In the lead-up to April's iD Dunedin Fashion Week, Dunedin International Airport has a fashion-inspired exhibition in the terminal by local writer, stylist and photographer Amy Parsons-King. We spoke to Amy about how her interest in photography began and the inspiration behind the images.
The spotlight is on Amy Parsons-King's fashion photography in an exhibition at Dunedin International Airport, something that might never have happened had photography not left the darkroom behind.
The Dunedin-based fashion writer, stylist and photographer first developed an interest in photography at high school, but that soon turned to disinterest when she realised she'd be spending hours in a darkroom developing film.
''Although it's exciting watching an image slowly form right before your eyes, I didn't have the patience back then to stick with it.
"It wasn't until 15 years later, when I purchased my first digital camera to take Dunedin street-style photographs for a news website that I picked up a camera again,'' Parsons-King said.
''It was taking photos of stylish strangers on the streets of Dunedin that rekindled my love of photography - and the fact I no longer had to soak my hands in chemicals for hours.
''I've always had an appreciation for fashion photography, and have an extensive fashion magazine collection.
"To me, fashion photography is more than just selling clothes to consumers: the clothing itself is the artwork and the model the canvas and I often find the images can depict a deeper meaning than is first apparent.
''I have always been more interested in the art-direction and styling side of fashion editorials and never imagined I'd find myself behind the camera. However, all that changed when I started my fashion blog, Femme Hysterique, in 2012.
''I started the blog because I identified a unique and relatively untapped fashion culture here in Dunedin that I wanted to share.
"As well as covering trends, local news and up-and-coming designers, I started styling and art-directing exclusive fashion editorials to feature on the blog, working with photographers and make-up artists to create beautiful, thought-provoking images.
''Over the past three years all the photographers I have worked with have all relocated and I found I was left with all these great ideas, but no-one to shoot them, so I decided to have a go at taking the photos myself.
"Although I'm still learning, I found this really fun and rewarding and discovered I had a natural ability to direct models and capture striking images, and have been taking all the fashion editorial photographs myself ever since.
''The first photoshoot I did was titled Forever Never and as well as featuring it on the blog I submitted it to one of my favourite New Zealand fashion magazines, Black.
"The editors loved it and wanted to feature it on their online version of the magazine.
"However, because it had already been published on Femme Hysterique it had lost it's exclusivity, and they decided not to use it.
"Despite Black not publishing it, getting such positive feedback and encouragement from my first photoshoot, gave me the confidence to continue to develop my skills as a photographer.
''When Dunedin International Airport approached me about holding an exhibition as an 'artist in the terminal' I was so excited and honoured.
"I really never imagined I'd have an exhibition this early on in my photography career and am grateful for the opportunity to showcase my work to such a wide and diverse audience.
"I selected 10 images from two photo-shoots - Forever Never and Home Alone.
''Forever Never was inspired by a dysfunctional relationship, in which the couple undergo a fervent struggle for power and control.
"Their love for one another is never aligned, one partner is always more 'in love' with the other and there's this unspoken battle constantly tearing them apart, yet simultaneously fusing them.
''Home Alone was more of a fun light-hearted shoot that I worked on with local stylist Cherry Hart and make-up artist, Lauren Wells.
"The model in this shoot, Jessica Jordon, portrayed a young woman who is home on her own.
"The shoot strives to depict the freedom and solitude experienced when you get time to yourself: she's enjoying the spontaneity of roaming the house without judgement or restriction, yet she finds herself bored and restless, uncomfortable in her aloneness.''
• Special thanks to the Otago Daily Times and The Weekend Mix for sponsorship, Lauren Wells for make-up, Cherry Hart for styling, Jess, Alaric and Steph for modelling, Belle Bird, Plume, Creeps and Violets and Slick Willy's for lending clothes, jewellery and accessories.
The exhibition
Dunedin International Airport terminal, until May 1.
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