HARVEY HAPI

Kaea, Issue 2, 1 March 1980, Page 23

HARVEY HAPI

KEN GEORGE

Creativity is erupting among young Maori people in areas other than poetry and architecture. Many people have commented on the distinctive appearance of Te Kaea, so now we

look at two of the artists responsible, a graphic artist from Ngati Kahungunu and a photographer from Ngapuhi.

Harvey is the graphic designer responsible for our covers. Born in Hastings twenty-four years ago, he belongs to Ngati Kahungunu with Ngati Tuwharetoa affiliations. Artistic ability runs in Harvey’s family. His father was a signwriter for the Church College of New Zealand in Hamilton, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has also been a strong influence on Harvey’s life. He interrupted his three-year course at Wellington Polytechnic in “visual communications” to undertake missionary work in the Philippines. On returning, however, he spent time designing signs for Hastings City Council and then returned to Wellington, where he graduated at the end of last year. He and his wife Bonnie have now moved to Auckland.

“I won first prize in an art competition at primary school. The prize was fifty cents. I’ve never looked back”, he jokes. But more seriously, he considers his undoubted talents to be a lucky accident of birth. “I think it’s part of the natural gift of the Maori, and courses like the one I did, plus a little motivation, will bring out the best in people. I’d like to see more young Maori people striving for higher goals and realising their abilities.”

Te Kaea is only one of several projects Harvey is working on, but it is one he cares about. Designing the masthead gave him the opportunity to reflect the traditional Maori feeling for colour and flowing forms in a more contemporary way. So he took a simple typeface and repeated it, achieving a fluid, rhythmic kowhaiwhai-like effect.

Responsible for many of our black and white photographs, and for the portraits on this issue’s cover, is twenty-eight-year-old Ken George. He was born in Auckland and raised in Parnell by his grandmother, through whom he is connected to the Mahuruhuru and Kapotai sub-tribes of Ngapuhi. After leaving school Ken worked around the country in a variety of jobs before becoming involved in professional illustrative work. A graduate of Wellington Polytechnic’s School of Design (in photography) and Victoria University of Wellington (a B.A. in anthropology), Ken now works fulltime out of one of Wellington’s top fashion and illustrative photographic studios.

He’s been in the photography business for four years now, working as a newspaper illustration editor, a press photographer and a commercial photographer. “Commercial photography is where the bread is,” he says, “but my real interest lies in the field of photojournalism. My main influence has been W. Eugene Smith, the American photojournalist whose work was the mainstay of Life magazine in its heyday.”

Apart from brightening up the pages of Te Kaea , Ken has been involved in several interesting projects. He was responsible for the colour audio-visual part of an orientation programme for Polynesian migrants to New Zealand; he has provided the photographs for an ongoing survey by Wellington Hospital into Tokelauan health; and he has been commissioned to mount several exhibitions where a storyline approach was needed.