Category Archives: Photography

TOM HUTCHINS: SEEN IN CHINA 1956
Edited by John B. Turner. Chinese translation by Han Niu.

Published by Turner PhotoBooks, Auckland/Beijing in collaboration with PhotoForum Inc, Auckland, NZ, 2016 as Photoforum issue 86.

English and Chinese text

This bi-lingual book was produced to coincide with the debut exhibition of photographs made in China 60 years ago by the pioneering New Zealand photojournalist and photographic educator, Tom Hutchins (1921-2007), presented at the 2016 Pingyao International Photography Festival.

‘On the platform there are many people waiting to cross the other way, waiting for the train back to Hong Kong. . … Continue reading →

Stomp book cover

STOMP
Jon Carapiet

The photographs in STOMP, taken in Europe, India and Egypt since 2014, respond to the destruction of cultural identity and historical sites tracing back millennia, and today manifested by events from Bamiyan to Palmyra. STOMP explores themes of photographic portraiture and ‘the gaze’ in the context of destruction, questioning how we connect and identify with the other.

Since his first installation ‘Headlines’ in 1994 which featured images of a screaming Princess Diana and Prince Charles appropriated from the tabloid media, Jon Carapiet’s work has dealt with humanitarian and global themes as well as issues around … Continue reading →

BRAINWASH-INGTON DC: A 1982 PHOTOGRAPHIC ‘ON THE ROAD’
Stuart Page

It features photographs Page took on a 6 month journey around USA that he made soon after his graduation from Ilam School of Fine Arts, where Shustak taught. It was an ambitious undertaking, funded by the NZ government arts council, and a rare opportunity for him to take his learning from the school into practice on the streets of where the art came from. Page says, in his introduction to the original exhibition of the resulting photographs in 1984:

“The most exciting and relative communication seemed … Continue reading →

AMERICAN LANDSCAPE: SHUSTAK USA 1960–1971

This publication showcases photographs made by Larence Shustak before he left USA in 1973 to establish the photography department at the School of Fine Arts in Christchurch, New Zealand.

Shustak was part of an early ferment on the East Coast of the emerging awareness of photography as an independent tool of art, self-expression and social engagement, existing outside of the mainstream picture magazines and commercial studios. American Landscape samples Shustak’s early experiments, commissions and personal projects that reflect an evolving sense of a time in transition, seen through the artist’s … Continue reading →

Old New World

Posted on by

Old New World book cover

OLD NEW WORLD
Mary Macpherson

Mary Macpherson spent seven years traveling New Zealand to photograph change in New Zealand reflected in small towns, recording the old, the derelict, the ready-made symbol and moneyed development. Old New World is a quality hardback with a dust jacket and 62 images across 96 pages. It also features an interview between Mary and noted art writer/curator, Gregory O’Brien.

“I worked on the project for several years – making journeys around the country whenever I could – photographing, and then spending long periods thinking about what I was doing. The photographs feature buildings, houses, statues and murals to tell the story of a shift from the remains of the traditional New Zealand of the 1950s and 60s to places of boom and prosperity that look very different to our remembered past. Within that narrative arc, the work also shows the major social and economic trends I saw  – towns painting up the main street to attract custom and celebrate their identity, places that remained resolutely themselves and those that were heading into decline.
I became fascinated with the artworks, promotions and murals that have sprung up and which refer to national or regional history, or slices of New Zealand identity. I wanted to show how we were representing ourselves and how those representations sat in their surroundings.

marymacphoto.wordpress.com/about/old-new-world/

Lopdell House Gallery
ISBN 9780987659712
96pp, Hardcover, 62 col. ill
Published as PhotoForum Issue 81
ISSN 01110411

BETWEEN THE SILENCE AND THE FLAME
Allan McDonald

“The Silent Generation is defined by people born between 1925 and 1945, who had come to maturity as I was growing up. Raised under the dictum of being seen but not heard, and affected by war and economic depression, they have been described as focused on financial security and more politically compliant than other generations. Putting aside the problematics of generational stereotyping, by the time I reached the age of 18 the silence was not so loud and multiple voices of diversity and dissent were becoming more audible. These photographs, … Continue reading →

A SPOONFUL OF SUGAR
Ann Shelton

Photographs, texture, historical documents and a fictional short story weave a book about a house, in the suburb of Wilton in Wellington, New Zealand.

“I moved in to this house amid stories about its commissioner, a trail-blazing woman and the one responsible for bringing the woodwind instrument, the recorder, to New Zealand. The narrative of her and her architect’s lives struck me as still critical and relevant today as we pull down the metaphorical garage door on refugee access to New Zealand and as we uncover and foreground the unnoticed roles … Continue reading →

Selective Exposure cover

SELECTIVE EXPOSURE
Limited edition exhibition catalogue

Reflecting back on the last quarter century, so much has changed. Technologies emerged that fundamentally altered the way we do things, the methods by which we gather and disseminate information, and how we communicate. This last quarter century is notable for the technological restructuring of photography by digital processes that now dominate the industry (Photoshop 1.0 was launched 19 February 1990). Less perceptible, but perhaps more important, are shifts in values attached to things and ideas, like art, education, institutions, their ideologies.

This exhibition samples images from recent projects by photographers who … Continue reading →

Te Atatu Me: Photographs of an urban New Zealand village by John B Turner

Te Atatu Me: photographs of an urban New Zealand village
John B. Turner. Historical essay by Grant Cole.

PhotoForum Inc, Auckland and Turner PhotoBooks, Auckland/Beijing, 2015.
Produced with the support of Creative New Zealand.

Now available through Rim Books: info@rimbooks.com

Te Atatu Me: photographs of an urban New Zealand village is a personal portrait of West Auckland’s Te Atatu Peninsula by John B. Turner, the noted New Zealand photographer, teacher and editor of PhotoForum.

Recorded over a seven year period from 2005 to 2011, Turner’s documentary photographs celebrate the character and pulse of … Continue reading →

PhotoForum at 40

PHOTOFORUM AT 40
Counterculture, Clusters, and Debate in New Zealand

Nina Seja

Rim Books is pleased to announce the release of PhotoForum at 40: Counterculture, Clusters, and Debate in New Zealand by Nina Seja. In this richly illustrated publication, art historian Nina Seja gives an illuminating account of the communities, relationships, and events that have shaped PhotoForum’s first forty years, and charts the development of photographic art in New Zealand during this time.

PhotoForum Inc. is a not-for-profit Society dedicated to the promotion of photography as a means of communication and expression. Acting as an intellectual and … Continue reading →