20 Feb 2022

The golden age of state houses

From Standing Room Only, 12:29 pm on 20 February 2022
David Cook

David Cook Photo: supplied

Jellicoe and Bledisloe: Front Yard Repairs

Jellicoe and Bledisloe: Front Yard Repairs Photo: supplied

Jellicoe and Bledisoe:  Georgie's Roast

Jellicoe and Bledisoe: Georgie's Roast Photo: supplied

Jellicoe and Bledisloe:  Ginger's Place

Jellicoe and Bledisloe: Ginger's Place Photo: supplied

When photographer David Cook started taking pictures of his neighbours in a characterful Hamilton East state housing suburb back in the 1990s, nobody realised that gentrification was about to strike.

The 90s weren't so long ago, but in some ways it's like another world.   What was once affordable housing is no longer so, and the neighbourhood is very different to the characters and chaos David documented.

The original photographs are about to go on show at the New Zealand Portrait Gallery and in a book.

Both are called Jellicoe and Bledisloe after two of the suburb's street names.

David tells Lynn Freeman that he hopes they'll help him to track down some of the people he photographed at the time.

Jellicoe and Bledisloe: Hamilton in the 90s opens on Wednesday at the New Zealand Portrait Gallery in Wellington  and will be heading out on tour starting at Waikato Museum.