landscape transformations

landscape transformations 3/5 photographs, a photo by Lester Ralph Blair on Flickr.

I purchased a new lens a while back, and have now revisited where I started this suburb stuff but my photos all turned out rather different, as they do a second time around, I don't know why that is, there just seems to be more images the second time around.

landscape transformations

landscape transformations 2/5 photographs, a photo by Lester Ralph Blair on Flickr.

I purchased a new lens a while back, and have now revisited where I started this suburb stuff but my photos all turned out rather different, as they do a second time around, I don't know why that is, there just seems to be more images the second time around.

landscape transformations

landscape transformations 1/5 photographs, a photo by Lester Ralph Blair on Flickr.

I purchased a new lens a while back, and have now revisited where I started this suburb stuff but my photos all turned out rather different, as they do a second time around, I don't know why that is, there just seems to be more images the second time around.

high on a hill looking down ...

high on a hill looking down , 5/5 photographs ..., a photo by Lester Ralph Blair on Flickr.

… of houses where some are a bit different and some are more of the same, but I don't know what I'm looking for anyway.

high on a hill looking down ...

high on a hill looking down , 3/5 photographs ..., a photo by Lester Ralph Blair on Flickr.

… of houses where some are a bit different and some are more of the same, but I don't know what I'm looking for anyway.

high on a hill looking down

high on a hill looking down ..., a photo by Lester Ralph Blair on Flickr.

… of houses where some are a bit different and some are more of the same, but I don't know what I'm looking for anyway.

cheap shots of expensive real estate

cheap shots of expensive real estate 3/5 photographs, a photo by Lester Ralph Blair on Flickr.

Up on Silverwood Residential Estate I found a signboard with a box of pamphlets advertising the section lots for sale. They were around the price of the average Wellington home. What I like about image making, whether a pencil and paper or camera, one sort of experiences everything for maybe just the cost of a litre of gasoline.

new houses on old hills

new houses on old hills, 5/5 photographs, a photo by Lester Ralph Blair on Flickr.

Median wages and salaries in New Zealand is $806 per week. Average house prices in the Wellington region is $445,697, which I calculate is around 10 years income. I'm not sure if these statistics have anything to do with these houses, I'm just here to see what it looks like and feels like to be here.

new houses on old hills

new houses on old hills, 1/5 photographs, a photo by Lester Ralph Blair on Flickr.

Median wages and salaries in New Zealand is $806 per week. Average house prices in the Wellington region is $445,697, which I calculate is around 10 years income. I'm not sure if these statistics have anything to do with these houses, I'm just here to see what it looks like and feels like to be here.

private dwellings ….

6/6 private dwellings …., a photo by Lester Ralph Blair on Flickr.

… of which there are around 1,450,000 in New Zealand, and according to Statistics New Zealand on the date of October 31, there are 4,444,444 of us living here. The land area of NZ is 268,680 sq km. Which means I will find only 16 people in every square kilometer. Also half of the population lives in Auckland, so I don't have to walk far if I want to be alone._MG_1669

private dwellings ….

4/6 private dwellings …., a photo by Lester Ralph Blair on Flickr.

… of which there are around 1,450,000 in New Zealand, and according to Statistics New Zealand on the date of October 31, there are 4,444,444 of us living here. The land area of NZ is 268,680 sq km. Which means I will find only 16 people in every square kilometer. Also half of the population lives in Auckland, so I don't have to walk far if I want to be alone._MG_1669

homes, hills & paddocks

homes, hills & paddocks, 5/5 photographs, a photo by Lester Ralph Blair on Flickr.

Here are some places that were once a home for cows, now they are places to walk the dog.

homes, hills & paddocks

homes, hills & paddocks, 4/5 photographs, a photo by Lester Ralph Blair on Flickr.

Here are some places that were once a home for cows, now they are places to walk the dog.

some old hills with new houses

some old hills with new houses 5/5 photographs, a photo by Lester Ralph Blair on Flickr.

There are hill sides around Wellington with fine views of the harbour. Some are yet to have houses built, but there are others with impressive new homes. I mentally prepared myself for any shock that may cause me to fall over. I grabbed my camera and went for a look.

some old hills with new houses

some old hills with new houses 4/5 photographs, a photo by Lester Ralph Blair on Flickr.

There are hill sides around Wellington with fine views of the harbour. Some are yet to have houses built, but there are others with impressive new homes. I mentally prepared myself for any shock that may cause me to fall over. I grabbed my camera and went for a look.

some old hills with new houses

some old hills with new houses 2/5 photographs, a photo by Lester Ralph Blair on Flickr.

There are hill sides around Wellington with fine views of the harbour. Some are yet to have houses built, but there are others with impressive new homes. I mentally prepared myself for any shock that may cause me to fall over. I grabbed my camera and went for a look.

photos of the simply astonishing and possible normality...

5/5 photos of the simply astonishing and possible normality..., a photo by Lester Ralph Blair on Flickr.

...of a suburb I happened to be in.

photos of the simply astonishing and possible normality...

4/5 photos of the simply astonishing and possible normality..., a photo by Lester Ralph Blair on Flickr.

...of a suburb I happened to be in.

photos of the simply astonishing and possible normality...

3/5 photos of the simply astonishing and possible normality..., a photo by Lester Ralph Blair on Flickr.

...of a suburb I happened to be in.

photos of the simply astonishing and possible normality...

2/5 photos of the simply astonishing and possible normality..., a photo by Lester Ralph Blair on Flickr.

...of a suburb I happened to be in.

Some things I have been reading lately that seem to reflect some of my photographic intentions.

Taken from page 108  "Robert Adams Tree Line" from an interview in 1980:

"I'll tell you a kind of view in which I am increasingly  disinterested - pictures centered on man-made ironies, pictures where the subject is a grotesque juxtaposition unintended by those responsible for it. There are plastic flamingos in everybody's yard, after all, and their presence does not tell us much anymore. We have to include them in pictures because they are everywhere, but they shouldn't be the chief subjects of pictures, at least unless you can redeem them  somehow. Fundamentally I think we need to rediscover a non-ironic world"

I have realised I want to describe what I see, what is there in front of me in a straight forward manner.

and Lewis Baltz writes (from "Lewis Baltz Texts" page 34' 'The New West'):

"What distinguishes Adams from most of his photographic contemporaries is the distance he takes from his subject, both literally and figuratively. This distance is essential to Adams project which is to present a record of man's attempt to live on, and occasionally with, the land, a theme reduced to kitschy sentimentality by his immediate predecessors ... It is this forthright and (seemingly) disengaged quality of Adams' vision that permits him to direct our attention to the most squalid and meretricious instances of commercial development without reveling in their Pop vulgarity..."

I know whatever I end up with, will be different, it does provide a sense of direction ....