Kate van der Drift

Sanderson
Osborne Lane, 2-4 Kent Street, Newmarket
Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland

28 May - 22 June 2025

Opening - Wednesday 28 May 5.30-7pm

Part of the Auckland Festival of Photography

Kate Van Der Drift, *Pinus Contorta (Wilding Pine) II,* 2025

Dance, Dance is a site-specific project created by photographer Kate van der Drift during her time on the Auckland Council residency 2024 in the Waitawa Regional Park. The project explores the entangled social and ecological histories of Waitawa; the works engaging with the layered history of colonisation, industry, and environmental restoration.

Using cameraless photographic techniques, van der Drift has created alchemical lumen exposures with large format silver gelatine film, plants, herbicide, and sunlight – considering what it means to “take care” of the whenua (land) and waterscapes. The resulting images map marks of human intervention alongside the agency of plants; capturing ongoing processes of transformation, resilience, and hope.

'In this exhibition, van der Drift continues to collaborate with nature by setting up conditions which allow it to express its own agency; to communicate and represent itself rather than being a passive ‘object’ of the camera’s lens. By giving up a substantial amount of control over to her photographic processes, van der Drift reveals the liveliness of nature, and continues to challenge the antagonistic boundaries between nature and culture, which reinforce the view that nature exists solely for the benefit of humans.’

Read the full essay by Dr Virginia Were here