Derek Henderson's Photography Portfolio ⏤ From 2005 Until Now
Imbued in each image Derek Henderson’s lens captures is a lingering question, a sense of wonder, a little mystery. His fashion photos see his models in foliage filled landscapes, or amongst the floral papered walls of forgotten suburban homes and you think – who is she, why is she there? But when his lens probes the landscapes whose language he is fluent in, the questions become more hanging and potent.
One of Henderson’s favourite landscapes is his native country – New Zealand, of which he has created two books and is about to release his third. Regarding his first book, The Terrible Boredom of Paradise (2005) Henderson says, “I was trying to recapture what I saw as a child in the backseat of my parents’ car when we went on holidays. Even though the car was moving fast, the car window seemed to frame, isolate and freeze these moments which have stayed with me more as emotions rather than an image.” The body of work that resulted in this book began with a 13,000-km road trip he took around New Zealand in 2004, over four and a half months, armed with a view camera and some colour film.
For his latest body of work, Circadian Rhythm (2017), Henderson comes full circle. He returns with his camera to capture the daily life in the small towns he visited for The Terrible Boredom of Paradise and continues to find beauty in the places and people that are often over-looked. But his return also sees him find the continued pulse of life as well as the changes that have occurred, since he first photographed the far-reaching corners of New Zealand.
Read our interview by Shana Chandra:
A Gentle Lens ⏤ In Conversation with New Zealand Photographer Derek Henderson
