Derek Henderson: Milk Run

Derek Henderson: Milk Run, Holt Gallery

As a photographer, Derek Henderson has a broad ranging practice, working across the genres of fashion, architecture, portrait and landscape. Henderson has spent many years working abroad and he now bases himself between Auckland and Sydney. Even when living overseas, he always maintained his connection with New Zealand and the New Zealand landscape has been a regular feature of his work.

In this exhibition Milk Run Derek Henderson has explored, through photography and the memories of himself as a milk boy, the urban landscape of Hastings in the 1970s. His photographs provide us with a visual description and insight into the empty streets of the early hours and his early awakening to the things people did to embellish their homes. Little things like a new plant here or there, a new ornament on the front lawn, the carport being painted, or a new letter box prompted in Henderson, as a boy, a burgeoning awareness of the continually shifting visual tapestry in his environment.

To create this exhibition, Derek revisited the streets of Parkvale, Mahora and Mayfair and photographed the homes that captivated his interest and eye for aesthetics, as he pushed his milk trolley around the streets all those years ago.