mother and son

a notion of transmutation of relationship and culture in New Zealand


This is perhaps a more apt description of what it is I am looking at in my current work... I'm yet to nut it out completely, I'm getting there though, slowly.

Here is an image titled mother and son, it's of my son and I



Here is the image I took also titled mother and son. I made this image first, and felt that there was something else that I could gain by repeating and changing the image. The new one above is much different than this earlier version, and I don't know if much can be gained by directly comparing them, but here they are anyway.

mum and dad

In continuation from my recent work, here is an image titled - mum and dad
it's my mum and dad, hence the title.




And here are my new refined (and verbose) research questions for my MFA -

In what ways are notions of identity influenced and altered by intimate and family relationships, by cultural background and relationship to other cultures (in particular the relationship and effect on Pakeha by
Maori), and how can these complex ideas of identity be explored using photography?

In what ways has (family) photography as a historical tool aided and influenced ideas of ‘self’ and how can this be explored through photographic montage and the use of layering to generate ideas of an accumulative ‘self’?

In what ways does (family) photography aid and influence the development of our understanding of who we are and how can photography be used to explore the notion of an accumulative/evolutional identity?

In what ways are notions of identity influenced through genealogy and how has this been aided by (family) photography?

back onto it again

I've taken a bit of time off over summer to enjoy myself, and to swim, sit in the sun and read and such like. However, my second and final year of my MFA is underway now, so I am busy today procrastinating starting on the presentation I need to have competed in a few weeks by posting on this blog, and other such time wasters. You'd think since I can only work on this when our baby is asleep or when he is being looked after by my Mum or Owen I wouldn't procrastinate so, and certainly I do it much less than I used to. I have one more task on my list of things to do before starting MFA work after this post, then I better get on to it!

My recent revelation in my work is that I am interested in accumulative identity or (for want of a better word) evolutional identity. This enompases the range of questions I have been asking in relation to how identity is effected and in turn perceived by family heritage, our race and race relations, our closest relationships and by our own perceptions. I am yet to clarify this statement (this is what I have been putting off doing) so I hope once I start I will have sorted it out with a bit more eloquence. As one of my tutors calls it, it is our 'punch line' that one liner answer that you can give when some one asks you that dreaded question at a dinner party, "So, what do you do?"