This must be the place

We first met Talia a long time ago, before g&h was even a real thing. She was one of the amazing people who quickly grasped the concept we were working on, and helped us to make it real. I used to send her on photography adventures, with huge lists of places to photograph and people to approach. Talia is a student of photography at AUT, and her final year work, This Must Be The Place, is part of an exhibition of the same name that's opening at St Paul St Gallery on Thursday night.

The exhibition includes everything from drawing and installation to photography and sculpture, but we particularly love what Talia has created and we wanted to tell you about it. Though 56 photographs - all shot on film with a medium format camera, Talia has explored her fascination with the human imprints we leave on the spaces we live in. Ex-inhabited spaces. Spaces where people have been and things have happened, but only small remnants of those people and things remain.

It's an intriguing pursuit, and it took her to the very limits of outer Auckland, to places like Meremere and Huntly. What we've seen of Talia's work thus far on her tumblr is beautifully haunting. It has a strange king of urban nostalgia about it that we like. What Talia's managed to do is find beauty in unexpected places, and that's something we find beautiful in itself.

This Must Be The Place is brought to you by the Tautai Contemporary Pacific Arts Trust and features the work of ten tertiary level artists of Pacific heritage. It's curated by Jeremey Leatinu'u, and it's definitely worth your eyes and support. Head along to the opening tomorrow night at 5.30, we'll see you there!

St Paul St Gallery
40 St Paul Street
CBD

This Must Be The Place
6th - 27th July