The suburbs are always worth exploring, whatever city you live in. You might need to drive a car or take a bus to get there, but they are best investigated on foot. Otherwise, you might miss the best bits. I recently went for a walk with my camera through a few small suburbs in the South end of Dunedin, New Zealand, where I live.
I saw the largest cactus I’ve ever seen in Dunedin. I met the owner, who walked down the driveway as I was taking photos. He said it was planted over 20 years ago by his father, who took note of the relative height of the cactus and his son as they both grew. The results are close. I would have to call it a tie.
There’s a Cactus & Succulent Society in New Zealand, but they don’t have a Dunedin branch. I searched online and discovered the Cactus Club, but it’s the name of a Dunedin musical band that was active in the 1980s. There’s someone on the Internet looking for their cassette recordings.
Dunedin has quite a musical history (look up the Dunedin Sound). As far as I can tell, I’m the only person in Dunedin who is not currently in a band. I think The Succulents would be a good name, though.
During my walk through the suburbs, I came across two painted telecommunications cabinets. There are many of these around the city and throughout New Zealand, and they’ve certainly brightened up the streets. However, I was more impressed by a transformer that had been painted in two shades of green. It reminded me of Mark Rothko’s classic field paintings. In his honour, I left this photo untitled.
Caravans, the original tiny home, have been popular in New Zealand since the 1940s. My favourite example was built in the late 1940s by Ralph Thompson in his shed in Invercargill (South of Dunedin). It’s in the Toitū Otago Settlers Museum. There are many well-maintained classic caravans still in use in New Zealand.
At this time of the year (it’s still Summer here) it’s hard to walk down a suburban street without seeing at least one caravan parked outside a house or in a front garden. I saw several during my walk, including the 1979 Deluxe 144 Caravan shown here.
A couple of doors down from the caravan, I spotted this white house with a red roof and green garage door. Small, tidy, and well-presented, it serves as a good example of a modest suburban house in this part of town. Although not likely part of the builder's original plans, the crosswalk stripes, and matching telephone pole seem to complement this simple, unpretentious home.
As I walked by St Kilda Automotive, which is across the street from the white house, I noticed this red 1957 Chevrolet Belair parked beside the lube bays. It’s a V88888, which means it has a 40-cylinder engine. It’s probably quite a bit faster than my car, which has only 4 cylinders.
Download the photos
The photos in this post are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 New Zealand (CC BY 3.0 NZ) license (required attribution: Mark McGuire). You can download the full-resolution original images from here.
What’s next?
I’ve recently been photographing shopfronts, street markings, lone pedestrians, and signs with nothing on them. I plan to publish a post about one of these topics, or something else, next weekend. You can receive the next post by email by subscribing below.
What do you think?
Is there something relating to street photography that you would like me to discuss? Is there something you would like to share (a resource, a technique, or a personal photographic experience)? Please leave a comment at the end of this post. Just say hello if you like.
Very cool pictures. I especially liked the cactus and the story behind it. Did the owner tell you whether it stays put year round or goes in and put of the house with the seasons? I have a 37 year old orange tree living in the dining room that grew up from a seed planted by my eldest son. It used to spend the summers on the deck, but it's grown too big - and my husband and I are too old - for travel, so it now stays indoors and relies on grow lights, getting pruned every time it starts hitting the ceiling. The Succulents would definitely be a good name for a band!
just a great read.. Also agree that would make a heck of a band name. I need to get more comfortable taking photos of houses. In which; I really love architecture so really should i got some cool ones around my way.