ARTIST PAUL PETCH

Selwyn.

Selwyn is a super talented and intensely passionate fellow. Majoring in Film making at Ilam, he’s also an actor, advocate of Mens mental health and numerous other worthwhile endeavours. You guessed it, we met at Ilam back in 2018, and Selywn just turned 21 and reached out to find out how much I charge for portraits on film. He wanted a set of images that would capture this very special milestone in his life, and also a printed gift to his Mother.

We met at Waikuku Beach, that’s about 30 mins outside of Christchurch and what a spectacular place to take it all in! There is sandy beach as far as the eye can see as well as forest, sand dunes and marshland full of bird life. We were also blessed with a spectacular sunset that seemed to radiate 360 degrees.

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Boulder Bay.

Boulder Bay in Christchurch is a real hidden gem. Similar to Taylors Mistake, this small bay, or beach if you will, is resident to multiple baches. These kooky little houses seem to all be in good order though compared to Taylors, and just blend so well into the beach completely covered in rocks.

Boulder Bay during the Autumn and Winter months is blessed with beautiful golden lit sunsets that hug the horizon to the very last second. When you walk the Godley Head track too, Boulder Bay is a perfect way to end it and after the sunsets, it’s just a little walk up the hill back to the carpark. I’m always alone it seems when i visit, which adds a real feeling of remoteness.

Similar to Taylors Mistake, I’ve started to document the forms, buildings and vibe of this wee bay. What I’d love to do over the warmer months when residents are more inclined to be staying in the baches is try and capture their portraits too, and add to this series.

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Taylors Mistake.

It’s super strange how one can visit a location many many times and not quite see it. I’ve visited Taylors Mistake beach heaps of times, at all times of the year, and in particular the more rocky side of the bay, but I’ve mostly with a digital camera in hand. I’ve captured people and place there and never quite been happy with the results because digital photography seems to insist that my work be quicker, and a more instant process, where I see experience environments differently. This pace is perfect for commercial work, but for the stuff I like to capture in my personal work, no so much. The images to date have not seemed to actually capture the feeling I have when at Taylors Mistake beach, with the organic colours, the remoteness, the obscurity. I’m really happy kind of meditating with the light along the coast at the moment, and at Taylors it really seemed to work for me this visit.

I’m really starting to enjoy documenting spaces, buildings, forms along the Godley Coast this year and I’m appreciative of how capturing time and place is important in this quickly changing world more than ever. In Taylors (like Boulder Bay) there are multiple baches at beach level, that are mostly vacant and derelict post-earthquakes.

It’s quite an eerie feeling when you are alone. Images were shot with Fujifilm 400H and my stocks are severely low. I’ve got two rolls left and will be keeping it for the remainder of the shoots that I’ve got planted in this region. Once those rolls are gone, I guess that will be it for that stock, seeing as it is now discontinued.

I met a guy, Shaun who was diving for muscles and as we walked along the small sandy beach, I plucked up the courage and asked to capture his portrait. The result is not perfect I know, and in reflection I should have asked him to hold his diving goggles and snorkel for more context, but that beautiful larger format look really pops. It was shot at f3.5 on the Yashica635 and has such an interesting character at this aperture. It’s so dream like.

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New Blog.

It’s May 22nd 2021 and I’m publishing a new blog here at forever1995.com. I should be doing course work heading into the last half of my final year of my degree (my 2nd degree), majoring in photography at ARA here in Christchurch, but instead I’m investing brain space to this blog. I’m taking my procrastination up a level. Next I’m gonna hoover the whole house and arrange my record collection into alphabetical order. Haha. I used to be a huge blogger in the 2000’s before Facecrack et al took grip of peoples personal little corners of the web. They were good times. I’ve not been a Facecrack user for maybe 5 years now so can’t just dump images into that beast and see what happens. That process never felt right to me anyhow.

If I was to be honest though, most of my past ramblings on blogs and Facecrack have been about mountain biking, long distance trail running, and multiple other privileged endeavours which I felt warranted documenting every part of them and sharing it.

In some way, the online content I cherish and wish to share now feels for the first time, of any value, well to me anyway. The main goal of this new blog is to keep a record of process, share the rolls I shoot, with the good stuff and the not so good, that don’t make it to my portfolios. Rather than loose them into the folders of a hard drive, I thought I’d at least share them for people to see.

I’d also like to start sharing more behind the scenes content such as setups, process and the locations and people who are part of the shoot. I used to write extensive content for D-Photo magazine for many years, where I discovered I love to ramble on about photography, and I’m simply a fan of sharing my thoughts. That seems like such a long time ago now.

Anyway, I’m in the middle of some photographic assignments from school, and personal work that is focussed around the ocean, beaches and beautiful land here in Christchurch. I won’t go into a lot of detail about the assignments, but I’m really pumped about the direction they are heading. Spending so much time walking around the hills and beaches here is also a great way to immerse myself into the image making process. FYI the ‘fluro’ looking images below are part of a new series called Godley at Night, with a fascinating process to achieve the results you see. I’ll probably do a post just on that project soon.

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Sam.

Another set from 2017ish on Ilford XP2. Sam was new to New Zealand from the UK, and on the books at Portfolio Models. His Tatts were fascinating, and at that point I only had one or two on my arms, so totally into his body artwork. His wardrobe was so 1990’s. The bucket hat though! I confess, I had one the same style of hat in camo, with an acid house smiley face in yellow, sewn onto the front during my 90’s rave days.

After shooting at some interesting spots in and around the Botanical Gardens, we then headed to the Art Gallery where we captured the topless images. This set were captured on my Minolta x700 with a stunning 50mm lens. This camera is the only 35mm one I own, and it’s always set to automatic. A really fascinating camera that meters light like I’m shooting it manually. I should really use it more.

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Charlotte.

This set must have been shot in 2017. I’d just shifted to Christchurch from Auckland and bumming around attempting to pick up some commercial work. There is a really cool spot in Merivale Highstreet that made for a great wee shoot with Charlotte from Portfolio Models.

Images were captured on my Yashica635 and Olympus Mju (that I subsequently sold). What was even cooler than the location was walking over the road to Photo and Video and getting the film developed in an hour. Old school vibes all round. The black and white 120 was shot on Ilford XP2 and developed at home in monochrome chemistry vs C41, hence the mottled skin. I’ve not made that mistake again since.

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