Through The Kitchen Window

'Gold Dust Woman'


'Yellow Submarine'


'Crocodile Rock'


'Nostalgia'


'Cinnamon Girl'


'Sunny'


'Hotel California'


'Keep On Truckin'


'Crimson And Clover'


'Through The Kitchen Window'


'Brown Sugar'

'Through The Kitchen Window'
Travel back to the 70s through the funkiest retro homes, cars and corners in Wellington!

It's finally here, the fully refined and oh-so 70's collection that has been in the works for most of the year. 'Through The Kitchen Window' has been blossoming ever since my first 2019 collection came out, 'Shirley's House'. I was hit with a wave of inspiration after spending a few days at my 96-year-old great grandmothers' house, an absolute 70's time capsule. Everything about the 70's had me hooked and I knew I wanted my next collection to be bright, colourful, funky and very retro.

My first shoot was at the cutest little house in Lyall Bay, a place that my Mum took me to, and amazingly I was allowed to take photos. It was small and very kitsch, with bright lime and canary yellow walls. The yellow Formica table and orange and green kitchen cabinets were just a snippet of this house full of funky treasures. I was dreadfully sick with a cold at the time and forced myself to charge my battery and lug my camera along to the house at an open home later in the day. Everything about this place was a photo waiting to be taken. This first location definitely set the new collection off to a good start and gave me a distinct colour palette to work in. My favourite image from the shoot is in 'Crocodile Rock', the little chilli plant against the green stripey picket fence.

For a while after that I was a little lost with where I wanted these photos to go, I knew I needed more material but had no clue where I would find it. I had my Mum on the lookout for homes that she or her colleagues might be selling. But I was far too picky and when there was a suitable location, some tenants didn't want the contents of their home photographed by a strange 17-year-old girl, fair enough.

So, on a whim I decided to go for a walk around my suburb at sunset, hauling my camera along with me and my schnauzer dog to keep me company. The way that the pinky blue sky illuminated the buildings and houses on my street, it was as if I was seeing them for the first time. So I started clicking. Then I ventured down smaller side-streets and discovered that this light would reflect off windows and curtains in such a way that created the most glorious warm glow. I felt like a creep, peering through strangers windows with my lense. I hoped that Jock the dog made me look slightly less suspicious. This is when I decided on the name for my collection, 'Through The Kitchen Window'.

Several months passed and I took the odd picture in town, a bright green building, a funky old sofa in The Salvation Army or the retro lights in Aro Video. I was constantly on the lookout for my next shoot location and I had my 'photo eyes' peeled at all times. Because I like to pair two images together to create my final work, it means collecting a lot of material. I'll play around with pairings and colour combinations for hours, until I even start to confuse myself. I'm also a perfectionist, so if one shade of orange doesn't quite match, I'll scrap it. This created a rather frustrating time period of switching and swatching as I tried to create my final pairings. I was really happy with the images I was creating, but I felt like the story I was trying to tell didn't have its perfect ending just yet.

Then, about two weeks ago I discovered Steph's kitchen. The most glorious little 70's kitchen with bright floral wallpaper, orange cabinets and a green mini fridge. This was the final piece of the puzzle and 'Through The Kitchen Window' was complete.

I spent the last few days doing my final re-arrangements and re-edits, then my favourite part of the process, coming up with names for each piece. I knew that I wanted to go down the 60's and 70's theme for the titles, fun little play on words or phrases that people would recognize. So I spent hours delving into google for the smash hits of the 70's and well-known TV shows from the swinging 60's.
I had so much fun with this and I love the final titles, my personal favourites are 'Keep On Truckin', for obvious reasons and 'Crocodile Rock' because the shades of green in this pairing remind me of a cartoon crocodile, so it was very suited.

Overall, I'm so pleased with these final images and I can't wait to see them in print. I have a super exciting show in the works at the moment, I'll speak more about that in the next few weeks. Although I feel that 'Through The Kitchen Window' is a story that has finally earned its perfect ending, I would love to explore this theme and style more. The 60's and 70's are still huge inspirations for me and I want to continue exploring and discovering more hidden gems throughout Wellington.
I'd love to hear your thoughts and feedback on this new series, or if you have any questions about purchasing these prints, flick me an email at bellafosterblog@gmail.com.

Bella 🌼