OLD BONES & BEES - This is a small selection from an ongoing project based in New Zealand.

​

Come over here we say

to the days that disappear.

No, over here.

​

Bill Manhire

New Zealand Poet

​

​

​

New Zealand is often regarded as a land of plenty—a distant utopia offering an enviable and idyllic lifestyle. Yet, if you begin to scratch beneath the surface, you may find that all is not as it seems. With its small population and isolated islands, New Zealand can often feel like a microcosm of the wider world. Here, environmental challenges intersect with the rapid expansion of corporate forestry, a shift away from traditional farming and agriculture, and the relentless spread of suburbanization. Along with a European legacy, these forces signal a slow but inevitable change—possibly even deterioration. The dream of the affordable ¼-acre section is being replaced by something new—beyond reach. Something yet to be fully understood or defined.

​

Will Green has spent more than 25 years visiting New Zealand, and in 2018, he began working on his “Old Bones and Bees” project. Through his work, Green explores themes of loss and transformation, suggesting that old identities and ways of life are being mourned in a society struggling with the complexities of contemporary growth. This sense of mourning is not for the past itself, but for the loss of it—an uncertain, painful transition as the country evolves.

​

Green’s images intentionally resist anchoring themselves to any specific time or place. Rural towns, unnamed farm roads, and fleeting moments of passing life seem to defy the encroaching shadow of development and change. His photographs capture what feels like a fragile memory, poised on the edge of being forgotten.

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​