P hotographer Bill Irwin (8764) found his focus at Christ’s College, capturing life through a student’s lens in the 1970s. He later put aside his camera to take over the busy family farm before a shock discovery brought an old passion back into view. Arriving in 1973 as a Richards House boarder, Bill was “a country kid from a small rural school” – with a love of photography – who lived on a large, dryland mixed cropping farm between Rokeby and Barrhill on the Canterbury Plains. Bill, 62, recalls the initial “culture shock” of College, having to fit in with boys from various prep schools and deal with the House seniority system. “Within hours of arrival, I had been commandeered by a 6th Former to go down to the Boat Sheds and buy him a packet of cigarettes.” However, he quickly found his place, making the most of any opportunities to share his skills in photography – a hobby since age 10. “I was absorbed by the idea of being able to freeze a moment in time, as well as the tools and techniques involved,” Bill explains. “I taught myself the skills needed to develop and print rolls of film from my mother’s 1940s-era camera. There was an abandoned house on the farm, and I covered the kitchen windows and used it for a darkroom. I would often hear rustling noises when processing
film in the dark, only to turn the lights back on and find a rat or two eyeballing me.” At College, Bill joined the camera club – appreciating the support of Teacher-in-Charge Frank Andrews – and acquired more camera gear as a contributor to Register . Fellow Richards House student David Kirkpatrick became the Register editor, with the pair setting up stories and images. While Bill enjoyed Science – particularly Physics with Michael Fogden and Biology with Zane Dalzell – it proved “fortuitous to have Peter Smart as a teacher” for English. “He recognised my interest in photography and encouraged it, using my images in the Let’s Learn English textbooks he wrote,” Bill says. “He also published a booklet – People Close to Home – of my photography of people around the Square as a class resource. It was published through the school and based on photos around Christchurch. They are now quite a fascinating look back in time.” Apart from photography, his most enjoyable time was on the water, rowing for the top eight crew for three years. He still uses an indoor rower, taking to the ‘water’ most mornings – with nearly 3 million metres clocked up in the past two years. On leaving College, Bill went to Lincoln College (now Lincoln University), completing a four- year Bachelor of Science in
Above: The Quad under snow.
“I was absorbed by the idea of being able to freeze a moment in time, as well as the tools and techniques involved.”
COLLEGE 2022
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