Kate van der Drift is a contemporary photographer working and living in Aotearoa. She has a particular interest in recording and highlighting the ecological and environmental effects of human intervention on the land using analogue film processes. In 2022, van der Drift completed her Masters at Elam School of Fine Art.

Her recent research, as part of her masters project Listening to a Wet Land explores the ecological complexities and precariousness of the waters situated in the Hauraki Plains, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. The project has culminated in a series of large-scale prints made from camera-less 'river exposures' and an essay film.

Both the digital moving image and analogue photographs explore stories of loss, of damage incurred in the politics of land use, as well as stories of hope and the potential for repair through agency of the more-than-human.

‘After two to four weeks of comingling with cyanobacteria, agricultural waste products, salt and freshwater currents, each field recording is transported in its sediment-covered container back to the darkroom. Here the intangible and the toxic is translated by Kate van der Drift’s hand from negative film to contact print, exposed to light, enlarged and transformed into a dazzling chromatic image.’

Read the full exhibition essay by Nina Dyer, here.

Email info@sanderson.co.nz to purchase.