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In My Double Life, Kiwis share the side hustles, hobbies, dual careers or career pivots that keep them busy. Andi Crown is one of New Zealand’s most sought-after arts photographers, taking pictures of some of our biggest stars. When she’s not behind the camera, she might well be in front of it in TV shows such as Head High and One of Us is Lying.
But Andi’s move into arts photography didn’t come entirely through acting. It started after she completed an MA in Pacific archaeology and worked as a contract archaeologist in bracing weather on South Georgia, in the south Atlantic, surrounded by elephant seals and king penguins.
“Most people who know about South Georgia island know about it because it’s near Antarctica and has connections to explorer Ernest Shackleton, who is buried there. I ended up there because the company I worked for did a couple of field seasons – around six to eight weeks each – where we would live on a ship and go ashore every day to survey shore-based whaling stations.
“There are seven whaling stations on the island, built in the early 20th century that then closed down around the 1960s when shore-based whaling ended. These stations housed men, mostly from Scotland and Norway, who came to the Southern Hemisphere after whaling declined in the Northern Hemisphere. The whalers would go out in boats, catch the whales and bring them back to shore for processing at these massive stations.
“My two colleagues, Dan and Russ, would laser-scan the stations while I would photograph all of the buildings inside and out and, along with the structures, any significant artefacts that remained. The stations were like eerie time capsules. Many of the doors and windows had long since gone. Then the wildlife moved in, so we would be doing our work among the elephant seals and penguins – an incredible experience.
“That was one of my favourite jobs as an archaeologist, but I was involved in lots of local excavations at home in New Zealand around Tāmaki Makaurau as well. I loved working on the Masonic Tavern excavation in Devonport before the site became apartments. There was some incredible material there, as we moved through modern layers to mid-to-late 19th century contexts – lots of ceramic plates and bits of leather, metal, glass and bottles – down into the pre-European Māori material. The whole North Shore coastline is just covered in archaeology.
“So, I was working as a contract archaeologist for about six years and doing more photography as part of it. I started taking headshots for actors purely as a fun sideline. As an actor myself, I often needed to get headshots, and I’d studied film photography and darkroom processing at high school, so I thought I’d give it a crack.
“For a time there, I was doing both jobs simultaneously; archaeology during the day and then running home in the afternoon to do head shots after work or on weekends. It just got busier and busier, but it took me a while to make the leap and become self-employed. My partner encouraged me, saying, ‘What have you got to lose?’
“Coming back to the arts wasn’t surprising. I grew up acting pretty much whenever I could at high school and then doing theatre down in Christchurch. I’m very much a jump-in-and-give-it-a-go kind of person, so when I moved to Auckland I started with theatre, then got an agent and started doing commercials and TV jobs.
“University study came up when I was working at Auckland Theatre Company doing box office and front desk work. I was living with my boyfriend at the time at his family home and my circumstances there meant I could finally begin my tertiary education after several years of working. I picked papers that I thought I would enjoy, including anthropology and ancient history.
“I remembered how much I loved archaeology as a child. We subscribed to National Geographic Magazine, and I was always so excited when the yellow envelope would arrive in our letterbox. I would pore over the images, particularly anything to do with ancient civilisations. At university, I learned hieroglyphics for about three years and I thought I would eventually go into Egyptology.
“It wasn’t until my second year that I really made the leap into archaeology. I’d auditioned for an acting role on a new TV series and when I didn’t get it I was feeling really despondent. The university holidays were coming up, so I knew lecturers would be going off on field seasons and there might be a chance to join an excavation.
“I remember walking down the corridor of the anthro floor of the human sciences building and standing in front of two doors. I could knock on the door of the professor who was leading field studies to Australia, or I could knock on the door of my bio-archaeology lecturer who taught Pacific archaeology. I knocked on door No 2: Professor Melinda Allen’s door. I said, ‘Do you need any students for your next field season?’ And then just like that I was off to the Marquesas Islands.
“I did three successive field seasons there and ended up with a masters in settlement archaeology. Egypt went out the door; Pacific archaeology took its place and when I graduated I went into the contract sphere. These days, there’s no more archaeology for me as being an actor and photographer takes up all my time, but I did tell my former boss, if he ever did go back to South Georgia, I would 100% go with him!”
