Christchurch Photography Exhibition 26 August to 31 August 2019
A chance meeting!
Last year I did my first exhibition at the Art’s Centre of Christchurch. It was a huge experience for me and very enjoyable. While there a lady walked in named Heather and we started chatting. Heather Milne was her name. We thought we knew each other but we couldn’t place where we knew each other from. We talked about art and other things for about half an hour. She has a webpage called Heather Joy Photographs. Check her out!
Heather Milne, the driving force behind the Christchurch Women’s Photography Collective, and an old colleague of mine. (photo courtesy of Janneth Gil)
Figured it out!
I went home and friended Heather on Facebook. As I was looking through a few old photos of her, determined to find out where we had met each other, I saw a post where she mentioned the aquarium. OH! We had both worked in the Southern Encounter Aquarium which used to be in the Square in Christchurch. I had only worked there about 6 weeks or something very short. I was miserable there due to management putting me on ticket sales all day when I was meant to be a tour guide. Heather stayed there longer than me. There was a lovely bunch of people working there, but I just couldn’t stay. That was 22 years ago! Wow, what a long time ago!
The Christchurch Women’s Photography Collective
So Heather and I kept in touch and Heather was talking about starting a women’s photography collective where we shared our work, no one was critical and it was a supportive environment. She had had some bad experiences with male photographers in the past. I had to say my experience was the opposite to her’s – where the male photographers around me had helped me immensely and been supportive. Heather had not found this. We met up at the Dux Dine on Riccarton Road one lovely evening and planned what was going to happen.
The Christchurch Women’s Photography Collective (photo courtesy of Janneth Gil)
Being Slack!
I often say that I’m slack. Well I’m not really slack, I just have a lot on my plate. Heather continued on with her idea and started arranging meetings and gathering members for the collective. I was looking after children for a month with no husband (he was in Europe on a work trip) and couldn’t make it to two meetings which planned our exhibition in August. I felt a bit out of the loop.
Another meeting missed.
I missed the final meeting just before the exhibition as well as I had children dancing and couldn’t make it in time. By this time I felt like a right plonker. The theme of the exhibition is connection. We are all connected as women. We are all connected as photographers. Even though our work is different there is a connection there.
The exhibition setup.
We set up our exhibition on a Sunday afternoon. As usual I was pretty busy, but made the time to hang my work at 2pm. I met some of the members, finally. I was trying to remember names and what they did. It was a challenge for me.
After a bit of discussion I was given a wall where I could velcro my images to. Maia my daughter helped me arrange them. They were all images I had entered in the Iris awards over the past two years. Mainly double exposures, but also two reflections. I called the collection “Double Trouble”
Maia knows to not have everything exactly aligned. She is going to be a designer one day I think.
I was done in a very short time and then I took the children up the gondola and ran down the Bridle Path. A fun day!
The opening night
The opening night was last Monday 26 August at Christchurch Exchange (XCHC) on Wilsons Road, Waltham. It is running until Saturday when I’ll have to go and pick up my work again. Not sure what time that is happening. There was food and you could buy drinks from the cafe. I met lots of new people including the other photographers. It was a warm and sharing environment and a wonderful experience, even though I was late to the party. Everyone already knew each other and I was one of the mysterious people who had never showed their face! Here are some photos to show what it was like!
Flowers and a thank you!
Heather had put in a lot of work, along with other members including Lauren Dixon who did the graphic design. Stephanie had made a huge bunch of greenery which was just gorgeous. There are not many flowers around this time of year. I had some winter roses in the garden and added them to the bunch. We said thank you to Heather and I was on my way home after that. I hope people actually go and visit our exhibition. It really is very interesting and shows our personalities, ideas and aesthetics. (last four photos courtesy of Janneth Gil)
