Tim J. Veling
Tim J. Veling is an Ōtautahi Christchurch based artist who straddles the genres of fine art and documentary photography. People, place and human connection with the environment are key to his practice. Veling is not an opportunist, preferring to take a slow approach. The impact of his photographs are in their ability to evoke reflection and draw connections. He waits, watches and thinks; using light, wind and season to yield atmosphere consistent with his intent. Absence is just as telling as presence in his work.
Veling’s approach to the medium of photography is broad. He is practiced and knowledgeable. In his hands, light becomes a creative tool. He is sensitive to its changes and adapts his approach to yield the images he pursues. This comes to the fore in Pūharakekenui, Styx, a response to a local river restoration project. Here he uses a tri-colour separation process. Repeated shots from the same vantage acknowledge the stretch of the sun’s movement over time. The resulting impressions – printed in overlayed process colours – have a ghostly effect that, although almost painterly, speak to our lived experience of light, moisture and atmosphere in a riparian zone. Other images are 8×10” silver gelatin contact prints, clear and precise, that respectfully observe and build on 19th Century photographic processes at the core of the tradition, often directly referencing key practitioners within the medium’s rich history in Aotearoa New Zealand, such has Dr. Alfred Barker and following through to Mark Adams and Ann Shelton.
Tim J. Veling is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Canterbury School of Fine Arts Te Kura Kōwaiwai, Aotearoa, New Zealand. He is the director and administrator of Place in Time: The Christchurch Documentary Project and is engaged in long-term projects relating to the aftermath of Christchurch’s 2010 and 2011 earthquakes, with particular focus on forward looking recovery. Veling has exhibited nationally and internationally. His work is held in the collections of Te Papa Tongarewa, Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu, University of Canterbury.
Exhibitions:
2024 – Pūharakekenui, Styx
2019 – Sentinels
2016 – Vestiges
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