Medium: Photo book
Year: 2026
Size: 76cm x 60cm
Edition: 1/150
Background story from the artist:
A few years ago a DNA test changed my life. For me, the consequence of being adopted meant I’d lived my entire life not knowing where I came from, and therefore not really knowing who I was. If I didn’t know where I came from, how could I know where I was going?
For as long as I can remember, that uncertainty saw me ricochet between untethered and being deeply stuck. Some of you would’ve felt the effects. Those close to me would’ve been caught in the crossfire. As any sensible person knows, the best way to unstuck things is to blow them up.
I took the matches to my safe, predictable and small world. I torched a 45 year career to follow my artist’s instinct and decided to write about it Written from the middle, The Full Catastrophe documents what happens after the fuse was lit. I’ve never been much of an open book, so the irony isn’t lost on me that I’ve written one. It’s been quite a year.
Not all beer and skittles, but beyond the safety net lies incredible opportunity. I’ve discovered where I came from.
I’ve travelled to New York to establish my art practice writing portraits, and to Nepal to photograph eye surgeries. You might have read about that adventure at the beginning of this year, where I was lucky to watch and photograph the world’s most experienced eye surgeon Dr Ruit in action. Ruit, who deftly operates his microscope with bare feet as he performs the quick but delicate surgery with an easy precision, has helped restore the sight of over 250,000 Nepalese who suffer from the disease of curable cataract blindness.
Tilganga, the world class ophthalmology teaching hospital Ruit founded in Kathmandu, has trained over 1000 surgeons from 70 countries in the technique he pioneered. It was an extraordinarily humbling experience to watch the man they call the God of Sight perform magic. You could only watch in wonder. It’s a type of awe Berkeley Professor Dacher Keltner describes as moral beauty. It’s moral beauty that affects us the most, because it‘s what makes us human.
This particular type of awe shows up in our lives as courage, kindness, grace and integrity. Ruit and the Tilganga team have challenged not just the medical establishment, but the entire business model that surrounds it.
At Tilganga, no-one is turned away because they lack the financial resources to pay for the procedure.
Every eye is equal under Ruit’s care. A cataract surgery in Western - so called developed - nations can run into the thousands or more. At Tilganga the same procedure is performed for $NZ100. That’s not a typo. You read it right. Arguably the only thing Western medicine has really developed in this case is the cost.
It’s hard to walk away from Tilganga without being deeply moved by the work. It touched me in a way I can’t fully explain.
Flying alongside the Himalayas on the way home, all I really knew was I needed to do something about it, and I kept coming back to how my work as a photographer might help theirs. I think I’ve found a way. The Full Catastrophe: Vol 1 is an A4 hardback 124-page coffee table book. Nearly a year’s worth of stories from the Full Catastrophe, plus some other yarns you might find amusing. The book cost includes $100 to fund cataract surgery at Tilganga in Kathmandu for someone who can’t afford it. Buy a copy and I’ll send $100 straight to Ruit’s Foundation so the procedure can be performed. I love the hope, the power - and irony - in the thought that a visual art like photography might help someone to see again. Originally I thought about making the gift of sight an optional extra, and I’d make a less expensive version of the book so you could choose.
But that didn’t feel quite right. Somehow this does. This might mean that I end up with more books than I need. Or it might not. The exercise made me realise that the Full Catastrophe was all about running towards the flames. Of course with petrol the way it is, and when butter costs over $10, I’ve made things harder on both of us. But what a gift you’ll have. And what a gift this will be.
Medium: Photo book
Year: 2026
Size: 76cm x 60cm
Edition: 1/150
Background story from the artist:
A few years ago a DNA test changed my life. For me, the consequence of being adopted meant I’d lived my entire life not knowing where I came from, and therefore not really knowing who I was. If I didn’t know where I came from, how could I know where I was going?
For as long as I can remember, that uncertainty saw me ricochet between untethered and being deeply stuck. Some of you would’ve felt the effects. Those close to me would’ve been caught in the crossfire. As any sensible person knows, the best way to unstuck things is to blow them up.
I took the matches to my safe, predictable and small world. I torched a 45 year career to follow my artist’s instinct and decided to write about it Written from the middle, The Full Catastrophe documents what happens after the fuse was lit. I’ve never been much of an open book, so the irony isn’t lost on me that I’ve written one. It’s been quite a year.
Not all beer and skittles, but beyond the safety net lies incredible opportunity. I’ve discovered where I came from.
I’ve travelled to New York to establish my art practice writing portraits, and to Nepal to photograph eye surgeries. You might have read about that adventure at the beginning of this year, where I was lucky to watch and photograph the world’s most experienced eye surgeon Dr Ruit in action. Ruit, who deftly operates his microscope with bare feet as he performs the quick but delicate surgery with an easy precision, has helped restore the sight of over 250,000 Nepalese who suffer from the disease of curable cataract blindness.
Tilganga, the world class ophthalmology teaching hospital Ruit founded in Kathmandu, has trained over 1000 surgeons from 70 countries in the technique he pioneered. It was an extraordinarily humbling experience to watch the man they call the God of Sight perform magic. You could only watch in wonder. It’s a type of awe Berkeley Professor Dacher Keltner describes as moral beauty. It’s moral beauty that affects us the most, because it‘s what makes us human.
This particular type of awe shows up in our lives as courage, kindness, grace and integrity. Ruit and the Tilganga team have challenged not just the medical establishment, but the entire business model that surrounds it.
At Tilganga, no-one is turned away because they lack the financial resources to pay for the procedure.
Every eye is equal under Ruit’s care. A cataract surgery in Western - so called developed - nations can run into the thousands or more. At Tilganga the same procedure is performed for $NZ100. That’s not a typo. You read it right. Arguably the only thing Western medicine has really developed in this case is the cost.
It’s hard to walk away from Tilganga without being deeply moved by the work. It touched me in a way I can’t fully explain.
Flying alongside the Himalayas on the way home, all I really knew was I needed to do something about it, and I kept coming back to how my work as a photographer might help theirs. I think I’ve found a way. The Full Catastrophe: Vol 1 is an A4 hardback 124-page coffee table book. Nearly a year’s worth of stories from the Full Catastrophe, plus some other yarns you might find amusing. The book cost includes $100 to fund cataract surgery at Tilganga in Kathmandu for someone who can’t afford it. Buy a copy and I’ll send $100 straight to Ruit’s Foundation so the procedure can be performed. I love the hope, the power - and irony - in the thought that a visual art like photography might help someone to see again. Originally I thought about making the gift of sight an optional extra, and I’d make a less expensive version of the book so you could choose.
But that didn’t feel quite right. Somehow this does. This might mean that I end up with more books than I need. Or it might not. The exercise made me realise that the Full Catastrophe was all about running towards the flames. Of course with petrol the way it is, and when butter costs over $10, I’ve made things harder on both of us. But what a gift you’ll have. And what a gift this will be.
