The golden age of state houses - a podcast by RNZ

When photographer David Cook started taking pictures of his neighbours in a characterful Hamilton East state housing suburb back in the 1990s, nobody realised that gentrification was about to strike. The 90s weren't so long ago, but in some ways it's like another world. What was once affordable housing is no longer so, and the neighbourhood is very different to the characters and chaos David documented. The original photographs are about to go on show at the New Zealand Portrait Gallery and in a book. Both are called Jellicoe and Bledisloe after two of the suburb's street names. David tells Lynn Freeman that he hopes they'll help him to track down some of the people he photographed at the time. Jellicoe and Bledisloe: Hamilton in the 90s opens on Wednesday at the New Zealand Portrait Gallery in Wellington and will be heading out on tour starting at Waikato Museum.

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