mailbox

Mailbox - March 2, 2024.
New Zealand, a land of stunning nature, kiwis, and untamed mailboxes. Traveling around this country and both of its islands, the mailboxes caught my eye. Often, they seemed to be isolated right by the road, to facilitate the postman's work, as the recipient's house is far from the road. I called them "untamed" for several reasons. The first is the shape. Their complete, sometimes crazy, variety. The second is the ingenuity of the assembly – many of them are handmade. The third is the material and technology of production. And finally, they are clearly a special element of New Zealand's material culture. Unfortunately, over the last few years, I've observed the disappearance of a large number of these original artifacts. Due to the aging of the material – weather conditions – these oldies are thrown away and replaced with plastic clichés. The rush of life, the rush to make it easier, makes it a waste of time to build your own personalized, unique cache when you can buy a colorful plastic miracle at the store for just a few dollars.

I didn't always note down the cache's location and registration date – that was a mistake, but the idea of paying more attention to them didn't arise from the beginning. Often, I couldn't stop to take a photo, observing them from the car window. I'm convinced that a dedicated fund and a lot of time could be devoted to systematic work on this topic.