2 June, 2025

Photographer’s material world produces places that feel real

Creating landscapes… Chris Melville (right) works at home photographing fabric to create striking images such as the examples above and below

Chris Melville says when people see his ‘landscape’ photography they often try to place it geographically.
“Some people say ‘I can see Takapuna’… or ‘that’s definitely the South Island’.”
His abstract shots are actually taken on the floor of his North Shore home.
The moody images which seem to show sea, sky and land are created by passing his camera – set on a slow shutter speed – over fabric draped on the ground.
“It’s a bizarre thing. People say why?”, Melville says to the Observer with a laugh, ahead of the opening of his exhibition, Material World, at the Lake House arts centre tomorrow, Saturday 31 May, as part of the Auckland Festival of Photography.
He explains the process as a gradual progression of his creative interests, which also include music and design. “I always loved art from an early age,” he says.
Melville grew up in Hamilton in a family where cameras were commonplace, including vintage models with old bellows.
He remembers doing school projects on photography and swotting up on various painters.
New Zealand expressionist great Colin McCahon became his “go to” artist, with his minimalist abstraction and use of text in his paintings particularly appealing.
Following family advice, Melville focused on finding ways of making his interest pay, so he studied product design. This led to design work for superyachts and mobile phones, and helping create an early version of a four-wheeled mobility scooter for the elderly while working for Fisher & Paykel.
These days, the 52-year-old’s day job is as a graphic designer for real-estate company Harcourts, where he enjoys creating national campaigns.
Another of his talents is musical, which led to him hopping on stage for a spot of singing during a recent Harcourts conference in Christchurch.
Being able to combine his passions is a joy, but exhibiting only came into the frame a few years ago, when he was accepted to show his works at Art in the Park – held annually at Eden Park – in 2023.
Encouragingly, participating in the arts extravaganza resulted in sales.
“I photographed wires hanging down, from the side, and wiggled the camera to get an interesting effect,” he explains.
He has since moved on from working with wires, to experimenting with photographing fabric.

Having noticed that people responded well to watery colours, such as aquamarine and Tiffany blue, he drew on his love of McCahon to connect colour with form.
“I wanted to make it more realistic and wanted to explore landscapes.”
When Melville works with fabric as the sculptural foundation for his “landscapes”, he is never quite sure how things will turn out. But he says he gets a feel from the colours, such as sandy beach or wave or sky shades, lending themselves to certain outcomes.
“I lie the fabric on the ground and set it [the camera] to a one-third of a second and swing it from left to right and assess what I’ve created.”
From that initial view, he might make adjustments to the camera settings “until I get the outcome I want”.
At Art in the Park, where he will show for a third time in September, Melville displayed photographs of his process alongside his finished prints, so viewers could gain an insight into his practice. He may do this at the Lake House as well. “It’s that extra level of understanding. People go, ‘Wow, that’s something altogether different’.”
Photoshopping does not play a major part in what he depicts, but he does use it to clean up the images. At such slow shutter speeds, dust particles are revealed which can be removed for the final image.
The fabrics he favours for his pass-over photography are sometimes drawn from a dip into his family’s wardrobes.
“My business shirts are great skies; my son’s jeans, with the deep denim also.”
Dresses come into play too. “Organza is really light and ethereal – there are different ways of photographing to make it more transparent or opaque.”
Cottons come in handy for landforms and ribbons make good wave forms.
Melville says he has more to explore using fabric, but it won’t define his future photography “I always want to move it to another point.”
In a less abstract vein and drawing on his other interests, he says: “I love photographing musicians because I’m a singer, I’m around musicians all the time.”
He has had band shots published in the New Zealand Herald.
These days he has a regular Saturday night singing spot at Sky City Casino’s Flare bar and was part of a funky covers outfit, Grand Central Band, that played at the Ponsonby bar of the same name.
A special performance came about when a fellow musician asked Melville to join him playing with Neil Finn. Melville thought it unlikely the famous singer would show, but instead he experienced a memorable set with Finn at the Coatesville Market.
To top that, he has also played Santa to a much bigger audience at Christmas in the Park.

• Chris Melville’s Material World exhibition, 31 May until 19 June, at the Becroft Gallery, Lake House arts centre, 37 Fred Thomas Dr, Takapuna

Please consider supporting The Rangitoto Observer by clicking here: