Capture: One picture of you, and no more
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always have and still do love being in on and around water….
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Thanks Gio.
Well, to kick things off, here is my one picture.
Taken around 1973, as I recall on the back steps of one of my ‘Aunty’s’ houses on the East Cape, above Whanarua bay. Although it has become a bit of a mystery since I brought it into the light again, as none of my family can agree on its origins.
There are many reasons for choosing it. I equate our holidays down the coast as a significant, and happy, part of my childhood. Aunty Ra was also a favourite, not only because of her standing in the extended ‘whanau’, but because she always made me a chocolate cake whenever we visited. Ok, I was 5, probably mostly the cake.
Whanarua bay was a fascinating place to explore at this age, as there was a hermit cave, at one point with a real life hermit living in it, and great rock pools, where we picked and boiled cats-eyes on the beach, retrieving them with a safety pin.
The photo is also full of regret. After moving to the city at 16, I largely lost touch with my coastal roots, and the wonderful people who provided such warmth and hospitality in my yoof.
The ukulele is not without significance too. Forty years later I’m still trying to learn how to play one, and while I’ve progressed from ‘my dog has fleas’, you could argue in relative terms not much further than ‘my dog has a flea collar’.
We’d love you to dig out your own single picture. If you don’t have a scanner, most phones will take a decent close up these days.
Capture away.
ETA: Oh hai Allan! You beat me to it. Great work. Thanks for jumping in, and nice shot. :-)
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Agree that Whanarua Bay is a most entrancing place. My mum and her partner expanded the original trial Macadamia Nut farm above the bay during the mid 90's for 7-8 years as an escape and recharge from their time as editors in the AU newspaper business. I have the Country Calendar episode on CD somewhere which I should put up on You Tube. As a Gisborne lad spent many holidays at Te Kaha, Waihou Bay and Hicks Bay, before taking up surfing and roaming along this coast and all the way down to Mahia.
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JacksonP, in reply to
I have the Country Calendar episode on CD somewhere which I should put up on You Tube.
Brilliant. Would love to see that. Yes we camped at Waihau Bay a few times. It's a magical coastline. Be great to chat over a beer one day. Still get to Ohope fairly regularly.
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I tend to avoid cameras or be on the other side of the camera. I guess a number of insecurities and issues from when I was a teen have translated to being overly critical of images of myself (especially in my more portly years). Outside of my wedding photos, I'd say there would only be a handful of photos of me that I know of; I certainly don't have any of me as a child. Lost youth? Maybe.
I had to take a selfie for a photography course recently. I don't know if it's the fact I had to take it myself and therefore had full control of the process, or if it's the way I set up the lighting, but this is one of the few images of me that I actually like.
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This is a photo of me at 18 months old, with Ada Davis at Waitangi Marae. Moving from Kawakawa to Whanganui when I was 8, was almost like moving to a whole different world.
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Loved Giovanni's post, having it here is a bonus. Beautiful shots people.
This is me and my grandad Fred. We all lived in Papatoetoe and used to spend a lot of time with Nana and Grandad. My Dad and Fred called each other Jock - they used to do bbqs and beers in their y-fronts. I remember the wee dress I am wearing; me and my sister had the same frock. I am slightly wonky - a characteristic that has stayed with me.
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Well this sums up a lot of things for me. We were pretty poor (and scruffy I suppose – we are all so much cleaner and neater these days) but I was a very content child. This rare photo reflects how pleased my Mum and I were of growing the lily in a bit of spare land by the neighbours shed (full of so many interesting tools and shed stuff). The proper garden was full of vegetables with no room for flowers. It was summer mid 1950’s.
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This photograph was taken when I lived in Sydney. I'm in my 20's. I love it because it instantly reminds me of the two wonderful women I shared a house with at the time. It was an old corner shop in Darlington, quite rickety in parts but a great space to live in. We often sat in the kitchen at the marble table to talk over a glass of wine, a cup of tea or a meal and right the wrongs of the world. We were also a little bit famous for holding fabulous cocktail parties.
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My grandfather holding me at the first place I lived, in Point Howard.
He's gone but he remains very important to my sense of identity. I wrote about him here.
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Really good ponder Gio.
I guess ,to choose one, came down to this photo of me at 3 and a 1/2. It would be the easiest to have because all others tend to have others in it and then all the memories cross paths with those people and places and I cant choose so by process of elimination this photo in Orakei for me shows I've always been pretty casual, I've always had a place to sleep and always been pretty independent. Thus happy today as I was back then. 'Twas and is a good life. -
Me, in a bar in Tokyo, 2011. It was the day before the earthquake (#ominousforeboding). I was at a bar in Shibuya with my friends Matt and Jon, tired-as (a power combo of sleep deprivation and jetlag) but having the best and beeriest time. At one point Jon (a photographer) jumped up on the bench seat and took this photo. I was sitting there trying to not look like I was posing and also trying to not look tired and emotional. I like it. Also, my hair is super.
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At home at 45 Elizabeth St, helping with the garden (I assume). Taken in '73 or so. I've just noticed the broom is upside-down, which may explain the lack of actual sweeping. I chose this because I like the cut of my jib here. I also chose it because it exemplifies my ongoing inability to give a shit about what I'm wearing.
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Russell Brown, in reply to
Also, my hair is super.
+1
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This is so awesome. Thanks everyone.
And thank you Gio for making this possible.
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Ah that's easy - this photo, taken at The Gathering 98/99.
This is after Murray's Last Trance set on the last morning of TheG, I'm hot, sweaty, dusty and probably pretty stinky, having not had a shower for quite a few days by this point. And yet I think it's the "prettiest" photo ever taken of me - and certainly the happiest. That smile is just awesome.
I'm applauding the Gatherers, saying thank you to them for helping us to put on a great party - because they were truly wonderful people and I pretty much loved them.
I'm on stage completely by accident - the crew had gone up a few minutes earlier to wave and clap and say "see you next year" - and then everyone had left the stage except for me and our didgeridoo player who was playing out the final song of the party. I stayed to hold the mike next to the didge while he played it, and when it was over, I stood up and gave the crowd my own standing ovation.
Those days were some of the happiest and most stressful of my life. We created "moments of power" (in a good way) and somehow managed to create our own self-fulfilling prophesy with the whole "be nice humans" thing.
Bloody wonderful - and I'm honoured to have been a part of it.
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Jos,
Great thread! Great reads, will have to ponder my photo though...
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Sacha, in reply to
I remember that. Awesome moment. Thank you.
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Nice - the PA family album : ) I've never been able to choose just one of anything, this could be a real challenge.
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Hebe,
This is a brilliant thread; engaging, personal and slightly voyeuristic. There are not many photos of me since 30, and I like it that way. So to find and post one would be a leap indeed.
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Allan Moyle, in reply to
Its up here
Excuse the quality, esp audio, but it’s been through a few format changes in its 22 years -
Jackie Clark, in reply to
I cannot even tell you how much I loved your photo. I teared up immediately on seeing it, mostly because my own grandad Jack was such a huge part of my life. He died when I was 21 (and it was his bequest of $1ooo that enabled me to go on my OE), my first death of someone I loved, and the first time I saw my mother grieve.
I’ve looked at most of the photos of myself taken over the years, and I keep coming back to just one.
This is my best friend Carol, and I, and our dear friend Sue. It was taken on the occasion of our Rangitoto College 7th form class reunion, which we organised ourselves. As most of you know, Carol died on August 22nd last year. I had loved her for 33 years, and she was an integral and vital part of my life for all those years. She was the person who had loved me the longest, and the best, for all of those years. She was my plan B. Her life and mine were so intertwined that her death has left me unsure of who exactly I am. She was, and I’m not being hyperbolic here, pretty much the biggest part of me. I’m slowly rediscovering my identity without her.
What I like about this photo is the sheer love and affection we had for each other, and it also speaks to me of what friendship has been, in my life. I love my family, but I am not very close to them. They haven’t always understood me, nor my choices in life. It’s something I have always missed, and have sought to have with my friends, instead. And I have been very lucky whilst acknowledging that I work very hard to maintain my friendships. As someone said the other day, I seem to attract “women of worth”. I would like to think, instead, that I gravitate to people of great heart, and openness of spirit. Carol was the greatest of those women. -
This is me in 1996 protesting in Wellington as part of a university student bus trip, nicely taken by the Herald. Fantastic year in which I did a lot of great things, not many to do with university study.
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Sofie Bribiesca, in reply to
This is me in 1996 protesting in Wellington as part of a university student bus trip, nicely taken by the Herald.
Would that be Grant Robertson in the background of the photo?
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Jos,
This is me aged 5, I've always loved this photo, I remember it being taken as I was looking at photos of myself as a baby. That photo is now also in the very same album.
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