Author Archives: admin

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 … Continue reading →

River-Road, journeys through ecology

RIVER-ROAD
Journeys Through Ecology
David Cook – photographs
Wiremu Puke – text
Jonty Valentine – design

River/Road takes an intimate look at the environmental, cultural, historical and economic factors that shape the ecology of our immediate environment. The narrative explores regional ecology from a bicultural perspective.
The authors trace a journey, following the parallel arteries of the Waikato River and River Road. The emphasis is on being ‘readers’ of the landscape. The authors bring a number of distinct voices to the project

Jonty Valentine the graphic designer, provokes and navigates the reader through a multi-layered account of … Continue reading →

French place in the bay of islands

THE FRENCH PLACE IN THE BAY OF ISLANDS
Essays from Pompallier’s Printery

Edited by Kate Martin and Brad Mercer

The building, known today as Pompallier, is New Zealand’s sole surviving pioneer mission printery of
 any denomination. In 1841 printing presses and plant arrived from France at the Roman Catholic headquarters in Kororareka Russell. This impressive and elegant, two-storied French colonial building was completed in 1842 to house a print workshop and has been a landmark feature of the Bay of Islands ever since.

The seemingly disparate subjects presented in this book 
by authors from such a range … Continue reading →

A Man Walks Out of a Bar, Lucien Rizos

A MAN WALKS OUT OF A BAR…
Lucien Rizos: New Zealand Photographs 1979 –1982
Essays by Damian Skinner and Ian Wedde

‘These photographs come from a very specific time in New Zealand history’, says Rizos. ‘The New Zealand I lived through then may feel like a different planet to a younger generation now, people who did not live through the Muldoon era and the trauma of Rogernomics. But there are themes that bind the different periods together. Even though New Zealand may look very different now, I feel it is still fundamentally the same place that it was … Continue reading →

The Passing world, the passage of life

THE PASSING WORLD
THE PASSAGE OF LIFE: John Hovell and the Art of Kowhaiwhai
Damian Skinner


Winner Illustrated Non Fiction – NZ Post Book Award 2011

Kōwhaiwhai, argues John Hovell, is about process, a shorthand summary of the passage of life, and a space within the whare whakairo (decorated meeting house) for the Māori artist to express his wry and droll view of human nature. It is, for coastal Ngāti Porou, an expression of an intimate relationship with the coastal environment and its resources, a lexicon of patterns created in the nineteenth century from close observation of … Continue reading →

Sightseeing, Hanna Scott, Ann Shelton

SIGHTSEEING

Hanna Scott and
Ann Shelton ed.

This new publication heralds a distinctive and unusual format for an exhibition. The book, Sightseeing is a box set of 90 concertina folding postcards which unpacks to create an innovative touring photography exhibition

Project curator Hanna Scott describes the way in which, “the postcards literally become the exhibition, unsettling the way that we traditionally use postcards to venerate the landscape, because these sites are not typical tourist sites.”
She continues, “the project is important because it highlights the way that artists travel and make research. Their images … Continue reading →

Field guide to camera species, Darren Glass

A FIELD GUIDE TO CAMERA SPECIES
Darren Glass

The definitive 114 page chronological guide to the 90 pinhole and slit cameras built by Darren Glass since 1990

Includes a glossary and technical section on how to make your own pinhole camera.

“Darren Glass has a growing reputation as one of New Zealand’s most imaginative photographers. His first book, A Field Guide to Camera Species, is hot off the press and proves that he is also our most innovative camera maker. Never content with just the one-point perspective of the typical pinhole camera, despite the seemingly infinite depth … Continue reading →

Bold Centuries, Haruhiko Sameshima

BOLD CENTURIES
PHOTOGRAPHIC HISTORY ALBUM
Haruhiko Sameshima

With essays by: Kyra Macfarlane, Ingrid Horrocks, John Wilson, Tim Corbalis, Aaron Lister, Damian Skinner, Fiona Amundsen and Claudia Bell

Bold Centuries is an artist’s book by Haruhiko Sameshima – artist/photographer based in Auckland. This collage-like book is made-up of his original photographs together with found historical images and texts, both commissioned and found in history books and the Internet. It serves as an engaging and poetic introduction to Sameshima’s longstanding exploration of photography as myth – a skewed tour guide and time machine, taking the reader on a … Continue reading →

Empire, Gavin Hipkins

EMPIRE
Gavin Hipkins
Essay by Daniel Palmer,
“For Anton Lock, 1893-1971”

Publication launched on the occasion of Gavin Hipkins‘ exhibition Second Empire at Lopdell House Gallery, Titirangi (14th February-13th April 2008) during the completion of the McCahon residency at French Bay, Auckland (December 2007-February 2008)

“Gavin Hipkins’ Empire series employs the artist’s well-known technique of contrasting two photographically based images within the one photo-montage.

Wood engravings by renowned English illustrator Anton Lock are enlarged using a negative form and then juxtaposed with contemporary urban patches (embroidered tapestry decals intended for sewing onto clothing). This process … Continue reading →

The Sanctuary, Gavin Hipkins

THE SANCTUARY
Gavin Hipkins

The Sanctuary is a travelogue of sorts that reveals a range of very different sites. The sequence begins with three images taken in royal parks in London – the first a slow-incline exterior stone staircase and a row of trees running parallel out from the edge of the steps. This is an anchoring image, in a way a declaration of intent. The steps lead up to the (brightly re-gilded) memorial statue erected by Queen Victoria to her husband Prince Albert in Kensington Gardens. Hipkins has chosen to avoid the ‘money shot’ of the Victorian … Continue reading →