David Straight - Still Here
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An interview with former Magnum Photos archive intern David Straight prior to his first solo exhibition, Still Here (Landscape of an Earthquake). He talks about photographing suburban Christchurch following the February 22 earthquake.
An interview with former Magnum Photos archive intern David Straight prior to his first solo exhibition, Still Here (Landscape of an Earthquake). He talks about photographing suburban Christchurch following the February 22 earthquake.
When did you take the photographs of Christchurch that resulted in the Still Here (Landscape of an Earthquake) series and what was your motivation?
It was the day following the February 22 Christchurch earthquake I booked myself on a flight from Auckland to Christchurch. I knew my family were ok so I wasn’t just going down there to help but neither was I a disaster tourist.
I felt some inherent need to go back to the city of my birth, a city I know better than many others, to simply see with my own eyes what had happened, what an earthquake on this scale looked like.
How did you approach the subject?
I spent two weeks in the city, over a three-week period, walking for hours around the suburban streets, from west to east, simply recording what I saw in front of me. I set out with no preconceived ideas about what I would photograph, but simply to record what I encountered honestly, without drama or pathos.
How do you describe the resulting images?
Well, what resulted from my time looking through the lens at Christchurch is a series of photographs that, to my mind, speak of the disruption and fragility of the suburban environment.
The images are powerful in what they do not reveal. Instead of the obvious mass media agenda of highly dramatised images, these are subtle in their language.
They create an atmosphere of quiet reflection and contemplation that allow the viewer a chance to gaze at the power of an earthquake without feeling assaulted. They, in effect, create a landscape of an earthquake.
About the Artist
David Straight is a Christchurch born photographer currently living in Auckland. He has been taking pictures around the world since 2006 when he started his journey as a photographer as an archive intern at the legendary photo agency Magnum Photos in New York. Since then he has been involved in the ongoing development of contemporary documentary photography and especially the contemporary photo book, of which some of his books have been internationally recognised.
About Still Here (Landscape of an Earthquake)
“Too often our visual record of such events is narrow and dramatic. It is a very partial representation of events but nevertheless becomes the primary visual archive. Straight’s response to this has been, both literally and figuratively, to search around the periphery of the centre of destruction, to look carefully and record precisely. In doing this, I believe his images evoke a clear sense of the lingering disruption and fragmentation that has occurred in the suburbs. The longer one reflects on his images, the stronger the sense of loss.” John Savage.
David Straight: Still Here (Landscape of an Earthquake)
Opening: Tuesday 27 September, 5.30pm
Exhibition viewing and Book Introduction Friday 14 October, 5.30pm
Exhibition: 27 September – 22 October
Hours: Tuesday-Friday 11am – 6pm, Saturday 11am – 3pm
Cnr St Benedicts St + Newton Rd
Newton, Auckland
ph. 963-2328