Street art captures photographic history of city district

Turning negatives into positives is what people in Christchurch do best, as showcased by a reel of photographs captured in the city’s newest street art.

The mural is made up of four photos painted in sepia tones – but take a photo of it on a smartphone and invert it, and the colours develop on the screen, flooding the brown photographic negatives with hues of blue.

Running the length of a 40-metre laneway between SALT Square and St Asaph St, the piece was painted by renowned Kiwi street artist graffiti

The mural runs the length of a 40-metre laneway. writer Guy Ellis, known as Dcypher, with help from Jacob Yikes and Ikarus.

Ellis is also part of street art collective Oi YOU!, which created the large O¯ tautahi mural around the corner, in Evolution Square. It is animated at night by a laser projector.

Oi YOU! founder George Shaw said they wanted to create something innovative to fit with the area’s reputation as one of the city’s most creative districts – something that would ‘‘wow people’’.

The name SALT uses the first letters of its bordering streets – St Asaph, Lichfield and Tuam – but is also a nod to the area being ‘‘south alternative’’. ‘‘The area has such a rich history and we wanted to celebrate this in the mural,’’ he said.

The district was home to Christchurch’s first freshwater well, New Zealand’s first escalator, and an early music playing machine – certified by Thomas Edison – was designed and produced there. Trams were also built in the area and early cars for the South Island were assembled there.

Hutchinson Motors has operated in the area for nearly 100 years, and furniture manufacturer and retailer AJ White’s, later merged into McKenzie & Willis, was there from 1870 until it moved in 2011.

Historical images of these businesses have been included in the artworks.