Place in time

Made in response to the Christchurch earthquake of February 22nd 2011, Orientation is a body of work conceived to be seen primarily within the context of an artist book.

‘Over the course of a year (2005/06), I worked closely with a Christchurch firm of funeral directors and with families who had recently lost loved ones.'

In September of 2017, Haruhiko Sameshima undertook a short teaching and artist residency at the School of Fine Arts, producing a body of work about the rebuild of Christchurch's central business district.

A body of work about Selwyn, one of the fastest growing districts in the country, both in terms of commercial and residential development.

An ongoing body of work about Christchurch's rapidly changing Cathedral Square. A sample of images made to date.

Bloodlines​ documents places of cultural and historical significance associated with Ngāi Tahu Māori and uses photography as a means of retracing the footsteps of Arabella's ancestors.

(Re)Orientation is a work in progress and idiosyncratic guide to sites of significance to Christchurch’s post-earthquake narrative and the built and psychological landscapes that have come to define it.

Based on countless journeys made over a three year period on the Christchurch bus system, Red Bus Diary documents through insightful images and text a series of interactions and observations, both public and personal.

To revisit time and again. Days, months and years – a decade already. To study sites from multiple vantage points, ponder the changing light and respond to shifts in weather and seasons. A work in progress drawn from my unwieldily archive.

Examining relationships with immediate family, close friends and the natural landscape, the Winter Garden negotiates the complexity in reconciling Christchurch as the place McFetridge grew up in and an earthquake affected city.

Think about it: What's a place of significance to you? What makes one place more important to you than another? What's your connection with this place and what is it that continues to make it important in your life today?