Greenham story told

Press, 14 April 1984, Page 2

Greenham story told

Being a woman — even a staunchly non-feminist woman — was a definite advantage when photographing the Greenham Common campers, said an internationally - renowned freelance photographer, Mrs Joan Wakelin, in Christchurch yesterday. “You are fighting the world’s press there, but luckily for me, the Greenham Common women are not slow to advertise the fact that they don’t like men,” said the outgoing Mrs Wakelin, who is in New Zealand on a four-month lecture tour sponsored by Air New Zealand, Ilford Film, and the New Zealand Photographic Society. Mrs Wakelin, veteran camera woman of 30 years that she is, did not advertise the fact that she does not believe in feminism. Instead, she spent many hours with the militant feminists and was eventually accepted, while a French

male photographer was reduced to shaving off his beard. “He asked me if that would make him look more like a woman,” said Mrs Wakelin. Since she left her home village of Newbury, Berkshire, almost nine months ago, Mrs Wakelin has had 36 different addresses. Yesterday, while resting at the home of a Christchurch photography enthusiast, she received a telephone call from a man with whom she had played squash in 1966. “New Zealanders are more hospitable than the English. The people seem happier, and there is much more space. I resent people encroaching on my landscapes,” said Mrs Wakelin. Although Mrs Wakelin is a “people photographer” by inclination, she was so impressed with the New Zea-

land landscape while travelling from Nelson to Christchurch on Thursday that the trip took 12 hours. She shot five rolls of film. Her award-winning portfolios are liberally sprinkled with powerful shots of the homeless, the penniless, the hunted, and the diseased, down to dying lepers. There is a lot of humour and happiness in her work as well. “I am not a miserable bugger,” Mrs Wakelin insists. She has a passionate dislike of elaborate equipment and long lenses. “I think it was the photographer, John Sanders, who said that people who use long lenses all the time are using the camera as a giant contraceptive, protecting themselves from actual contact with humanity. I agree with him, and that is why I work in close. I refuse to steal my photographs,” said Mrs Wakelin.