Pacific Focus - Documentary Photography
ARCHIVES
Heta : Power and Fragility
Victoria Birkinshaw and Mark Cross
On January 5 2004 the tiny Pacific island of Niue was hit by category 4 cyclone Heta. Having survived the 300 km/h winds and 18 meter storm surge local artist Mark Cross set about photographing the storm's impact. In the aftermath he found a "strange beauty in the devastation of the architecture as though nature had inflicted its own aesthetic criteria on our pragmatic but ugly constructions". Nine months after Heta NZ photographer Victoria Birkinshaw travelled to Niue, curious as to how 'the rock of the Pacific' was fairing after being written off in some media as no longer capable of sustaining its population.
View the photos: Heta : Power and Fragility by Victoria Birkinshaw and Mark Cross
Nauru Portfolio
Wayne Barrar
Travelling to Nauru during 1991 and '95 New Zealand photographer Wayne Barrar documented the impact of nearly 90 years phosphate mining on the tiny island states' environment.
View the photos: Nauru Portfolio by Wayne Barrar
Kuli Ni Tabua
John Lake
The death of Fiji's former president Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara on April 19 2004 triggered the largest funeral commemorations in modern Fijian history. Photographer John Lake was on hand to capture a behind the scenes look at how Fijians mourned the passing of their great chief.
View the photos: Kuli Ni Tabua by John Lake