All structures great and small

Ranfurly Centennial Milk Bar is an iconic Art Deco building in Ranfurly, another small town in Central Otago’s Maniototo district. In its heyday it was a bustling place serving hungry passengers from the trains and afternoon teas and ice creams to the locals. These days it is home to a delightful collection of Art Deco objects. c 2008. Photos: MikiNobu Komatsu

Tripping around New Zealand as part of his commercial photography work or just for pleasure, MikiNobu Komatsu could never resist taking a photo of a classic New Zealand building. His latest book is a tribute to those buildings’ history, he tells Rebecca Fox.

When MikiNobu Komatsu first travelled New Zealand it was in search of great landscapes to photograph.

Invercargill Roundabout, otherwise known as Bank Corner, in Invercargill has been a loved and familiar landmark for generations and features three architectural wonders from the turn of the 20th century. Although they are no longer house banks, they are still prominent at the entrance to the town.

But after a while the Sydney-based Japanese photographer began to appreciate not only the country’s famous old buildings but also the simple ordinary shopfronts, pubs, halls, theatres or whatever building had a bit of colour and style about them.

"I like driving around finding old buildings, capturing the moment if there is good light," Komatsu said.

Oamaru Steam Train Building: Constructed in limestone for which Oamaru is famous, it was built in 1883 and started life as a grain store. This stunning building was empty for some 90 years before becoming Steampunk HQ, an avant-garde museum showcasing everything steampunk in 2011. c.2006.

Taking the photographs, whether landscape or architecture, has always been a bit of a break from the Japanese television commercial and documentary work he has done in New Zealand over the years.

"It’s a different genre of photography that I enjoy."

This year he has pulled together his favourite architecture photographs from around New Zealand into a book, Classic Aotearoa — New Zealand architecture through a photographer’s eye, which has sections on the South Island and North Island.

The Dunedin Railway Station was opened in 1906. The station was bought by the Dunedin City Council in 1994. In its early days it was the country’s busiest, handling up to 100 trains a day. c1990.

Back in the 1980s he was taking photographs on transparencies (slide film) and he stored them in paper mounts with the date written on them. However, that turned out not to be the best way of retaining the information and he found a lot of pictures without their date when he went to digitise them.

That led to quite a lot of research to work out when he took the photograph as many of the images in the book were taken 10 to 40 years ago.

As part of the book, he also researched each building’s history to build up small captions about the structures and what had happened to them since he took the photograph — some are no longer there, such as examples of Christchurch architecture that have since been destroyed by earthquakes, some show little change, while others have been renovated or rejuvenated.

Port Chalmers Bank Building: The former Bank of New Zealand building in Port Chalmers was constructed in 1880 and indicated the prosperity that Dunedin’s port enjoyed during the 19th century. c2008.