finds inspiration in streetscapes close to home

distractingly good harbour views. He and wife Chrissie insist the outlook is not what drew them to buy the place, but they are content they made the move from the city. “We’ve been well settled – since we first arrived,” says Max.

They recall driving up the street by chance and spotting an open home. What sealed the deal was when they wandered down Victoria Rd for a cup of coffee to realise “it was all here… a movie theatre, a supermarket… everything you need.”

Originally from Whanganui, Thomson moved to Auckland in his teens and after a few years as a rock’n’roll musician found a longer-term creative calling as a professional photographer. “When I was at school they always said I would be an artist.”

Although he always sketched, it wasn’t until he was well into his 50s that the now 77-yearold took up the brushes.

“My son’s paints from when he was at school were always sitting down in the basement. I said I would pick them up one day”

After he heard an item on the radio about trying something rather than waiting for inspiration to strike, he says: “I started and never stopped. I think I should have been painting all the time.”

But he enjoyed his 35 years behind the lens, including shoots on the first issues of Fashion Quarterly magazine and being a co-founder of Cha Cha magazine, with Rip It Up editor Murray Cammick. After two years of juggling working on that influential independent magazine, he focused more on paying gigs, leaving Cha Cha with Cammick and stylist and editor Ngila Dickson, who went on to win an Academy Award for costume design.

“It was such a great time,” Thomson recalls of the 1980s. Auckland was finding its fashion feet, with independent designer labels able to operate at a smaller scale than is now possible. He remembers going to Japan for a shoot on the same flight as Elisabeth and Neville Findlay, who founded Zambesi, and with future international top model Angela Dunn.

A retrospective exhibition of Thomson’s fashion photography was held at Whitespace gallery in 2009, and his shots feature in New Zealand fashion history book The Dress Circle

Since embracing painting full-time, Thomson has had a series of solo shows at city galleries. He has painted portraits, but it is the natural world to which he remains most drawn. He uses acrylics and prefers his work to explain itself, but he thinks it appeals to a range of ages, adding “it’s not modern and hip”.

Watching visitors to the village do as he does – snap photos on their phones – underlines for him how unique Devonport is.

“It shouldn’t be mucked around with,” he says. He believes the heritage character – a ready-made tourist attraction – needs safeguarding. “Any suggestion of putting up three-storeys is criminal.”

• The Walk exhibition runs from 29 April to 30 May at Depot Artspace, 28 Clarence St.