
The Terrible Boredom Of Paradise, courtesy the artist.

The Terrible Boredom Of Paradise, courtesy the artist.

The Terrible Boredom Of Paradise, courtesy the artist.

The Terrible Boredom Of Paradise, courtesy the artist.

The Terrible Boredom Of Paradise, courtesy the artist.
The Terrible Boredom of Paradise, is expatriate New Zealander Derek Henderson's, post-pictorialist document of a road trip through his homeland. Adopting the aesthetic and uniform lighting conventions of northern hemisphere photographers, Henderson's images of semi-rural sites, in out-of-the-way locations, are anti-heroic. The images are a hinge between the aesthetic conventions of landscape photography and the social aims of a documentary tradition. Instead of seeking out stereotypes and evidence of local identity, or the sublime undertow of scenic tourist photography, the images explore the often taut relationship between local and global. Knowing it is all too easy to live life vicariously through the media, these images are an invitation by Henderson to really see; 'to look at the horizon line and just stare at it, and enjoy that, and see things in it and not have to be stimulated by something else'. Operating as both an outsider and a local, Henderson identifies the potential for landscape to convey multiple messages. On the one hand, New Zealand can be seen as an exotic escape and on the other, a banal, real locality. 'I don't see the landscape as empty, it's more like it's a beautiful landscape but everyone seems to be quite bored.' Text: Hanna Scott
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The Terrible Boredom Of Paradise, courtesy the artist.
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