Desmond Ahkan

Homage to Home

Bachelor of Design Craft Photography Identity Motion Community engagement

My idea is giving hope and inspiration to Pasifika and Maori creatives/designers from South Auckland through my design work. Using my personalized graffiti marks and grunge style will show others a glimpse of where I come from. I created a video and a picture book that depicts my neighbourhood. My video shows iconic areas that hold sentimental value to me. Majority of the footage captures where I went to school and the areas that meant something to me in my life.

Moving out into city was a personal choice for me to become more independent and to be less reliant on my parents. Being away from home made me think about the places I use to live and being grateful for where I started to where I am now. Days of being homesick, I knew that creating this project about “home” would give me a feeling that I would be closer to home emotionally rather than physically. It made me think about those kids with potential that lack resources and role models. I wanted to be a role model for those kids, so they could look at me and feel confident and comfortable that they could be doing the same thing as me at a university level. Being able to be different and labelled as a "creative".

Images from my visual book that show my home of Otara, Dawson. A glimpse of the range that uses modelling photographs of my brother with writing. You may also find some poems in the book.

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"Fear of God is the beginning of wisdom son"- Mum

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"Before you achieve, you must believe"- Dad

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