The Stars, The Moon and The Sun

Laurence Geoffrey Aberhart was born in 1946 in Nelson, the oldest of four children. In his words, he “fled Nelson” as soon as he could. He found the stratification of Nelson society odious, although he found a stimulating niche in the local arts community. A girlfriend’s family were vintners, and enthusiasm for their wine brought the Woollastons, as well as Marti Friedlander and Barry Brickell, into the same social circle in Nelson. Laurence thus also met Peter McLeavey in late 1967 when visiting the Woollastons.

Through a series of chance encounters, introductions, and a period of self-taught trial-and-error in the dark room, Laurence began pursuing large format photography. He started exhibiting his work in the early 1970s, and in 1978 had his first solo exhibition at Peter McLeavey Gallery. Early series of works are permeated by a sympathy for and an intimacy with the forlorn. They feature Masonic lodges in urban backstreets, World War 1 memorials, isolated churches, halls and neglected buildings.

Recently, the heart of literal darkness has become a preoccupation. Brushing aside all suggestions to the contrary, he persists with ‘old fashioned’ technology in the stubborn belief that the product of this methodology will outlast all arguments for ‘new’ and especially ‘contemporary’.

The Stars, The Moon and The Sun brings together five large format platinum palladium works, printed at an atelier in Belgium, and one silver gelatine work printed by Laurence in his darkroom. Together, the body of work, featuring meditations on the New Zealand landscape, is quietly mysterious and unforgettably beautiful.

– words by Michael Fudakowski