item details
NameJaybel Fisheries, Auckland 1981. From the series: Polynesia Here and There
ProductionGlenn Jowitt; photographer; 1981; Auckland
Classificationcolour photographs, silver-dye bleach prints, works of art
Materialsphotographic gelatin, dye, cellulose acetate
Materials Summarycolour photograph, Cibachrome print
Techniquescolour photography, Cibachrome (TM)
DimensionsImage: 263mm (width), 386mm (height)
Registration NumberO.003161
Credit linePurchased 1983 with Lindsay Buick Bequest funds
Overview
‘This gentleman, in his gesture of pouring out the fish, expressed … dislocation from where he had come from: from a beautiful place to a factory.’
Glenn Jowitt noted that it was Pacific islands labour that sustained many New Zealand industries in the 1970s and 80s. With this image, he conveys something of the contrast between factory work and the island lifestyle left behind.
In the Pacific, men often go out in small canoes to fish for their families. But in Auckland, ‘people … were working in what seemed to me like a very damp, smelly, wet, fishy place their whole lives’.
Listen to photographer Glenn Jowitt describe taking the photograph Jaybel Fisheries, Auckland 1981 in this 2012 interview.