NZ Visual Diary - entry 256

K Road palette

In a previous entry of my NZ Visual Diary blog, I offered a brief commercial history of Karangahape Road, or simply K Road.

In the first half of the 20th century, K Road was Auckland’s premiere fashion district. Elegance reigned on K Road, both as the high-end retail corridor and pre-eminent location for architectural treasures. The commercial buildings were visually splendid.

Furthermore, until the 1960s when K Road ceded its lustre and allure to Auckland’s expanding suburbs, the exteriors of buildings on K Road were assiduously maintained - cleaned, painted and repaired.

The practice of architectural photography often requires a leap of imagination as one considers, in a moment of reverie, what might have been. It is a craft not only of presentation but also of rediscovery.

In today’s image, I see charming beauty on display within window frames but also remnants of past grandeur cast in cement and stone.