My project, Empty Sound, was presented at the Auckland Festival of Photography in June 2021. Here’s a synopsis:
"In mid-winter 2020, I drove to beautiful, isolated Milford Sound and stood in the middle of its huge bus terminal. It has space for twenty-eight buses. There were none; just one illegally parked Jucy van. I couldn’t help thinking that the pandemic was perhaps a good time for us as a country to reflect on whether three million international tourists a year was truly a good thing for us, money aside. There is also the uncomfortable truth that to get to and from New Zealand almost everyone flies: four billion kg of Co2 emissions per year from that alone. In this project’s grainy photos, I look at Milford Sound’s empty bus terminal as if peering out the window of a plane on the way to isolated New Zealand, forcing the uncomfortable question: how much money do we really need to be happy? And is that money worth the rising sea levels, forest fires, heatwaves, and endangered ecosystems that come with it? Maybe we should try to hold on to some of our isolation for the good of our souls, even after the pandemic is over?"
The project was on at the Ellen Melville Centre from 3—6 June, at Silo 6 of Silo Park from 11—13 and 18—20 June, and at the Estuary Arts Centre, Orewa from 23 June—4 July.
Check out the video slideshow below.