Railway Station

The Dunedin Railway Station was built when Dunedin was the largest and wealthiest city in the country. The gold in them thar hills didn't stay in the pockets of the miners for very long, but found its way instead into the bank accounts of the clothiers, iron mongers and grocers of Dunedin, who all paid their taxes and demanded that their council make a city fit for them to live in. So, to celebrate the cutting edge technology of the day, the burghers built a massive, Gothic revival station with mosaic floors and stained glass and towers. It was a cathedral to the god Technology, and the envy of the nation. Unfortunately the steam trains stopped running decades ago, not all that long, actually, after the cash supply from the goldfields dwindled. Nowadays there is no real rail service from Dunedin to anywhere, excepting a tourist train taking people inland on a day trip to ooh and aah at the Taieri Gorge. The place is still well peopled though. Today they don't arrive at the platform, but by way of the car park. They disgorge from buses to stand around and gawk, buy a tea towel, do their bit in making the Dunedin Railway Station the most photographed building in the country, and depart again.

The mosaics are yellowed with age and the tiles are cracked but they hold their beauty and speak of the hopes and dreams and assumptions of our ancestors. The people glide through the place in a transient flux, blown along with their own agendas, centred mostly on taking selfies and adding to their collection of destinations. I go with my camera. I have planned my visit and know what I want. I set up my tripod and frame my shots. I depart, one more current in the stream of people who have flowed, with their time bound goals, through this place for 150 years.

Photos: Nikon D750, AF-S Nikkor 24-120 F4. I used a low iso. Aperture for these shots was f16 or f22 to give deep DOF and to allow me to use a long shutter speed (1.5" - 2.5") in order to blur the people and give a contrast with the straight lines and solidity of the building. I desaturated after the event because I thought monochrome looked better, but I quite liked the aged, yellow tone of the originals also.

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