Lens focused on broken things

Broken things, discarded and free objects on the side of the road and buildings in various states of disrepair have all been the focus of local resident Hayley Walmsley’s lens.

She has snapped over 4000 images, mostly on walks to and from school or while out doing errands.

The project, titled Suzie No Friends, was undertaken for her master’s of visual arts at Otago Polytechnic, and her work will be on public display until Friday 6 September.

North East Valley and north Dunedin feature heavily among the images, but Hayley also visited places as far away as Waimate, Oamaru and Christchurch.

What started out as documentation of furniture left out by students and others leaving the area, quickly led to thoughts about our consumerist lifestyle and a rapidly moving population, in which we leave home for school or a job but always seem to be looking for the next best thing.

Suzie No Friends seeks out the space between photography and how it can be used to represent the abandoned, forgotten and neglected in a world that is rapidly moving forward.

Suzie No Friends opened at the Dunedin School of Art Gallery on Monday and runs until Friday 6 September. All are welcome and warmly encouraged to attend.