Behind the lens: Robert Kitchin

Friday, 15 January 2021

In the fourth instalment in our series on 2020’s best photos from Stuff’s five Wellington visual journalists, we turn the lens back on Robert Kitchin, our photographer based at Parliament.

This was a portrait of James Shaw marking five years as Greens co-leader. I basically got him to stand by the window. There’s a lot of symbolism going on with how he’s part of Government, as represented by the Beehive, but he’s also separated from it. And the dark cloud coming in is also a metaphor for the upcoming election and his falling numbers. The fact Labour were doing so well in the preferred polls, it’s almost like he knew there was a landslide, and he could be out because Labour would be able to govern alone. He thought he was a bit of a playmaker. It was all about that dark cloud coming in.

I did some close-ups of his face and him sitting with a green background, standard portraits. But then I got him to stand by the window. It just looks very like he’s actually a wee bit worried about his future, even though that wasn’t the context of it at the time.

When you strip the colour out of the photo, you’re more looking at the context of things. There’s no timeframe, there’s no colour to distract you. Having the Beehive in the background is like he is in Government – he was at that time – but he’s also held off, pushed to the side a wee bit. He’s a coalition partner, but he’s not actually got an office in the Beehive, which is the executive wing. This is at his office in Bowen House. He’s part of the mix but not in the top office. His eyeline is on it, too.

I’ve photographed him before, not that any of them really get to know me. I don’t really get to know these people very well. Every time I see or photograph them individually it’s like you’re meeting them for the first time again. There’s a thousand first-time meetings. He actually had a skateboard that his wife gave him that was on the wall up here. I said, “Do you skateboard? That’s interesting” – making small talk. They’re pretty good, they let you pose them into certain ways. But they’re also very conscious about their image.

Shaw seems like a nice guy. But I don’t want to know the politicians, because I don’t want to be influenced by whatever. They are nice people in general, and I think people forget that they’re people. I treat them all the same, with a certain amount of respect. But I don’t necessarily want to be coloured by anything. I wouldn’t want to be buddy-buddies with them and always have to take a good, nice shot of them.

This photo of Winston Peters was taken at the start of the election, on the last day of the House sitting. The election was put back because of Covid, so this was the last time to get the politicians. It was starting to look like Winston wasn’t going to be making it. Labour was leading in the polls. Even National wasn’t doing too great. But this photo is interesting because the environment resembles a chessboard. This is where the politicians go every day, it’s called “the tiles” – it’s where they walk from their main offices to the House. They always get stopped by journalists. For Winston to be literally in the spotlight at this time, they basically knew he was failing. He’s always considered himself the kingmaker. And if you look at it like a chessboard, he’s actually in the king’s position and swarmed by pawns, who in this photo are the journalists.

Winston puts himself in this position where he’s like, “I am the king”. He has held back a lot of things just because he was deputy prime minister. He had a massive influence over Ihumātao. There’s been a lot of things he just said “no” and it hasn’t happened. Now Labour’s in, they get to do everything they want. He was basically starting to become irrelevant at that point. People loved the way Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern handled the entire Covid thing, so there was no place left for him anywhere, nowhere left for him to go. It’s literally a checkmate situation.

It’s also ironic because he’s used media as pawns in the past. Chess, the power plays – I chose this photo because of that symbolism. All of these photos are symbolic of something more. It’s a little mini-drama in itself. It looks like some sort of TV studio set. It’s strange. It also looks like he’s commanding these figures around him as this Messiah-type figure, so they can listen to what he has to say. He’s been around a long time, and he’s a statesman. But at the end of the day, he’s in the king’s position but he really doesn’t have that power any more. It’s very Shakespearian.

This is Ashley Bloomfield, who was basically the hero of the nation during Covid. Everyone saw him, everyone’s used to him. People were getting tattoos, there was a lot of religious symbolism. He was finishing up a daily Covid-19 press conference and walking out. I had set up a flash way up in the roof and just waited for him to come past. He’s walking past the four pillars into a ray of light but it’s just the Beehive theatrette.

I purposely knew that was the shot I wanted to get, I was testing the light all the way through his talk. All he had to do basically was walk through. I just positioned myself and waited. I took about two to three frames, and that’s the shot. It does look very religious. It’s like “Saint Ashley”. I’ve photographed him heaps after that, but that’s a very heroic shot.

He was the comforting face to thousands of people watching him every day. He was essentially a celebrity. I don’t like the term celebrity, though. He’s a figure of national importance. I think the word celebrity demeans his actual stature. That’s like Kim Kardashian, any actor who doesn’t really have a life-and-death role. Bloomfield is literally trying to save people’s lives by implementing certain policies. But somebody getting the tattoo, it just shows you he was elevated to this saintly level. It looks like a ray of God coming down, it’s very classical.

This was a portrait of all the women in the new Labour caucus. Everyone who made it into Parliament was having their official portraits taken on the main steps by a contracted professional photographer and so it was a good opportunity for media to go out and get a shot, too. I think it’s all of them, I’m assuming everyone was there. Jacinda Ardern, Nanaia Mahuta, Megan Woods – all the big names were there.

It was just funny how it was juxtaposed with the male caucus members standing off to the side. They’re almost pushed off to the side in their grey and black suits. There’s all this colour over on the right with the women, yet the men are just in these boring outfits.

The big group shot is what you’re expected to photograph. But my job is to look for something slightly different. I just found that scene was really interesting. People were chilling out before the photo, getting ready but you’ve still got this separation and a stark contrast.

With politics, people aren’t so indoctrinated or obsessive here like the Americans. America is next level, cult-like almost. But it’s still a bit of theatre here. Out of all the pictures I took this year, I’ve chosen these four as quite theatrical pieces. And more so with the symbolism and the metaphors that go along with them.

I think people are tired of 2020 and want to get on with 2021, but 2021 will still have the same issues. It’ll be about the recovery. But there will be a whole new set of issues coming up, there will be new things happening. You just continue the cycle.

Everyone says 2020 has been a horrible year, but overall I think people are getting too down on it. It hasn’t been the best year, but it’s not necessarily the worst year in history. Being based at the press gallery in Parliament is a good opportunity to be focused on the one story that is every story – because everything comes down to some sort of politics. You’re just focused on one part of absolutely everything. If we’re talking about child poverty, it’s “what are these guys doing?” White Island, the mosque shootings, Covid, all the bad things and the good things come back here in some form or fashion, to covering that side of things, showing a human face to “the Government”, “the man”.

People know politicians in a very superficial way. You get to see what they want you to see sometimes. There will be a lot of people who say “I hate Jacinda” or “I hate Judith”. She’s a perfectly nice enough person, she’s just trying to do certain things. There’s the balance. Not everyone’s going to be happy with their decisions. Sometimes they’re human, and they f… up.