Find out about my glamourous life as a photographer!
As part of the Auckland Festival of Photography I’m taking part in the free Talking Culture Lecture Series.
I’ll be discussing my practice as a commercial photographer of architecture, people and places as well as my self-published, award winning book Portrait of a House.
Auckland Art Gallery Auditorium
Corner Kitchener and Wellesley Streets
Sunday 8 June 2014
3pm
Portrait of a House has been doing a little world trip, this time popping up in the book review section of the incredibly stylish Elle Decor Italia.
If your Italian is a bit rusty here’s what they said:
“Featuring architectural daring from New Zealand.
Discover this home and project created on the hill by architect Ian Athfield.
An innovative publication, charmingly presented and photographed by Simon Devitt.
I was chuffed to find Portrait of a House reviewed by Tommy Honey in The Hobson magazine December 2013 issue.
“The most intriguing and certainly the most personal book on architecture published this year is Portrait of a House (Balasoglou Books) by photographer Simon Devitt.
It is, as Devitt states, “a portrait of the Athfield House, the village on the hill”.
Ian Athfield, once the enfant terrible of New Zealand architecture, and his wife Claire, started building their house high on the hill in Khandallah, Wellington, nearly 50 years ago.
The story of their house is told almost entirely in pictures (some archival, some taken by Devitt over a 10 year period), anecdotes and recipes.
It is the intimate made public and a reflection of the Athfields’ generosity and Devitt’s commitment.
A beautiful, beautiful book.”
Urban design critic Tommy Honey is a former architect, now Dean of College at Parnell’s Whitecliffe College of Arts & Design. He lives in Remuera.
Naming names may win you a rather lovely prize.
Head over to my new People in NZ Architecture gallery, list all the names of the faces and send them through to me.
All complete and correct entries will be in the draw to win a signed copy of my new book Portrait of a House made on 1 October 2013.
Send your lists to simon@simondevitt.com
Bribes considered. One entry per person. Other obscure conditions may also apply.
Big ups to the team at Inhouse Design for arriving in the finals of the New Zealand Best Design Awards, Editorial and Books section.
Although no doubt slightly biased, it’s looking like a gold from here for Arch MacDonnell, Toby Curnow and Sarah Gladwell.
Awards will be announced on Friday 11 October in Auckland.
Written by: Anna Goldwater Alexander
May 31, 2013
PHOTOGRAPHY FOCUS:
PHOTOGRAPHY FOCUS:
SIMON DEVITT’S
PORTRAIT OF A HOUSE
New Zealand photographer Simon Devitt has been capturing homes and homeowners in for close to fifteen years. His new book, Portrait of a House, collaborates with graphic designer Arch MacDonnell of Inhouse Design. Portrait of a House is a photo album of the Athfield House or “The Village on the Hill” known by Wellington, New Zealand locals. The Athfield House is an architectural experiment started by Ian Athfield in 1965 on the Khandallah hillside in Wellington. It’s quite reminiscent of the Mos Eisley Cantina on the planet Tattooine, in Star Wars, Episode IV.
The idea for this photo book came from Devitt’s inspiration from other shelter photo books such as Robin Morrison’s 1978 book Images of a House. “A house is a pretty refined subject to make a book about,” explains Devitt. “It is not market driven, it is content driven and born out of passion. Life has happened there like in no other house, and the ‘living’ leaves its evidence, time has played out on its surface. There is a lot to be said about sitting still and how that looks. The Athfield house is a wonderful example of this. An accessible counterpoint to a largely asset based living that pervades New Zealand.”
The “living” Devitt refers to is the extensive colorful dinner parties with it’s well-known local bohemians (as seen in our slideshow) & the mass livestock that roam the property. Simon Devitt is the recent recipient of the New Zealand Architecture Awards’ Presidential citation for photography. He also has a lecture in Photography of Architecture at the University of Auckland.
Portrait of a House is a combination of beautiful architectural & lifestyle photography as well as bits of historical images, take a peek inside at some of the beautiful photography Simon Devitt has created for his debut publication.
The Portrait Roadshow juggernaut’s next stop was Auckland’s The Nathan Club in Britomart on 17 May 2013.
Portait of a House was officially launched on 11 May 2013 at Moore Wilson’s, in Wellington.
Thanks to all those that came along, and even more to those who purchased a book on the night!
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