Thursday, January 10, 2008

Two more Auckland landscapes



These pictures were made last night in the Auckland suburb of Mt Albert, 10 minutes drive from downtown Auckland and once solidly white and middle class. I lived here in my teens and went to school at Mt Albert Grammar. Today the changes are remarkable. They surprised me. The shopping centre looks tired and old. Many of the shops are now Chinese restaurants of the sort you can find in the back streets of any Asian city. The railway line runs down the back of the shops where any attempt at maintenance seems to have been long abandoned. Yet there is life in the street. The faces (mostly Asian) are bright, young and hopeful.

2 comments:

tomislav said...

Well noticed! What about Dominion Rd, Sandringham Rd. Indian slams nothing else. Is it the policy of the Goverment to bring here new social problems, isn't it there enough Maori and Pacific problems? As an immigrant I consider myself in trouble here cos I am in the same position but from very different background. Sorry!

ndiginiz said...

Tena koe ehoa
I think these images that show the cusp of cultural, social and political change within a national multi-cultural environment many call home.
Interesting to see and notice that what once was an enviable location in terms of human habitation can evolve over time into something perceived and perhaps considered a little lesser in prospect simply by the addition of time?
Does that show a relativity to our inane sense of progression/evolution as humans or is it a sign of our increasing hedonistic desires for idealism without influence of actuality?

I know there are places like this and very much in the same demographic of population prior to and presently all over our country.

"There is a situation where the future overwhelms the past and in that cusp of momentum we have a stagnant collection of time and of life." ~ ndiginiz

It is good to witness the product of your expression Harvey.

a collection of passerby images | "nativ flavaz"