In the city

Press, 23 July 1986, Page 23

In the city

“Downtown Christchurch” is an ongoing photographic project which began in the summer of 1982. David Cook wanted to take a second look at his hometown. As an environment it had become far too familiar to him. “The standard postcard presentation of Christchurch is one of a city blossoming from a central Anglican Cathedral, graced by its Avon River and inner city parks, the Antipodean English city. I decided to take a hardedged humour in picturing the people in the midst of these cliches,” he says. David Cook was born in Christchurch in 1959. He attended Canterbury Uni-

versify where he gained a Diploma in Fine Arts in photography (1983) studying under Larence Shustak and Glenn Busch. In 1984-85 he worked for the Waikato Museum of Art and History photographing the communities and industry of the Waikato coal-mining region. This culminated in an exhibition and book entitled "Rotowaro. The Last Days of a Waikato Coal-mining Township.” Other major photographic works include assignments on the Salvation Army and the Community of the Sacred Name. David Cook’s exhibition will show at the Robert McDougall Art Gallery in August.