I moved to Bainham back in April ... all the way from Takaka. Previous to that, there was 15 years of a life lived in and around Europe, working as a professional photographer, followed by five years back in New Zealand, searching for a place to call ‘home’. My last European home had been in Italy, so my standards were high :-)
Moving here, I finally had the sensation of taking a deep satisfying breath, relieved to have found in a place that is both over-flowing with natural beauty, and full of the loveliest folk.
How did I become this year’s, Bainham Rural Womens 90th anniversary, calendar photographer?
Well, it was all about a series of serendipitous meetings; of Michelle Mikey Cole introducing me to the rural womens group, & of hearing Fiona Newey speak of a calendar project at a Rural Women’s committee meeting . Her idea was to capture a slice of Bainham’s rural life, during in this 90th celebration year.
And so, I offered to make an attempt at capturing the women who live here but more than that, include the women who have lived here in the past; whose family names have been here in Bainham for decades. I definitely didn’t capture everyone, as the window for photographs was tiny and the ‘web’ spun over decades, was huge but we tried.
Rural women were also offered the opportunity to submit their own photographs to this calendar, where local dates are noted, with space left for your own dates and notes too.
People are welcome to either download small copies of the photographs from my website, or contact me, if they would like full-size versions. If you have a USB stick, or an email address, or some other way of picking them up, I am happy to gift them to you. It was a community project; one that I only wish I could have followed through the seasons that unfold here, as I love the life I see here. I keep saying I’m not a landscape photographer, my passion is capturing people but, by crikey, this landscape tempts me every single day. Rain, hail or sun, it’s always a pleasure.
Thank you to all those who, so graciously, allowed me and my camera to work at this. I apologise sincerely, to anyone who felt terror at the thought of being photographed, and I salute anyone who felt the fear, and did it anyway. I met some remarkable women, there was much laughter, and I have memories that I'll treasure forever.
Thank you, to Bainham’s rural women.
Di