NZ Visual Diary - entry 123

Nighttime at Khartoum Place

I stumbled upon this scene shortly after sunset as I descended the staircases that connect Lorne and Kitchener Streets in the central district of Auckland. At the foot of the staircase sits Khartoum Place, a charming courtyard whose walls host a series of murals that celebrates the history of the women’s suffrage movement in New Zealand.

As my brother-in-law and fellow photographer Dave Greene has noted, my style of evening street photography draws me to scenes that echo the work of painter Edward Hopper. As Hopper intended, many of his paintings make me feel uncomfortable, an intruder gazing without invitation into a private space inhabited by a solitary figure who appears lost in thought.

And so it is with evening street photography along less populated streets, one engages in a form of unintended, and assuredly innocent, voyeurism.

The Saigon Chill Restaurant specialises in Vietnamese street food.