Heroes Villains is an eclectic series of black and white photographs taken by Lloyd Godman from 1979 - 1980 that nudges the idea that there are elements of both actors within each of us. That there is a pendulum that can swing from one dichotomy to another pushed by circumstance.

At the time when the photographs were taken, black-and-white documentary photography was coming of age in New Zealand. Cultural institutions in the country, like art galleries, museums were beginning to take the medium and particularly the documentary genre, seriously. Photographers were working on important issues, and photographs were being exhibited and collected. There was an enthusiasm among photographers that their creative endeavors were becoming valued.

While the taking of photographs is now ubiquitous, the technology available to everyone, and the means to publish on social media ridiculous, the art and skill of photography in the 1970s was quite different and rooted in and understanding of physics and chemistry.

Professional 35mm cameras were quite expensive, and skill was required to use them.

As a new bird might leave the nest, Godman was a fledgling photographer, learning and refining his vision and darkroom skills. Although many of the photographs were enlarged at the time, Heroes Villains was a project that allowed him to develop, but he never exhibited the work.

The digitization of the negatives has afforded him to present the work as a full suite for the first time. But with a film development problem he was also perceptive to abstraction and rather than excluding the image 15, he included it in the series. 

However, he did not focus on candid portraits for long and was moved to direct his creative energy in different a direction the series was a precursor to Landforms series and the iconic The Last Rivers Song series in 1983 - 4.