Southern Institute of Technology (SIT) student, Kim McKechie, is exhibiting her photography series, ‘Observation’, at the Croydon Aviation Heritage Centre, and she’s enjoying every minute of it.
‘Observation’ is a curated series of 30 pairs of eyes. “We’re all observed, but we don’t make eye contact anymore,” Kim explains. The eyes are placed chronologically by age around the walls of a bare room, where there’s nothing else to focus on, or to distract from their gaze.
“There are all ages - from four to 83,” adding that she put the call out to her family, friends and connections to achieve this many. With a long association in local theatre, Kim says “a lot are theatre or theatre adjacent, but I wanted to make the mix as diverse and inclusive as possible, so I put a public callout on my Facebook page as well.”
And the people responded, travelling to Gore to be photographed in Kim’s home studio, where she could achieve the consistency she wanted in the images. ”They came to me so I could control the lighting and other elements… There’s a Cromwell, group; people from Dunedin, Invercargill and Tapanui.”
Kim delved into the eyes-only concept because she wanted people just to see (and) look at the eyes. “When you take away the other (facial) features, they’re still people, but there’s a context and a parameter.”
“I’m thinking about the human response. I’m reducing the information we’re given by just making it the eyes.”
Photographing the series reminded Kim of her Covid-era theatre rehearsals, where it was six months of masks on, and some of the cast hadn’t even met before. “It was quite hilarious when the masks came off,” and they saw each other’s faces for the first time.
And eyes portray so much about a person. She’d had comments about one set of eyes that viewers thought were lovely, because they appeared friendly, giving away something of the person’s nature.
There had been “a full spectrum of responses” from exhibition viewers. “People are finding it interesting, some have said, ‘I do feel watched’, and a few haven’t coped.”
Kim admitted the exhibition “is completely out of the box for me. This is not my standard work.” Her theatre background is apparent in her work; staged portraits are brimming with artistic flair and creativity.
And putting together the content for the exhibition has triggered more creative growth for Kim, who’s in the final stages of her diploma. It had been a full-on year, taking time off work for full-time study. “It’s intense doing three or four papers at once.”
Having spent most of her working life in retail, “photography and the theatre are pursuits outside of a retail career that feed my soul”, Kim says.
While the exhibition paper is a requirement to complete for a New Zealand Diploma in Photography Level 5, Kim has thoroughly enjoyed it. She had heard via other students the exhibition paper was tough, or the hardest one in the diploma. But not so for her; she’s embraced the process fully. “This paper’s been the easiest for me. I was open to the experience. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do; to develop a series and display it.”
She was grateful for the way things fell into place, such as securing the space at Croydon Aviation Heritage Centre for her “I was incredibly privileged to get this space – it’s booked up until 2027.”
While Kim enjoyed focusing on achieving the paper, she said this exhibition “wasn’t about being commercially viable, it was about telling a story,” and believes she has accomplished this. “…You can paint any construct on it you like… the individual story is not one I have imposed; it is simply what was captured in the moment. But collectively it becomes quite powerful.”
Post diploma, Kim’s plan is to be working in photography, eventually running her own business, and developing a creative art practice.
The exhibition runs until November 28th at Croydon Aviation Heritage Centre, Mandeville.