SKY PETCH

Beekeepers Update October 2021

I’m heading towards the end of term at ARA in late November, and the beekeeping project has come along way since starting about 4 months ago. I thought I’d share the images that I feel will sit well in the zine/ book and also as part of an exhibition in the coming weeks, as part of my final hand in. Of note is that i’ve decided to carry on with this fascinating project though 2022 as the beekeeping season is only really starting.

The end goal is to publish my first book too outside of university studies, and I feel it warrants more images from locations across the Canterbury Region.

I had to do a Powerpoint presentation a few weeks ago to share my progress at school, and it goes into more detail with regards to the goals of the project, images I’ve made, and specifics outside of this post. You can download the PDF of the presentation here on my Google Drive (50MB) for your own perusal, if you are interested. Some key details from the talk are;

19 Beekeeper Portraits. 14 Male & 4 Female. 4 Hobbyist & 9 Commercial. No questions asked yet. No working hives yet. Key to success is Capsule CRM.

I’m happy with the number of beekeepers that I’ve documented, especially considering the COVID lockdown that really halted progress. The community is mostly made up of males, but I’m connecting with more female keepers too, so hope to balance the collection more in the last month, and more drastically next year. The question/s that I originally had planned, have changed considerably as I’ve spent more time with the subjects from all sorts of backgrounds and professions. I honestly feel like simply asking ‘Tell me something that you want to share with your imagery’ and associate it with their portraits and connect it all together to make the final artwork for my photography degree.

The reason for no working hive images is twofold. The season is not really in full swing yet so working hives are minimal, and I’ve consciously focussed on portraits of beekeepers without their ‘suits on’ at home or in a place they like to spend time. In the last weeks of term, with the days warming up, I have plans to add a set of beekeepers working on hives, from back yards to mountainous locations. I’ve decided to utilise my 35mm camera that has auto focus for the close up, and as the beekeepers ‘work’ on the hives. They will accompany the 6 x 6 work that I will continue to employ for staged portraiture.

The foundations of this project has been admin heavy, and I guess is the key to the success of all series driven work. Capsule CRM has been my main tool, and it’s so easy to use, while continuing to manage my work load perfectly. Anyway, here are a selection of images that I’ve chosen that I feel represents the varied beekeepers that have been so open and accomodating to date. I can’t wait to pull this all together in the coming weeks, and also continue with this for another year, to share the faces and stories of Cantabrians behind the New Zealand beekeeping community.

I’ve got one week of holidays left and will be ramping up image making in the coming weeks to then design the zine/ book and decide what prints I will exhibit for my final handing of this 4 year journey! I’d like to thank tutors John and Wendy for their continuing support and feedback, and the beekeeping community who have continually shown me warmth and sincerity.