City//Displace - photography series

This portfolio, submitted for the Leica Oskar Barnack Newcomer award  examines a new condition of the human psyche developing in the damaged city of Christchurch, four years after the major earthquakes. It explores a place of transience and ambiguity; where the rebuild has begun, but scars remain on both the people and the environment.

 

In a country where youth are increasingly citybound, the changes to the city have created a series of surreal spaces. Urban art has taken on new meanings and scales in these spaces, representing those who live here, and their frustrations at the slow healing of the city.

 

The contemporary concerns of a youth displaced are engaged with a cultural understanding of landscape, where a people belong to their land; and by extension their city. This Maori view, which has shaped much of New Zealand culture forms a new paradigm here, where a land renowned for its beauty has become a retreat for those damaged by the earthquake.