A surge of construction

Picture / Wayne Wilson

When Auckland's Downtown-Britomart area was at its most frantic period of destruction and reconstruction in 2002, photographer Wayne Wilson was out there, recording the city's momentous period of change.

Working with time-exposed panoramic colour transparencies, and shooting literally at dusk and dawn, Wilson documented three months of intensive engineering during the Britomart and motorway construction - a project which also meant many of the older buildings captured by his camera are now gone.

The result of Wilson's project - called Downtown 2002 - is 10 colour transparencies printed on to 1.25m wide Fuji Crystal Archive.

The impression of the series is unstoppable forces moving through the city, what Wilson calls a "surge of construction", which has ploughed down icons such as the old Chinese Markets, the Fort St brothel precinct, and other apparently obsolete buildings we will never see again.

It is a dynamic record of a city trying to internationalise, scrambling to find its place in a modern world, not always pretty but a reality. Linda Herrick

* Downtown 2002, the Edge Gallery, Aotea Centre, to Jan 4