He said when his father died, he took the opportunity to really dive into photography and express his emotions through the medium. <\/p>\n
\u201cMy father was absent but then in his final stages of life he lived with us and that all happened to be around the time I was getting into photography.\u201d<\/p>\n
Liam Reid (left) and father Bill Reid, who feature in Neil Foxcroft’s exhibition. Photo \/ Neil Foxcroft photography<\/p>\n
Foxcroft said he had a moment with his son and realised that holding hands with parents only comes when you are young or in death.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would always walk along holding his hand, and I would feel like one day this is going to stop, one day it\u2019s going to be too weird for him.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s very end of life and beginning of life.\u201d <\/p>\n
Foxcroft created the project over two to three years via a Facebook callout for volunteers. <\/p>\n
\u201cI would talk to them about it as if it was a portrait session and we would get lots of different photos.\u201d<\/p>\n
During the session, he would ask the men to pose holding hands. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey would do it without thinking and once they are holding hands then there would be this weird moment of realisation…and that\u2019s the bit I was going for.\u201d<\/p>\n
Foxcroft said he wanted to challenge these societal norms, and explore the parental bond.<\/p>\n
Jesse Renall with his father Steve Renall. Photo \/ Neil Foxcroft Photography.<\/p>\n
He said each photograph came with different stories and personalities and he worked to incorporate this into the background of each image. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I wanted was people in their environment, so where they are and what they do.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said there was great skill in getting the feeling and emotional depth in an image.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was grown men where each one has developed their own sense they are their own person – but they are still father and son.\u201d<\/p>\n
Foxcroft said the project was ongoing and he hoped to photograph mothers and sons. <\/p>\n
The photographs are on display as part of FotoFest and can be viewed at Decibel Wines on Warren St South, Hastings.<\/p>\n
Michaela Gower joined Hawke\u2019s Bay Today in 2023 and is based out of the Hastings newsroom. She covers Dannevirke and Hawke\u2019s Bay news and loves sharing stories about farming and rural communities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"He said when his father died, he took the opportunity to really dive into photography and express his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":49075,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[42618,442,498,499,500,1561,910,501,156,2881,2209,42615,42616,42617,1976,20498,78,8454,5829,11788,111,139,69,13636,6143,42619,6035],"class_list":["post-49074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-acupuncturist","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-artsdesign","tag-bay","tag-bonds","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-explores","tag-father","tag-fatherson","tag-fotofest","tag-foxcroft","tag-hawkes","tag-hobby","tag-in","tag-including","tag-many","tag-neil","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-photographer","tag-portraits","tag-tattooist","tag-things"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49074"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49074\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}