John - This is Aotearoa

John Duke | Ponsonby

“My name’s John Duke. I’m staying in Auckland for two nights in Ponsonby.

So in the last year, I’ve been mainly living and working in Wellington. I work as a book-seller there at Unity Books, and I occasionally come up to Auckland and do a bit of work in the shop here. I’m currently here in New Zealand on a skills work visa, and in the next year my main goal is to get my residency so that I can stay in New Zealand longer-term.

If I can get my residency in the next year, and that means that I can stay here, I think in the short term, in the next year that’ll mean putting down even more roots, just getting more established in terms of housing in Wellington, potentially you know moving on from the rental situation that I’m in, and then longer-term, yeah it’s about seeing more of New Zealand, having more of a real connection to the country, and using my photography to talk about that more and to communicate my experience of this country to other people.

So in my photography, in the last couple of years especially, I’ve been moving back to film photography from digital, and focusing on the different kind of character that you get from using film, and that’s a really nice way to slow it down and just spend a bit more time thinking before shooting about what I’m looking at, and obviously being in a different country to the one that I grew up in, I’ve got a lot of fresh things for my eyes to see, and I hope that gives me a perspective on New Zealand that’s maybe slightly different to one the locals would have, and to be able to share that is really what excited me about it.

So I’m originally from a town called Lincoln in the UK, which is in the middle of the UK. It’s one of the flattest areas of the country, and I love it there. I love riding my bike, but I wanted to come and live somewhere a bit different, with a different landscape, and it’s a different light. I do a lot of photography, and the light in New Zealand is really appealing to me, and obviously the kind of great outdoors, and just being able to ride my bike on the roads, and in the mountains here is something that I really value.”

What, if anything, have you done differently after visiting this site?

Sophie

Sophie

Sophie | Point Chevalier - "Figuring out how other people think and understanding them so that we’re not ignorant and we celebrate diversity and learn to appreciate each other."
Mark

Mark

Mark | Wellington - "I think the people suffering with mental illness, it’s just a very cathartic way of expressing themselves, either through painting or through writing. And if they’re able to actually paint the demons that they have to live with every day I think it’s a wonderful form of therapy."
Izi May

Izi May

Izi May | Pukekohe - "It does stop me from doing normal things, because people can’t see it, they often, tell you to get over it, or whatever, which you can’t, and it’s a bit difficult trying to get people to understand stuff like that."
Sonny

Sonny

Sonny | Rānui - "That’s my main goal, is to better myself to become a better father, a better role model for my son and my younger brothers."
Mia

Mia

Mia | Māngere - "We are all about making sure that people understand whatever they want for life is possible, from knowing who they are, and that stems back to your culture, your ancestors, and the origins of your birth."
Lui

Lui

Lui | Māngere - "My resolution would be to just to be more like everybody else, to be honest, to have more place to put input, to be a part of society, to have a job, have a place to stay, to stand on my own feet, and to say, look I did it, I’m here with you."
Gonzalo

Gonzalo

Gonzalo | Newmarket - "I think it is really good to know a city on a bike. You connect more with the street. You connect more with the people. I think you connect with the fluency of the city with the bike."
Natasha

Natasha

Natasha | Māngere - "Just caring, being responsible, not just for ourselves but for the community around us and just trying to be not only a positive effect in my own life, but to do that for others."
Sarah

Sarah

Sarah | Mahurangi West - "It’s looking at what systems can we develop that enable people to heal, enable environments to heal, and beyond healing, how can we come back to an integrated sense of self both as communities, where we’re not polarised, where we don’t react to things. We co-create things."
Sykes

Sykes

Sykes | Rānui - "There’s a lot of things. Like change my perspective more. Just taking care of my family more, because I’ve been distant. Saving money, helping out more, all those unconditional things."

John Duke | Ponsonby

“My name’s John Duke. I’m staying in Auckland for two nights in Ponsonby.

What, if anything, have you done differently after visiting this site?

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