Analyse a New Zealand Photographer

Ross T Smith

ROSS T. SMITH: LINGER

Ross T. Smith is well known for his haunting series of portraits based in and entitled Hokianga. For Linger, Smith combines his architectural background with his passion for pinhole photography to capture the essence of decay; balance; and the enduring passage of time.

To linger is an existential condition concerning time and silence. It is the state of not being ready to leave, in a moment of pause between two aspects of being; the here and elsewhere. To linger means to spend a long time over something so that it doesn’t disappear from your realm of perception and experience.

The pinhole photographs in this series are of this nature. They are hand-made using traditional darkroom techniques. The exposures are long – 20-60 minutes – depending on light and location. The photographs are made in a cardboard box with no hi-tech interference at all; no lens, no shutter, no moving parts, no mechanisms. In his own way Smith is lingering in a world of making that is rapidly changing because of digital technology and the supposed need for speed and immediacy. Speed is the antithesis to lingering. During the exposure, time passes before the camera. The image recorded is not a fraction of time but time lingering upon the surface of the negative.

Memory is a repository of images which linger in our subconscious, drifting indistinctly among other sensory memories of our life’s experience as traces of the present passing into history. To be silent is to be aware of the present. To linger is to slow down and become engaged with phenomena in all of their subtle presentations to us. Linger with intent.

This exhibition is presented as part of the Auckland Festival of Photography.

Image: Ross T. Smith: Linger #21 (Karekare). Silver gelatin print, selenium and tea toned, (2009). - detail

28 May - 12 July 2009

 http://www.teuru.org.nz/index.cfm/whats-on/calendar/ross-t-smith-linger/

Te Uru is the contemporary art gallery based in Lopdell house in Titirangi, West Auckland.

LINGER, 2 - 27 FEBRUARY 2010

(So the next year he must of exhibited in this Wellington Art Gallery and this photography collection "linger" is available to buy online now.)

Here are some of the collections photos:

Of Karekare, a west auckland surf beach which you have to walk a wee way to from the road:

Karekare 1, 2008
Pinhole photograph, silver gelatin print toned with selenium and tea, 225 x 285 mm framed. SOLD

Karekare 2, 2008
Pinhole photograph, silver gelatin print toned with selenium and tea, 225 x 285 mm framed. SOLD

Karekare 3, 2008
Pinhole photograph, silver gelatin print toned with selenium and tea, 225 x 285 mm framed. SOLD

Karekare 4, 2008
Pinhole photograph, silver gelatin print toned with selenium and tea, 225 x 285 mm framed. SOLD

Karekare 6, 2008
Pinhole photograph, silver gelatin print toned with selenium and tea, 225 x 285 mm framed. SOLD

Karekare 7, 2008
Pinhole photograph, silver gelatin print toned with selenium and tea, 225 x 285 mm framed. SOLD

Karekare 8, 2008
Pinhole photograph, silver gelatin print toned with selenium and tea, 225 x 285 mm framed. SOLD

Pinhole photos of objects:


Three blocks, 2008
Pinhole photograph, silver gelatin print toned with selenium and tea, 225 x 285 mm framed. SOLD


Iris, 2006
Pinhole photograph, silver gelatin print toned with selenium and tea, 225 x 285 mm framed. SOLD

Hangi rock 1, 2005
Pinhole photograph, silver gelatin print toned with selenium and tea, 225 x 285 mm framed. SOLD

Another beach, the sand and debris looks similar to Oreti:

On the beach the light comes from no one place, 2009
Pinhole photograph, silver gelatin print toned with selenium and tea, 225 x 285 mm framed. SOLD

Pinhole photography can capture the texture of the tide coming in, it looks like lace:

On the beach the light comes from no one place, 2009
Pinhole photograph, silver gelatin print toned with selenium and tea, 225 x 285 mm framed. SOLD

"In my own way I am lingering in a world of making that is rapidly changing because of digital technology and the supposed need for speed and immediacy. Immediacy is the antithesis to lingering. During the exposures time passes before the camera. The image recorded is not a fraction of time but time lingering upon the surface of the negative," Smith says.

They are handled before exposure and so show smudges and fingerprints as a memory of the hand of the artist.

{On the beach the light comes from no one place}, 2009 is a unique suite of eight pinhole photographs of Mitimiti in Northland - Ralph Hotere's birthplace. The images were produced last year for an exhibition in the Hokianga which comprised Hotere's 1991 painting {Song of Solomon} and five Northland artists' response to the work.

Ross T Smith is an artist, architect and teacher. He first came to prominence a decade ago with his poignant portraits of young Maori in the Hokianga, which are in the collection of the Auckland Art Gallery. He has exhibited widely in New Zealand, Australia, the US, the UK, Germany and Austria, with over 50 solo and group exhibitions, and he has work in public and private collections in NZ, Australia, the US, Spain and Finland. Smith has been working with pinhole cameras for several years but has only recently exhibited these images

http://www.bartleyandcompanyart.co.nz/exhibition,Ross_T_Smith,215