When I started out in photography 25 years ago I was wide-eyed, optimistic and idealistic. I dreamt of a life of freedom and went off chasing it, camera in hand and tins of film ready to be bulk loaded and shown the world. Someone said to me around the start of my journey that to really be rich I first had to know how to be happy with nothing. I took that literally and spent years eating noodles and mooching the coastline with no fixed abode. Happy? Yes.
So last week when I bumped into Joshua St Clair perched on the edge of the coast with his keyboard, amp and camera recording a song he’d composed himself, there was something eerily familiar about him.
“I’m just out and about exploring the coastline and looking for a nice spot and I found the perfect one,” he laughs screwing his hat on and surveying the horizon. “That’s what I do – just find the perfect little nook and film a video for one of my songs there.”
Josh is 21, originally from Auckland, more recently from Queenstown and now he calls Dunedin home. He’s working hard to capture films to go with his compositions and hopes to use them to tell his story.
“I’m trying to build my online presence, mainly through YouTube,” he explains. “Trying to present my music and share it in a beautiful way with the scenery of the South island. It’s so magical here and from the day I first moved to Queenstown I just wanted to share it with the world and through my music.”
“I’m still struggling to get followers,” he admits. “But I don’t really care too much about that. Right now it's a lifestyle that I love to do.”
“I post on my blog and on Facebook and Instagram and have about 30 people who are actually consistently reading my blogs. That makes me happy,” he laughs. “Even though it is only 30 people, I’m happy.”
Playing to the clouds and waves is not the only musical escape for Joshua, he also plays in a punk, grunge band called Sheep.
“We started in Auckland City, but then went our different ways for various reasons, so we were kind of done,” he shares. “But because we were still good buddies it was easy to come together and play a gig when we all ended up in Dunedin. That gig, at the Crown Hotel, was awesome. So following that we did a tour the length of New Zealand at the start of this year and that was such an epic journey. We have an EP release coming up soon and we’re just starting out really.”
“I play bass on the keyboard, which is cool because I can add my own spin musically to the bass and it’s a lot of fun. I play piano of course, but I don’t like to class myself on any instrument. I like to class myself as a musician or even just as a human being trying to express himself. That comes through in music quite potently so that’s what I do a lot of.”
He said the tour, that took him from Auckland to Dunedin, felt like a journey home.
“We arrived here and played one of the sickest gigs of the tour and it just felt like, ‘hey, honey, I’m home’.”
“I didn’t know why at the time, but I considered the Sheep band tour to be like a pilgrimage,” he reflects. “So when I arrived in Dunedin it felt like I had arrived home. I also discovered a spiritual practise here called Falun Dafa – which is an amazing spiritual practise that takes elements from Buddhism and Darwinism. It’s a cultivation system – about cultivating good character in your heart and mind. It’s about enlightening yourself to higher truths. I found that in Dunedin and found what I love to do here also.”
As good as his lifestyle was, he said he still hadn’t worked out how to make it pay.
“Financially I’m struggling. It was my decision to go into this year and put 100% into this journey, my music and my writing,” he offers with a glance out to sea. “My finances got dwindled down a lot and I have been looking for jobs in hospitality, which I have a qualification in, but haven’t had much luck. I just perceive the knockbacks as a message that I have to keep on my own path here.”
“I feel like it is worth it,” he considers. “We’re human beings and we just want to have fun and enjoy life. That’s my main motive.”
He said he was confident with his plan – to take action whenever he could to progress his work.
“If it’s a good day I need to get out there and shoot a video and write on my blog.”
The blog, which details his journey in music, life and through the South Island, is about 18 months behind schedule.
“I’m writing now about things that happened 18 months ago,” he laughs. “I have to get through my whole Queenstown story before I can move onto my Dunedin story – it builds up into that. It’s a journey and I have to give justice to that full journey. I have to write all the juiciest moments from the Queenstown experience and then I can start to do more videos around Dunedin and put that into the blog and hopefully build a full work of art.”
He pauses and glances sideways at me.
“You’ve actually made me realise that I am actually quite far behind,” he laughs, shaking his head. “I have a lot of work to do.”
His dream is to turn the video blogging and music into something sustainable.
“I feel like it is my purpose to be out here shooting videos, composing and playing music and sharing the beauty of the world with everybody. I think we should all muster that creativity within us and to express that however we can. I’ve found Dunedin to be a place where that can happen. It has that creative energy and there are so many creatives living here and just doing what they love. I’m just latching on to that energy – just one little bubble joining the bigger one and it’s really why I am here to day.”
As he packs up his gear, happy with his take, he thinks about the next location.
“It’s quite a ceremonious journey to get the shot and now I have this one and I have a story to share on my blog. That’s a good day,” he smiles.
You can follow Joshua St Clair right here.
PS The New Zealand Marine Studies Centre at Portobello, Dunedin, is holding a special shark event where you can learn about these amazing creatures. You'll get up close and personal with a 2.5 metre seven-gill shark and learn why it is so important to protect these amazing animals. You may even get a chance to help dissect one that washed up on our beaches recently. More info on the Box of Light community pages right here.
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