Saturday, January 10, 2015

Meet Me in the Square: Christchurch 1983 - 1987 by David Cook



As a young student at the University of Canterbury's School of Fine Arts in the 1980s, photographer David Cook made it his project to explore the streets of central Christchurch day and night, finding new vantage points, meeting strangers, taking photographs. Punks, boot boys, beery crowds, the Birdman, as well as mums with prams, school boys, bell-ringers, nuns and royal watchers - Meet Me in the Square reveals the people of 1980s Christchurch.

After a series of major earthquakes in 2011, David returned to his former hometown and found the central city irreparably damaged. He was inspired to unearth his archive of 6000 photographs of Christchurch he'd shot as a young man in his twenties, rebuilding through images the city as he remembered it.

This beautifully designed book of photographs of 1980s Christchurch is a fascinating cultural commentary and a moving, nostalgic journey through a city now changed beyond recognition.

$49.95 hardcover / $39.95 flexicover / 180 pages #meetmeinthesquare www.christchurchartgallery.org.nz





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