Q&A: Hall of Fame

Project Story’s Olivia Spencer-Bower spent the last four years documenting the rebuild of one of the city’s greatest icons, the Town Hall. Cityscape caught up with Olivia between assignments and discovered the meaning behind the mission that was capturing the rebuild.

How did the opportunity to photograph the Town Hall development come about? I had previously photographed the Christchurch Blood Centre for Hawkins and they approached me to present a proposal to them on what I could do to record the progress of the Town Hall.

Did you go into the Town Hall project blind or did you have a good idea of what you were going to capture? I came from a country school in North Canterbury then went to school at Rangi Ruru, so the Town Hall was part of my childhood growing up. I remember visiting for Cantamath competitions at primary school, school balls and prizegivings with Rangi and even Coast to Coast prizegivings once I’d left school. It’s been a prominent feature in so many Cantabrian’s lives. Because of this I knew the building and how important it was to our city. I knew I wanted to photograph what we saw in front of us, but also the little details many people don’t notice. I wanted to focus on the human interest stories too; the Town Hall was built by many, many people’s minds and hands, not robots. These people matter in the story. My inspiration for photographing these projects is the iconic 1930s New York construction photos. Think: the classic NY photo of the men eating lunch on the steel beam. That’s my end goal, images that are as powerful as that and have the longevity to last much longer than the rest of us. And I wanted to capture images that showcase my client’s exceptional work. The images not only document the project, they’re art in themselves.

How much time have you invested in this project (roughly, obviously!)? During the project I would visit every month and spend around half a day onsite capturing the progress. We’re up to month 40 so far, so that’s at least 40 visits, but there have been additional ones for various extra events. Plus lots of post-production time! Nothing is posed in my photographs, I document what I see. I like to look for unique angles, slices of light, interesting compositions. The workers onsite soon got used to me loitering around watching them as they did their thing. The exhibition was a mammoth undertaking and I’ve been working on it solidly since the beginning of January. With over 3000 edited photos in my catalogue, figuring out how to tell the story was a task in itself.

What were some unique challenges for this project? Figuring out how to navigate around site each month!! The progress was vast, so the safe routes around were always changing!

What’s your lasting impression of the project? I’m so lucky and proud that I got the opportunity to tell this story. It’s a story that needed to be told to ensure the public understood just what went on behind the fencelines. Because all the work was taking place inside, and you couldn’t see a building taking shape from the ground up like you would a new one it was so important to capture this story and share it. It’s amazing to see the building back to its former glory, but even more fancy with a few new modern additions that will ensure it serves our community well into the future. Getting to sit in the finished Auditorium in utter silence is an experience in itself. And comparing how it looks in its finished state to what it was like when they were doing the jet grouting inside is quite the contrast!

There’s obviously a massive amount of responsibility to capture this for future generations – are you happy with how you’ve managed to do that? Yes, I’m stoked with how it all turned out. It was amazing to hear all the responses to the photographs at the opening. People really enjoyed getting to see what was required to bring the project together. Right from the beginning I had envisioned an exhibition, and as it proved following the opening this was an important part of sharing the story. I’m looking forward to designing a photobook during the year, to be released at the end of the year so that people can have the story in their own homes and for many generations to come.

Are there other Christchurch icons you’d either like to photograph progress of or wish you had? I would love to document the Christchurch Cathedral conservation project. It’s another iconic building in Christchurch with a rich heritage and an incredible story that deserves to be told and shared.

What other projects have you got on the go? I’m still photographing the Town Hall as it still isn’t fully completed in certain areas, and I’ll start working on the book in March, along with some smaller projects that I’m working away on.