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Ben Cauchi (b. 1974 )
HOSPITAL HILL
Photograph - tintype process
Collection of the Forrester Gallery
Born in Auckland in 1974 Ben Cauchi’s art education includes an Advanced Diploma in Photography: Massey University, Wellington and was the 2007 Frances Hodgkins Fellow, University of Otago, Dunedin
The photographic work Hospital Hill (Oamaru) has been recently acquired to the permanent collection with funds from the gallery accessions budget. Cauchi, who exhibited at the Forrester during his Hodgkins Residency is renowned for his use of Victorian photographic technology. Hospital Hill utilises a tin-type process that was popular mid the 19th century where the image is formed on a sensitised metal surface – prepared and processed on-site.
As a contemporary artist, Cauchi works at a time when digital technology has transformed the way photographs are taken, printed and transmitted. But that’s not for him. Cauchi bought his 100-year-old wooden camera on the internet for $1500. It came from the United States and stands a metre high, weighing in at 8 kg. He prefers to use 19th century photographic processes such as ambrotype and tintype – processes which once represented major technological advances in themselves.1
Jill Trevelyan (www.realartroadshow.co.nz/essays/Cauchi Ben.pdf)
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