The images in Western Line 2003 were captured during a period when Allan McDonald was a frequent user of the train service. He describes the areas surrounding the tracks at that time as a form of terrain vague (1), which functioned as a semi-wild, unmonitored zone where young people would gather, do their thing, and simply hang out. During that era, Tāmaki Makaurau was undergoing widespread commodification, forcing these “urban gaps” to seek their own means of survival. Having long documented the traces within spaces marginalized by urban development and changing environments, McDonald presents landscapes that offer a response both opposite and somehow strangely similar to the transformations of that time.
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(1) Terrain vague: A concept proposed by architect Ignasi de Solà-Morales, referring to abandoned or derelict urban spaces that lack a clear identity or function.
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About the artist
Allan McDonald is a lecturer in photography at Unitec, Te Whare Wānanga o Wairaka. He works with an archive of images spanning more than 50 years from which he curates narratives of social history and place. These often appear as small publications, most recently Between the Silence and the Flame 2016, Carbon Empire, 2017, The Holding 2020 and Viewshaft 2024. Carbon Empire won the New Zealand Photobook of the Year Award. His work is included in the permanent collections of the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, Te Papa Tongarewa, and the Chartwell Collection.