"Andrew Ross’s photographs remember the forgotten. In his work he resembles one of those socially marginal figures scouring rubbish dumps, finding a value in the things everyone else has thrown away. Ironically, in the sustainability project such figures may yet become cultural heroes. Ross’s geiger-counter is tuned for crud and he habitually haunts abandoned and neglected habitats, his images registering these often melancholy spaces, still suffused with human presence.

Forgetting may be more a casual process than remembering, but often it may have just as much point and be pursued with equal determination. This can range from the darkly psychological to the plainly material – the current enthusiasm for domesticup-grading and the popularity of garden make-overs are just aspects of this latter. Improvements have their downside, and while the lifestyle magazines gleam with the new the planet groans with the increasing burden of the discarded. The shiny
wrapper conceals some grim contents indeed.

Personally, Ross may be disquieted by this, but his work isn’t merely a protestagainst it. It’s a richer compost of human history and habitation that suggests more than just waste" Peter Ireland in catalogue accompanying the exhibition "Round & About Wanganui: 72 Photographic Studies by Andrew Ross". Published by Sarjeant Art Gallery in 2010. Pg 3.

Ronald Hugh Morrieson was a novelist and short story writer who was little known in NZ until after his death. He earned his living as a musician and music teacher and played in dance bands throughout South Taranaki. He lived in Hawera in the same house all his life and the town featured in his novels. He wrote 4 novels including Came a Hot Friday in 1964 and all of his novels were adapted into film. His house was located on the corner of Regent Street and South Road in Hawera and was demolished to make way for a KFC outlet in the early 1990's.