| Matakana Pictures Exhibitions Artists |
Neil Finlay is a musician, photographer and is a photographic technician at Unitec. His interest in photography, and in New Zealand history and landscape, developed as he travelled extensively around New Zealand playing music. Inspired by the work of New Zealand photographers he started taking his own landscape photographs. He studied photography at Unitec which in turn led him to the publication of his book Sacred Soil (Random House).
Neil lives with his family in west Auckland. He continues to take landscape photographs and is still picking out a few blues tunes.
Publication
Sacred Soil, Stories and Images of the New Zealand Wars. Random House, 1998.
Exhibitions
Sacred Soil. Soliloquy Gallery, 1998.
Soliloquy Group Show, Soliloquy Gallery, 1999.
Update/The Active Eye, Contemporary New Zealand Photography, 2000 .
He Toto Rakau, images of the creation of Te Nohokotahitanga. Snowwhite Gallery, Unitec, 2004.
Waitakere Artists and Landscapes, Aotea Centre Gallery, The Edge, 2005.
Awards
Mighty River Power photography competition 2003:
Runner-up Landscape Section;
Winner ‘As Waikato as it Gets’ prize. |
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Solaris 17.December 2005 - 5.February 2006
The early development of photography coincided with the late 19th century development of New Zealand. As a result , much of the building of our towns, cities, railroads, theatres, roads etc was recorded by pioneering photographers who have left us an comprehensive record of our growth and ‘progress’.
Today New Zealand photographers still have an interest in our ever-changing landscape. However, what is often recorded today is not the development of the country but the result, the aftermath, if you like.
The photographs shown here are a detachment of a larger body of work that traces not only the course of the Waikato River, but also some of the effects of the last hundred or so years.
The Waikato River holds many stories. It carried the invading army of Hongi Hika in his attack on the Waikato region in 1822. The 1863 invasion by the imperial troops and local militia , led by General Cameron, would not have been possible without the river to carry troops and supplies. This invasion led to the confiscation of 1.3 million acres of some of the finest farming land in the world; land made by the flow of the river.
For many years the Waikato River served as the main highway, bringing settlers into the interior. The river has been a source of food and water, a refuge and a home to many generations.
Today we still need this river. The 1960s saw the completion of a series of eight dams to supply much needed electricity, one of the effects of this is the slowing of the river’s flow. Farming and forestry have all but totally rearranged the vegetation from indigenous to exotic: pines, willows and grass appear to be the natural landscape cover.
In spite of all the upheaval the Waikato River remains majestic and beautiful, her spirit still intact. She was here long before the arrival of mankind and will continue to influence the nature of the country long into the future. |
