turned out. I went ahead and tried to make another image with the same idea.

I didn’t like this image as much as the previous one as there little holes where images don’t meet up. I also wasn’t a fan of the edges being straight line as it didn’t give the illusion of photos being ripped up and reused, looked too precise.

Went back out on campus to experiment taking some self portraits with my pin hole camera, trying to introduce myself and my narrative.

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The weather kept changing unpredictably, cloudy to sunny, vice versa within in minutes. So, the outcomes of my images had different exposures. Over and under exposed and a few the right amount. I was determined to get at least two good self portraits.

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Finally, after some trial and error, I got some portraits that I am happy with! Something I could’ve done better was keeping my photos in the fixer for longer, not accidentally forgetting how long it was in there for and taking it out too early, oops.

Uncovering is to disclose, expose and reveal and often involving removing, unmasking and unveiling.

Uncovering is to look beyond at what you are looking at. The past and now creates the future. My take on uncovering means both physically and figuratively exposing fragments of history.

I am encouraged to consider my relationship with Tamaki Makaurau and uncovering its past and present as well as to consider my place, where I stand, where I come from and the narratives that reside in my home.

Walking on Karangahape road after uni, I find this locked compartment covered in posters, graffiti. I see so many layers of time on this wall. Old poster advertisements just constantly glued over each other, some ripped off revealing older, previous posters, old paint scratched away, some words of graffiti peaking through. This wall reminds me of myself in way, constantly reinventing /improving myself, growing, but still keeping the those past layers within myself.

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My relationship with Tamaki Makaurua is not very complicated. I live in the rural suburb of Titirangi, Waitakere Ranges and have lived here all of my life. I see the same view everyday from my door step, but I have never gotten bored at looking at it.

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I have never worked in a dark room before so, this was really fun and interesting to me. My first test strip didn’t work out for me as it was quite over cast and I left it out for too long, resulting the photo to be over exposed. My next image had an imperfection from the developer, all a process of trial and error. My last two I’m really happy with how they turned out, I really like the angles and contrast. Next time I want to experiment incorporating myself in the photos.

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I walked from the campus to Queens Street then to Albert park. There were so many different smells and noises in the heart of Auckland. Cigarette smoke, take aways, traffic fumes, traffic, talking, construction the list goes on. I noticed as I sat down in Albert park that only one of the group of lamps was still lit up and I saw a man smiling as he fed some birds. Some people didn’t stop, they just causally walked through to where they needed to be.

Walk 2: Encounter your neighbourhood as a tourist.

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Walking around Titirangi village in the eyes of a tourist instead of a local was quite interesting to me as I lived and seen this village ever since I could remember so, trying to see things that are so familiar to me was a little difficult. I realised that the village is such a treasure to find in the middle of a scenic route with tiny cafes, restaurants, library and even an Art Gallery.

Walk 4: Encounter your neighbourhood as a detective.

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Walking around Titirangi Village holds a lot of history and memory as it is such a small community. Going into Lopdell House and seeing the old tiled floor probably traced back to 1930 to when it was a Hotel. These snapshots bring into view questions like how old is this old rod car? How old is this building, piece of art, car? I wonder what is down these ominous stair well? Being a detective is all about asking questions and figuring things out. Today my walking left me with many questions about the past and very few answers.