Current Exhibitions

Gareth Watkins began the Street Adonis series in 1997.  At that time he was interested in the idea of chance meetings on the street and the split-second decision he needed to make in order to approach a stranger and talk about the prospect of being a model. 

This scenario opened him up to a variety of responses. Fortunately most of the experiences were good. Many of the men had never modelled before but were interested in taking up the opportunity:

'I was really drawn to faces that had an openness - an expectation of the life to come. In particular I was drawn to the eyes which were often a mixture of wonder, intrigue and playfulness.

'I shot on film and in natural light. I wanted to create a landscape of beauty, where the model was the image.  It wasn’t about the location or clothing or style. It was about the personality and the way they wanted to project themselves.

'Over the course of ten years this body of work turned into a whole world of youthful beauty. Unlike the transitory nature of reality, this fictional world never changed for me.  Whatever the models were in the past or what they were to become in the future was irrelevant. They were placed in a time and space filled with expectation.'

- Gareth Watkins, January 2007

Watkins is currently working on a photographic essay of New Zealand composers for the Wallace Arts Trust and the Lilburn Trust. 

This exhbition showcases works from the Street Adonis series as well as four works by Derek Henderson.