Edith Amituanai
Research
What genre of photography does Edith operate within?
Editorial genre
What is her sub genre?
Life
What is Edith Amituanai's background?
Ediths parents are from Samoa, they moved to New Zealand in the 1960's too Christchurch. She has alot of relatives in Christchurch still and it is the community she grew up in.
Edith graduated from Unitec in 2005 with a Bachelor of Design in photography. In 2005 she was also featured in the Contemporary New Zealand Photographers publishment. She won the inaugual Marti Friedlander Photography award and the first Walters prize nominee of Pacific descent.
Does her background influence her photography?
Yes, alot of her work seems to be home related and to her new Zealand Samoan identy, alot of her pictures are with family's and portraiture and homely interiors.
What are the main ideas in Edith Amituanai's work?
I think family, community and life in new Zealand are her main focuses in her work.
http://www.thearts.co.nz/artists/edith-amituanai
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| In this image you see a man covered in sweat, and he is on a rugby field with stands and seating in the background. It looks like he has just been part of a rough game and the sun is starting to set. The camera is looking up at the subject making them look bold and powerful, the subject is in the center and the roofing in the image is straight through the middle of the image so its splits the image equally. the subjects face is illuminated, it looks like flash has been used and a gold reflector the background is quite dark and the grass around the subject has been illuminated also. It looks like they have used a narrow DOF as the subject is in focus but the background is dark and soft. This feels like a really intimate photo, the man looks very awkward with the way he is holding his hands like he is trying to look quite firm. |
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| In this image we see four children running and playing next to a house and a fence in their neighborhood. It looks they the photographer has used a wide lens as this image is giving a triangular shape between the fence and the building, this creates great leading lines in the image, leading you to the children, even though we are not getting a very close up look on them they are in the dead centre of the image and the leading lines take up most of the image but they lead you straight to the middle. This image makes me feel like this scene is very relate able. |
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| In this image you see two girls in there home dressed up, having a group photo taken. The photo is taken straight on, with a lot of negative space in the image. In the negative space you really feel at home in this image, it feels very familiar and you get a taste of their home life. |
Response
I learnt a lot more from hearing from Edith herself, she went to art school in the early 2000. When she went to art school she didn't have photography in mind. She tried painting but was too impatient and it took too long, but she new she wanted to tell a story. She discovered she liked photography, she could press a button and it was done in an instant.
She told us her method was to start close to home and start with what you know and that's what she did. After listening to Edith I think her Genre is Documentary. Other artists in New Zealand seem to be more interested in outside of New Zealand and often leave. She wanted to tell the story of out "Great ordinary" here in New Zealand.
She decided to join a refugee volunteer group that helps family's. That family she was positioned with for three years helped show her how to move out of her comfort zone in photography. Art school help her create her photography formula.
Edit told us about her street photography, there is a lot of pictures of children walking between home and school. This was because that was a time in life for her that she loved and I think she wanted to capture that in her photographs. In her work she has only included pictures of kids in there uniforms and taken out the pictures of the kids in mufti. She did this because the uniforms are like protection, when the kids wear mufti you can see there status and they can be judged. When the kids are between home and school it is their time, you can really see the individual in the uniform.
Through her work you can she the relation ships she has with the people she is photographing, she only photographs in areas where she is comfortable and that she has inhabited for a long time. she likes to capture the ordinary life, interior and homes in New Zealand and she feels like she needs to capture this and tell New Zealand and these family's story's through her work.
Photographic Response
Ex: In this image I wanted to capture Ediths documentary style photography. Edith only takes pictures in areas she is comfortable with so I took this is the little living room off the main area of my boyfriends parents house. This area is important to me as I spent a lot of time here when I first moved to Auckland and lived in the room next to it. I took two images, the second one I took first, that picture was my natural reaction. and the second image I tried to get the ceiling light in as it is similar to this picture bellow.
(natural light, focal length, aspects of room importances, angle, similartys eg matt photos, front on angle, window length, flash v natural light not an interrior relates to her in the same way, use of flash 3 more shots richard billingham, lynne cohen, candida hofer)
Another artist that does interrior photography would be Candida Hofer, her subject matter is very different and normally on a grandscale and of inside powerfully desigend interriors.
This photograph is the closes I can find to Ediths work, this looks like it could be take inside someones home. The difference between this picture and Edits image is that Candida's image is void of clutter and personal items, it is very uniform, simple and elegant. Ediths picture is full of personal items that is emportant to the image and the family who lives in that home, it really shows the personality of the people who live there. The similarities in the image is that they both have a red matt and a large light in the image and neither of them have been take in natural lighting.
Photographic Response
Ex: In this image I wanted to capture Ediths documentary style photography. Edith only takes pictures in areas she is comfortable with so I took this is the little living room off the main area of my boyfriends parents house. This area is important to me as I spent a lot of time here when I first moved to Auckland and lived in the room next to it. I took two images, the second one I took first, that picture was my natural reaction. and the second image I tried to get the ceiling light in as it is similar to this picture bellow.
(natural light, focal length, aspects of room importances, angle, similartys eg matt photos, front on angle, window length, flash v natural light not an interrior relates to her in the same way, use of flash 3 more shots richard billingham, lynne cohen, candida hofer)
Another artist that does interrior photography would be Candida Hofer, her subject matter is very different and normally on a grandscale and of inside powerfully desigend interriors.
This photograph is the closes I can find to Ediths work, this looks like it could be take inside someones home. The difference between this picture and Edits image is that Candida's image is void of clutter and personal items, it is very uniform, simple and elegant. Ediths picture is full of personal items that is emportant to the image and the family who lives in that home, it really shows the personality of the people who live there. The similarities in the image is that they both have a red matt and a large light in the image and neither of them have been take in natural lighting.
This picture is very different from Edtihs work, the leading lines are a big feature and with the angle the picture is taken shows the giant scale of the building and the emptiness, were as Ediths work you feel close to the photographer and the image feels similar to home with the photographs, trophies and pot plants placed around the room.
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