Growing pains caught on camera

BEN CURRAN/Manawatu Standard

SNAP HAPPY: Award-winning UCOL photography student, Leilani Hatch.

Relevant offers

Arts on Friday

Pair happy to be strung out Sounds of youth in cafes Questions for the viewers Music groups in youth festival Old sketches bring 1970s Feilding to life Selections of a private collection And the winner is... Planet Earth The shape of things Step, pivot and kick...

Since starting at UCOL three years ago, photography student Leilani Hatch has amassed an impressive list of awards.

Most recently, she took the national Canon Eyecon prize for her series depicting the transition from youth to adulthood. MICHELLE DUFF spoke to her about creativity, travelling and whether children are growing up too quickly.

What is your background?

I'm from Palmy North, my dad's Fijian so we lived in Fiji for a few years. That makes it a bit more interesting. I moved here when I was seven. I went to Awatapu College and that's when I started photography – I never did art in high school until the fifth form. My art teacher kind of brought creativity alive for me.

I feel like I've been really blessed with teachers, so for me that's what has helped me get these awards ... the support and help of great teachers. Both of my parents are teachers as well – mum in English, and dad in accounting.

What attracted you to photography?

I think the ability to tell stories. It's always quite controlled as well, and that's what I think I like about it. I love putting things together, because I'm a bit of a control freak. I was actually home-schooled at a really young age, so I don't know if that's made me creatively a bit weird.

I think there are two kinds of photographers: you either take the photos or you make them. I like to make them, putting all the little things together.

Tell us about the work that won the Canon award.

It's called a transition series, which stemmed from coming back from Melbourne. I went to Melbourne for three months, and it helped me to see things differently. I don't know whether that's an arty thing to do, but you just stand back and observe a bit more.

So the transition is from youth to adult, and the awkwardness that goes with that – student lifestyle, flats and the jobs you go through on the way to your career – The Warehouse, Harvey Norman. For me it's a really horrible place. There are good things as well, but for me, the work is about being suspended in transition. The locations were all shot separately and the model was put in. I could have done some of them on location, but the idea was to have that dreamlike aspect to it.

What are your plans now you've finished?

I think I'll be in Palmerston North for a while. I want to get out, but also I want to figure out what direction I'm going in. I would love to get into exhibiting work. I'd rather get into the fine arts side than commercial work.

I did some work once that led to a complaint to the advertising standards authority. I was quite stoked about that because it meant someone gave a s***.

It was about young girls growing up too quickly, and I had a nine-year-old girl in a T-shirt showing Venus, the goddess of sexuality. It's like it's fine to have kiddie porn everywhere and have women exploiting themselves in advertising, but when you make an image to discuss it, people don't want to see it. I want to make more work like that.

Leilani Hatch's work is at Te Manawa's Science Centre, as part of the UCOL exhibition.

- © Fairfax NZ News