Resonance XXV
Without doubt, Garry Blackman's
image of the Robbie Burns in the Oliver Book is a classic and
in retrospect of the time peroiod when it was taken I knew it
would be hard to find an image that epitimized the hotel in a
similar manner. Because of this I had avoided trying to find an
image that might conveye some of this. Also there was
the literary images Baxter created of student flats and
the authoriterian, calvanistic society that portrayed Dunedin.
Initially I looked to photograph only the top
half of the hotel's facard from George Street but fortunately
the framing was not right and I had to return
for another shoot from the same location. Here the
framing was much better, but on my return to the car
I found another view point (from a car park that is obscured from
a back street) that seemed to
encompass many of the aspects Baxter referenced.
Map of Brighton indicating where the image Resonance XXV as taken from
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James K Baxter - Poem
references
Reflections on a Varsity Career Hocken MS975/26 1956
Peculiar things were done and seen
In the Robert Burns and the Bowling Green
God did not choose to intervene
In the early, early days
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