A diverse and vibrant exhibition by 49 photographers, the PhotoForum Members’ Show 2018 opens 10 April at Studio 541, Mt Eden, Auckland.
Swann Auction House, New York: Iconic Images & Photobooks
Icons & Images: Photographs & Photobooks is the next scheduled auction (15 Feb 2018) at Swann Galleries Auction House in New York. The sale (#2466) includes numerous iconic images alongside lesser known works deserving of more attention. Photographers include Edward Steichen, Alfred Stieglitz, Lewis Hine and many others.
You can view the full selection via their online catalogue or 3D catalogue.
Anna Miles Gallery, Auckland: ‘Flying Carpet’ group exhibition
Flying Carpet
Runs until Saturday 23 December at 3pm.
ANNA MILES GALLERY
10/30 Upper Queen Street, Auckland 1010, New Zealand
Open Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays 11-3 and/or anytime by appointment (phone 021 471047)
www.annamilesgallery.com
The current exhibition – Flying Carpet is an end of year cornucopia complete with works from 1979 to 2017; vintage photographs, watercolours, jewels made of muka lace, paintings, limited edition artists’ books and agateware teapots. Artists are Adrienne Vaughan, Joanna Campbell & Rowan Panther, Vita Cochran, Octavia Cook, Cat Fooks, Allan McDonald, Solomon Mortimer & Zahra Killeen-Chance, Amelia Pascoe, Lucien Rizos, Kate Small, Richard Stratton, Amber Wilson.
As part of the exhibition we launched Solomon Mortimer and Zahra Killeen-Chance’s new book, Many things were not in the fantasy. Made in Taipei, during Zahra’s residency there earlier this year, the book is pocket size with a discreet navy blue leatherette cover. Set within are 200 pages documenting three years since Mortimer and Killeen-Chance first surveyed their romance in another small book made in Taipei, When the sun sets your eyes change colour (I hope this is true). Many portraits feature, from the tender to the hilarious – . . . and many dressing gowns.
Available from the Gallery, $50 a copy. To reserve a copy call Anna 021 471047
Available from the Gallery, $50 a copy. To reserve a copy call Anna 021 471047
The exhibition also includes 2 recent Allan McDonald publications, Carbon Empire (2017) and Between the silence and the flame (2016) and 5 vintage photographs from the period of Lucien Rizos’ A man walks out of a bar: New Zealand photographs 1979-1982.
Installation image by Sam Hartnett.
From Many things were not in the fantasy book by Solomon Mortimer & Zahra Killeen-Chance.
From Many things were not in the fantasy book by Solomon Mortimer & Zahra Killeen-Chance.
Installation image by Sam Hartnett (of Lucien Rizos photographic prints).
Image by Lucien Rizos, Cafe Invercargill, 1982.
Whitecliffe College of Arts and Design: Moving Spaces Symposium with keynote presentation by Cristobal Palma
Acclaimed architectural and urban landscape photographer and filmmaker Cristobal Palma will be speaking in Auckland.
Cristobal Palma will present the keynote presentation at the MOVING SPACES SYMPOSIUM
Fri 22 Sept, 6.00pm
Whitecliffe College of Arts & Design
24 Balfour Road, Parnell
Auckland, 1052
New Zealand
Cristobal Palma is an architectural photographer and filmmaker based in Santiago, Chile where he founded Estudio Palma.
Palma studied at the Architectural Association (AA) in London before practicing as a photographer focused primarily on architecture and urban landscapes. His editorial work includes commissions for: Monocle, Wire, The New York Times and Domus.
Selected solo exhibitions include Paisajes locales, AFA Gallery, Santiago (2009); Espacio continuo, AFA Gallery, Santiago, curated by Camilo Yañez (2012); Espacio continuo, ZavaletaLab, Buenos Aires (2013); Punto de vista, Galeria Tajamar, Santiago (2014); Espacio Continuo, Museo de Arte Contemporaneo, Santiago (2014); Construcción, Galeria XS, Santiago (2015).
In 2010 Palma began to produce short architectural films and his work has been shown in Canada, Colombia, Portugal and Italy. In 2012 Palma’s film work was presented at the Chile Pavilion at the 13th Venice Architecture Biennale: CANCHA. In 2013 his film Piling Up won ‘Best Architecture Short Film’ at ArqFilmFest in Santiago, Chile.
Moving Spaces is an interdisciplinary symposium that will bring together academics, practitioners and researchers to address the expanded field of architectural filmmaking
Sat 23 Sept, 9.30am – 5.00pm (at same location)
Symposium Speakers:
Louise Mackenzie – Cinecity Architectural Film Project, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia
‘Abject Nature: Haunting the modern city in Jacques Tati’s Play Time’
Dr Andrew Denton – Head of Department: Postgraduate Studies at the School of Art and Design, at Auckland University of Technology, and a director at AUT’s App Lab.
‘Imperceptible Entities of Enormous Finitude: Cinematic Affects and Anthropocenic Cities’
Chris Brown + Dawid Wisniewski – senior visualisers, Warren & Mahoney Architects, Auckland, New Zealand
‘The Art of Visualisation from Virtual Reality to Architectural Film’
Professor Thomas Mical – Head of School, School of Art and Design, Faculty of Design and Creative Technologies, Auckland University of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand
‘Architecture for Panoramic Hypermodernity’
Both the keynote talk and symposium and screening are free to attend but registration is necessary.
Places can be booked here:
Cristobal Palma keynote talk – Fri 22 Sept, 6pm
Symposium & Screening 22 – 23 Sept
For further information about Moving Spaces, please contact
David Cowlard:info@architecturalfilm.space
www.architecturalfilm.space
#mvgspaces17
David Cowlard
Lecturer
Photo Media Dept.
Jocelyn Carlin, photographer, 1955 – 2017
It is with great sadness that we learn that our good friend and colleague, Jocelyn Carlin has died after a long illness.
Jocelyn was for many years a valued member of PhotoForum, as a subscriber, exhibitor and organiser, since the formation of PhotoForum/Wellington in 1976.
Among many other things, she helped to organize the exhibitions ‘Open the Shutter’ in 1994 and ‘Currency’ in 1995 at the Auckland War Memorial Museum, the New Zealand lecture tour by UK photographer David Hurn in 1996, and Wellington’s FotoFest in 1998.
We were pleased to include several of Jocelyn’s pictures in the 2014 survey publication PhotoForum at 40, and she generously supplied a lot of carefully preserved archival material for that book and the associated touring exhibition.
We were privileged to support the 2016 publication of her book, ‘Every Picture Tells a Story’, designated as PhotoForum issue number 85. A unique and wonderful book that charts a working photographer’s voice and career in an elegant and informative way, we were delighted to be able to support it, as Jocelyn generously supported the work of so many others over the years.
Rest in peace Jocelyn.
Geoffrey H.Short
PhotoForum Director
12/9/2017
Update:
Funeral notice
Len Wesney, photographer, 1946 – 2017
Len Wesney, Baptism, Christchurch, 1972. The Active Eye, 1975. Plate 99.
Len Wesney, photographer, 1946 – 2017
We note with great sadness the recent death of Len Wesney in a house fire in Christchurch.
Len’s work appeared in issue 20 of Photo-Forum magazine in 1974, and he was a tutor for a PhotoForum summer workshop in Wellington in 1976.
His wonderful picture Baptism, Christchurch, 1972 was one of three pieces included in the 1975 touring exhibition The Active Eye and we were pleased to include it in the recent history of PhotoForum, PhotoForum at 40 by Nina Seja (Rim Books 2014).
Athol McCredie, curator of photography at Te Papa has written a moving and informative tribute to Len and his work on the Te Papa website:
http://blog.tepapa.govt.nz/2017/08/17/len-wesney-photographer-1946-2017/
http://blog.tepapa.govt.nz/2017/08/17/len-wesney-photographer-1946-2017/
Another detailed obituary, by Maddison Northcott, appears on the Stuff website
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/96084337/life-story-inquisitive-photographer-leonard-wesney-marched-to-his-own-drum
Geoffrey H. Short
PhotoForum Director
04/09/2017
From John B Turner’s Photography blog: The First Shenzhen International Photography Exhibition 2017
SZIPE – The First Shenzhen International Photography Exhibition 21 – 24 2017
Themed “Postures of City,” the First Shenzhen International Photography Exhibition (SZIPE) organised by the Shenzhen Federation of Literary and Art Circles and the China Photographers Association, is intended to become an annual four-day day event.
Billed as the largest photography exhibition in Shenzhen’s history, the main display was presented in Hall 6 of the handsome, modern 7,500 sqm Shenzhen Convention and Exhibition Center in Futian District. Thirteen parallel exhibitions, which I did not see, were also being held at 10 locations in different districts of Shenzhen, all on the theme of growing cities around the world.
Three foreign exhibitors do not an international exhibition make, of course, but the pertinent ambition is to put Shenzhen on the map of places to go in China to see significant photographs as communication and expression. Many of the works on display were in fact made outside of China and reflect the tourist boom that has accompanied China’s increasing affluence and “Opening Up.” The stage is now set for better and perhaps bigger future exhibitions of relevance to Shenzhen’s lively and growing art audience.
The international (foreign) contingent
Two major contemporary foreign photographers were featured: Britain’s Brian Griffin and France’s Yann Layma and the historical exhibition co-curated by Su Yuezhou and myself featured the late Tom Hutchins (1921-2007), an outstanding overlooked New Zealand photojournalist who came to China in 1956. Our exhibitions were shown alongside those of a group of outstanding Chinese photographers including Tongshen Zhang, Yingli Liu, Zhu Xianming, Wang Yuwen, Chen Jin, and Fu Yongjun. Continue reading the full blog HERE
Guest Portfolio: Gao Brothers (China)
Published on John B. Turner’s website is as an exclusive guest portfolio of 46 cell phone images by the internationally acclaimed Beijing-based Gao Brothers. The featured work was selected from their new Chinese language book.
You can view the portfolio HERE
John Fields: Thames & Townspeople – a photographic survey
A unique and priceless document of Thames from 1973-76.
John James Fields (1938-2013) was born on January 18 1938 in Gloucester, Massachusetts, U.S.A. He first came to New Zealand as a petty officer serving in the U.S. Navy’s Pacific Fleet aboard the destroyer U.S.S. Rowan. This country made an impression on the young sailor who would return in 1966 with his Australian bride and settle in Auckland.
John Fields underwent specialist training including at the Leica Photography School in Boston in 1963. Further study at Harvard University in expeditionary filming and enthnographic stills technique and at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in colour photography/stills completed his formal training. By this stage he had already become one of the The Boston Globe’s most successful photographers winning three awards for most popular photographs at that leading newspaper.
He went on to become photographer at Massachusetts General Hospital 1964-66 including in electron microscopy. He was invited by Dr. Stan Bullivant to accompany him to Auckland with a cutting-edge electron microscope and be the photographer. In 1966 he began work at the Cell Biology Department at the University of Auckland where he commissioned the darkroom.
In 1967 John first became fascinated with Thames. He started photographing in July 1973 and in 1975 he was awarded the first QEII Arts Council grant to conduct a photographic survey of Thames. From 1973-75 he spent all his spare time photographing the town, its people and heritage. “I want to capture through photography the atmosphere of the town and its people.”
John Fields wanted to “make New Zealanders conscious of the history of their towns and inspire them to keep records of every building to be demolished, to make a master set of old negatives, photographs, maps and land deeds as a comprehensive and permanent record of the towns.” It had become apparent that a one-year survey as funded by the QEII Arts Council would not do justice to the subject. John Fields undertook an extended survey at his own expense that would eventually take him until April 1976 before he was satisfied with the results.
He talked about how he was attracted to the wooden built environment that Thames shares with this hometowns of Rockport and Gloucester on the eastern seaboard of the US in the state of Massachusetts. As a photographer he was visually attuned; additionally as a foreigner he saw Thames not just as another New Zealand town, but as something unique and special.
Clearly the town cast a spell on him because he would return most weekends over a period of three years. At first John confessed to feeling a rank outsider. The town folk and those he met at the Brian Boru Hotel, where he often boarded, were initially suspicious of him. Who was this inquisitive individual and why was he taking photographs of everything? When they realized that he was quite harmless he was embraced, perhaps not as a local but, as a regular visitor, who took an interest in everything they did and whose aim was to document the entire town.
The photographer was frequently armed with several cameras: his 5 x 7 inch large format Kodak view camera with large tripod and black cape and two 35mm SLRs. The 5 x 7 (with 4 x 5inch reducing board) was used for back and white film aswas one of the 35mm cameras. The third was to record Thames loaded with colour slide film.
To that end from 11-18 January 1976 John Fields exhibited along with some other work a small number of the Thames photographs at the North Thames School,Tararu, which later become an arts centre. It is fitting that in 2017, the 150th anniversary of the founding of the goldfields, 50 of the photographs together with almost all of the images made at the time will been seen by the public for the first time. Today these photographs are a unique and priceless document of Thames in 1973-75.
Firstly we must acknowledge the years of work by John Fields in bequeathing to us such a rich legacy of extraordinary images. They range across a broad range of styles to show the Thames and townspeople. All show his sophisticated vision and his unerring technique. Fields’ work is notable for its exceptional clarity and precise tonal balance – all of which he achieved before Photoshop and digital enhancement were thought of.
Curators at Te Papa recognize John Fields as one of the foremost photographers of his generation. Recent acquisitions by our national museum include several of the Thames photographs from this project. We are indebted to John Fields for his dedication and we are very sorry that he is not with us to share in the recognition of his achievement on a project that was very dear to his heart.
Thanks must go to all the support we have received from friends and family to bring the exhibition to fruition. Thank you to Patricia his wife, and his friend and colleague Ken Ball. We especially wish to thank Malcolm and Marcia Sowman who befriended John when he started his project in the 70s and for their unwavering support for this display. Thank you to Peter and Claudia Pond-Eyley for lending their Ford Prefect so John could drive in comfort to Thames when he could not get the NZ Road Services bus.
Thank you to the Committee of the Bella Pumphouse for their support and to John Isdale at Thames Museum of Mines, where an identical TV on which the same 30minute display of 500 images may be viewed.
This volume presents John Fields’ own edit of the 170 black and white of the more than 500 black and white and colour images he made.
Curators
David Langman
Allan Chawner, Conjoint Professor, University of Newcastle, NSW.
‘Real Pictures: Imaging XX’ curated by Nina Seja.
We are very excited to be involved with the exhibition ‘Real Pictures: Imaging XX’ curated by Nina Seja, opening at the Gus Fisher Gallery this Friday 2 June. PhotoForum is publishing the catalogue as PhotoForum issue number 88, which will be distributed to PhotoForum members and be available for sale at the gallery.
Dr Seja wrote the detailed history of PhotoForum ‘PhotoForum at 40’, and it is a pleasure to be collaborating with her again on this project, presenting work by five artists associated with the hugely influential photography gallery and laboratory Real Pictures, which operated in Auckland from 1979 to 1990.
Geoffrey H. Short
Director, PhotoForum Inc.
30/5/17
Catalogue for the exhibition ‘Real Pictures: Imaging XX’ at the Gus Fisher Gallery, 2 – 30 June. Exhibiting artists Sue Gee, Megan Jenkinson, Marie Shannon, Deborah Smith and Jenny Tomlin. Curated by Nina Seja in association with PhotoForum.
Jenny Tomlin, ‘Sedge, Windy Point, Whatipu, 1985’. From the series ‘The Well Kept Wilderness’.
Poster for the exhibition ‘Photographs by Marie Shannon’, Real Pictures, 1985. Image: ‘Waiting for the Tide’ 1985.
Megan Jenkinson, ‘Hand to Hand II’ 1985, Cibachrome collage.
Deborah Smith, ‘The Pursuit of Game (VIII)’ 1988.
Sue Gee, from ‘Chinese Ties’, 1983.
PhotoForum NZ Blog archive 