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.
I am now ready to take orders for my Quiet Moments 2017 calendar which will be available very soon, in time for posting overseas.
This year’s theme is edges, where different realities meet: the known and the unknown; the natural and the manufactured; the internal and the external.
Ordering Information:
• One or two calendars: $NZ18.00
• Three or more calendars: $NZ16.00 per copy
• P&P: $NZ 4.50 [NZ orders sent Fastpost; Overseas orders sent Airmail]
Closing dates for Christmas mailing:
Australia: Wednesday 7 December
North America, UK, Europe: Friday 2 December
South Pacific, Asia: Friday 2 December
Rest of the World: Wednesday 30 November
Pingyao International Photography Festival 2016 Sept. Tom Hutchins – Seen in China 1956
I gave a summary of the install and opening of the Pingyao International Photography Festival (PIP) a few weeks ago. Time has passed and it’s taken a while to be able to report on the running and conclusion, partly because of the need to clear my head of the crazy China experience which included a trip to Beijing with John Turner as host.
John Turner with Melissa Crawford from NZ Embassy, with Phoebe Li in background
In Beijing I saw the follow-on from the initial interest in “Tom Hutchins – Seen in China 1956”. This included stronger interest in a new show that John is curating with Phoebe Li (“Recollection of A Distant Shore: A Photographic Introduction to the History of the Chinese in New Zealand”) which opened on 21 Oct at the Overseas Chinese History Museum of China. The Chinese Photographers Association filmed him talking about Tom Hutchins for a film documenting their 60-year history, as part of a teaching curriculum.
Some of this was the result of the high level of interest in “Tom Hutchins – Seen In China” at PIP. The installation pictures show that we were given a very prominent position with a huge poster image and text in English and Chinese facing the front door of Diesel Factory A2. We also found that we had a rich red wall which really made the black and white images ‘ping’ and even with the crowding of the 89 images the show looked stunning. This came courtesy of Zhang Guotian, the director of the festival who seemed to have taken a personal and professional interest in the show, emphasising the importance to Chinese at a number of levels.
Director Zhang Guotian with John Turner. As well as the photography, we got to eat wonderful food with wonderful people.
On the first day, a communist party contingent came to view the show, and the entourage flew through so quickly that we missed documenting it. John and I spent some considerable time talking with the many visitors on the first two days and we saw a large audience from young to old, with the elderly often taking an especial interest. One of John’s hopes is that an adult visitor recognises themselves as a child in or near a picture that Tom took, and can recall the ‘lao wai’ – foreigner with the camera who came through in 1956 – this person would obviously be older than 60 now.
Shanxi TV reporter with John and translator Chin Jay
Shanxi TV reporter with John and translator Chin Jay
The site has a transcript in Chinese but a translate app like Google Translate (unavailable if you are in China without a VPN) will give an approximate version.
One result of the level of interest in the show is that the NZ embassy has got behind the Chinese in NZ show and it is hoped that they may help with further stages of the Tom Hutchins project that John is working on. The history of the Chinese in NZ show is scheduled to open at the Auckland Museum in February 2017.
After the hard work and excitement of the first couple of days we managed to venture further afield to see some of the many other exhibitions.
Despite the variety and quality of the work on show, one of my personal concerns was that Pingyao is very much about traditional photography as opposed to ‘lens based art’ and because of this there seems to be a pinch on experimentation. A lot of the work that was trying to be challenging seemed to apply self imposed bounds. One work that showed promise was 4 framed ‘pictures’ that turned out to be video projections of torsos that were just perceptibly breathing but at a quick glance appeared to be straight photos.
Another, that sought to bring in political content and used multimedia, was ‘Since Then, No One Has Talked With You’ by He Bo. Based around recent terrorist bombings, the large full face portraits of attackers were built from small images of varying density, then overlayed with very tiny red faces of victims that built up a morse code message across the surface of the pictures. Small boxes on the wall, when opened, held typed messages.
There was perhaps too much layered meaning for me to work through (having to decode the morse was just a bit much) but I applaud the attempt to try and make personal meaning and public statement about political terror acts that impact many of us as individuals and as a society.
Installation – He Bo
As well as a lot of commercially oriented work, there was some wonderful student work in the 7 huge buildings set aside for universities, and probing work in the Group Exhibition of Female Photographers. One in particular, by Chan Oi-Yan was inspiring to see. It looked at a Hong Kong wetlands area ‘beautified’ into a tourist hotspot. Her text started “Land use can hardly stop its pace due to the intense population…” Her pictures contrast the fog-covered beauty of the area with the disorganised look of a native wetland. “The nature faked a natural scene, humans? do it well too”.
Work by Chan Oi-Yan
The tall and striking character of Xu Hao held also a critical intellect that gave her images (in a series called ‘Home’) an ability to question consumerism and its power to manipulate human needs. The mundanity of Ikea store interiors, with a price tag on everything, was where she set up a camera and captured people treating the mock Ikea home displays as their own. Families lounging as if at home, in-store but looking out as if wondering whether something was lost “… where people seemed to forget their beating hearts”.
Work by Xu Hao
The photographs of Tu Chun, whilst superficially similar to Xu Hou because of the interiors in artificial light, were very different in intent. I sat with Chun for a long while enjoying his infectious smile in his own makeshift ‘home’ for the time of the festival, while he told me how he photographed immigrant families living in China. These interiors were real homes, styled by the owners themselves, the pictures considered and full of respect for the participants.
Tu Chun at home in his space
Tun Chun. Mobbed by spectators
Peng Xiangjie showed some arresting, rich, black and white images of a dwarf community that appears to be both exploited and given a liveable job and lifestyle in a commercial theme park. I learnt this by talking to Peng for an hour through a translator. He sees Arbus as a strong influence but his approach with subjects seems much more long term and considered. Intense in his consideration of his own work and able to talk about the social politics, nevertheless, like many photographers he is mindful of his career, and this could influence the scope of his work. http://cargocollective.com/PengXiangjie http://www.photoint.net/detail_news_3638.html
Works by Peng Xiangjie
As mentioned previously, the New Zealand show from the Auckland Photography Festival, curated by Rosanna Raymond, gave space for Maori and Pacific Island photographers who look at their place in New Zealand in quite a different way to the Pakeha view that we often get. Many of the images can be seen at the link and some of the standouts for me were the constructed psycho sexual scenarios by Russ Flatt and the edgy and potentially conflicted work of Emily Mafile’o. http://www.pip919.com/31/161309855.html
Works by Emily Mafile’oPeng Xiangjie and Claudia Fährenkemper interact with Claudias Armor work
The quality and interest value of the international shows was high, with known photographers such as Bruno Barbey, Claudia Fährenkemper and Marcus Lyon and many other equally interesting people and work. Even with the days I had, I didn’t get through nearly enough. Visitor numbers just seemed unlimited, and it appears all the forums and talks were very well attended. Chinese photographers value the opportunity to meet and question overseas photographers.
Seeing Marcus Lyon’s work ‘in the flesh’ was inspiring, although it took until I got home and read about his intent that I really came into his work. This is a thing I despair over with galleried shows and festivals. They generally still treat the single image as ‘a work that communicates without language’. My personal viewpoint rejects that as outdated and untrue. I’m interested in the individual motivation and the politics that invade even a non-political picture. I might get hints of this from an image and some more from a series or curated show. But so much more can come out, inspire and move me if I can connect image with words and go back and forth.
I didn’t know, for instance, that Lyon creates his single images with digital manipulation, e.g his iconic “Exodus II, Dubai, UAE, 2010” – 750 cars filling the 12 lane Sheikh Zayed Road in a perfect grid, is in fact a composite of 1000 images. Lyon: “I think an image taken at 125th of a second is kind of a lie” … He works up a final image with a goal of having the viewer ask “Is that really the world we live in?” This is the thing that really gets me buzzing and going back into the picture, but I had to come home to find it. https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/feb/18/marcus-lyon-best-photograph-sheikh-zayed-road-dubai
Outside the Three Gorges installation
A group show themed on the Three Gorges Dam was shown in a rundown area of the Cotton Mill buildings where you had to almost crouch down to enter a layered and dilapidated series of gloomy spaces. A variety of photographers presented work related to the dam and the forced migration of more than a million people in a variety of ways from straight documentary through to conceptual.
Three Gorges Installation space
There were flaws to be sure, and it did give the impression that activism around the dam and the continuing social and ecological impact is a fait-accompli but nevertheless it was exciting to see the topic so strongly raised and it would be great to see Pingyao continue raising such topics.
Three Gorges Installation – 175 metre mark – Zhang Yi
Three Gorges Installation – I Built The Dam – Guan Zhenzhu
So political intent was apparent at Pingyao in more than one way, but maybe the biggest political event was created by the local Communist Party representatives who seemed to be on orders from Beijing to do just the opposite.
‘Jean-Pierre Laffont Legendary Photographer’ was a top-billed show with Laffont speaking at the opening ceremony. His work covered major political events through recent American history, yet the work was not immune from the flimsy and fickle hand of Chinese censorship. Twenty two images were removed from the large show with no warning.
One of the removed Laffont pictures
Rumours circulated about which images and why, but the best and damning summary comes from Jean Loh in this article: http://www.loeildelaphotographie.com/en/2016/10/12/article/159922682/pingyao-photographers-paradise/
and commented on by John Turner: “…it is time the Communist Party actually listened to its art experts and stopped insulting them with petty, dense and foolish censorship”.
The pictures removed included fairly mild nudity, some images of Rajneesh or Hare Krishna community members having a good time and others documenting Mexican migrants. One can speculate about why – Western access to extreme nudity and the concurrent ‘moral decline’ in the first case; China’s concern with large religious minorities and the potential power they can wield (e.g. Falun Dafa). In the Mexican case it was suggested that there is a political link with Mexico that is sensitive.
China, from my short visit, seemed incredibly safe and friendly, characteristics that arguably come in part from a naive but heavily policed state. For instance, after the awards ceremony, I was asked by fellow New Zealanders why the police had bailed me up and had been searching my bag. In fact, myself and two Chinese photographers had been photographing and showing our images to the military and police, leaving lenses on the ground . The ‘search’ was actually a policeman kindly zipping up my unzipped bag and making sure I didn’t lose anything.
So, nice for foreigners, but not so nice if you need to express an opinion about your very livelihood after your farm land has been confiscated by corrupt businessmen and compensation isn’t forthcoming.
How China deals with its complex transition is hard to know but heavy-handed and inconsistent censorship especially in the arts just creates ridicule, both inside and outside the country.
Pingyao will be in its 17th year next year and the links with New Zealand continue to be strong. PhotoForum and the Auckland Festival of Photography have helped curate and manage a number of shows over the years and independent photographers such as Harvey Benge and Jenny Tomlin have brought their own work, so the potential for New Zealand work to be shown should only grow.
Hedyah Song de-installing the show while a final visitor views it.
I want to acknowledge the hanging helpers that we had: Zhang Weihuan, Wang Shengyuan and Fu Haocheng, and our de-hanger and transportation support Hedyah Song. Along with translation from Chin Jay, and friends who helped get me lost and found around town Linda Zhang, Kaidi Huang and Yang Lu.
All of the accompanying photographs were made by Stuart Sontier unless otherwise noted.
The Black Asterisk Gallery – 10 Ponsonby Rd, Auckland August 3 to 31 2016
After a 40-year absence, the classic Queen Street V8 images, shot in the late 1970s by photographer Murray Cammick are making a return to Auckland at Ponsonby’s The Black Asterisk Gallery from August 3 to August 31. The exhibition will include the classic documentary images that are known, plus photos that have never been seen before of the cars and the people that roamed Auckland’s main street, late at night.
In 1974, while still a student at Elam School of Fine Art, Cammick began photographing people and their V8 cars as they congregated late at night in Auckland’s Queen Street. When the theatre patrons went home, the city’s main street was their place to park-up or cruise.
Cammick spent many weekend nights from 1974 to 1981 photographing the scene. While he documented the V8s, his mode of transport was a diminutive Morris Minor that he hid in a side street. Cammick was a shy and naïve 20 year old when he started this series and revellers would see his SLR camera and hassle him to – “take our photo!” – unaware that they were giving the quiet photographer the opportunity (and images) he was looking for.
In 1977 Cammick and long-time friend Alastair Dougal established RipItUp music magazine. After he photographed concerts for RipItUp he headed for Queen Street – but as the eighties got underway – the Queen Street V8 scene faded. A later photo might be a single car moving through the bleak environment, looking for a scene that is no longer there. The dark, empty street has a character of its own and starts to takeover the images.
When he ended his involvement with RipItUp magazine in 1998, he set out to do a series of photographic exhibitions but was thwarted by the digital takeover of photography and the realisation that key images from his Flash Cars series were missing – last seen in the 1980s. In mid-2014, the missing negatives were found, allowing a comprehensive exhibition to be undertaken. Jenny Tomlin, a specialist in the field of silver gelatin printing has made the new prints for the show.
Cammick’s Queen Street photographs are represented in the Te Papa National Gallery & Museum, Wellington. His photographs have been published in Art at Te Papa (2009), NZ Photography Collected (2015, Te Papa Press), PhotoForum at 40: Counterculture, Clusters, and Debate in New Zealand (2014, Rim Books), Into The Light: A History of New Zealand Photography (2006, Craig Potton Press), and Photo-Forum issue 39 (1977, PhotoForum Inc.)
Flash Cars has been shown at Snaps Gallery, Auckland in 1976 and 1977 and Darren Knight Gallery, Sydney in 2015. The photographer’s photos have also appeared in group exhibitions including The Active Eye (Manawatu Art Gallery 1975), Drive (Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth 2000) and History in the Taking: 40 Years of PhotoForum (2014).
The Black Asterisk Gallery is open Tuesday to Saturday 11am to 5pm.
Selective Exposure is a group exhibition, organised by Haruhiko Sameshima, featuring a new generation of contemporary photographers based in New Zealand, Germany and Japan. It features samples of prints from each photographer’s sustained projects. Originally exhibited at Photospace gallery in Wellington in November 2015, the opening at In Situ Photo Project will be the exhibition’s first showing in the South Island.
Including work by Caryline Boreham, Conor Clarke, Peter Evans, Shelley Jacobson, Julius Margan, Asumi Mizuo, Solomon Mortimer, Stephen Roucher, Shigeru Takato and Tim J. Veling, these photographers use analogue film technology to reflect aspects of reality filtered through their own experiences, mediated by the old world photographic process.
The artists in this exhibition have all graduated from New Zealand art schools majoring in photography, within the last 25 years. They then went off to explore such diverse subject matters as steaming towers in the industrial hub of Germany, television news studios from 40 countries and 70 cities, contemporary views of the city rebuilt after destruction by an atomic bomb, and petroleum industry related sites across New Zealand from the perspective of ‘peak oil’. Others travelled to scout for alternative identities in the country’s heartlands, the shifting border between urban and rural in a home suburb or, even closer to home, looking deeply into family and kinship under duress.
The anachronism of using film cameras detaches the images from today’s immediate use-value in that it is, for example, unable to be uploaded instantly to Instagram but it does slow down the process, giving time to contemplate the consequences of image making. The resulting printed photograph will carry that residue of the legacy of veracity, which transcribes the ‘look’ of the world. Accumulation of their selected exposures feeds the artists’ narratives.
This exhibition is a survey of tertiary trained art photographers’ views of where we stand in the global world, staring intently into their individualised evidences of reality. Works here reflect notions of art as social and personal inquiry – seeking to better understand humanity from their chosen environments, and is a record of their experiences within.
Opening night: 6pm, Friday 8th July at the BNZ Centre, 120 Hereford Street, next to Scorpio Bookstore.
Related events:
– 11 July 2016:In Conversation – Haruhiko Sameshima, Mark Adams, Tim J. Veling, Hannah Wilson. Following the discussion there will be a film screening of ‘Pictures on Paper – Photobooks in New Zealand’ produced by Tangent NZ Photography Collective.
Full details at https://www.facebook.com/events/580140728813539/
To join the In Situ Photo Project mailing list and keep up-to-date with current events, please visit ispp.nz or their facebook page.
Image: Emil McAvoy, Red Earth Reconnaissance, 2016
Red Earth Reconnaissance – Emil McAvoy
23 April – 4 June 2016
Saturday 23 April, 10:30am – 2pm: Opening and combined Artist Talk – with Dawson Clutterbuck.
Papakura Art Gallery
10 Averill St, Papakura, Auckland
Hours: Mon to Fri, 9am – 5pm, Sat 10am – 2pm
‘Red Earth Reconnaissance’ is a botanical survey of the Papakura area beginning at the site of the Papakura Art Gallery and travelling outwards. ‘Red earth’ references the Maori name Papakura, and its soil rich in iron oxides. The botanical specimens come from and are connected to this fertile ground. The project aims to document and reframe fragments of the unique ecology of Papakura, toward a partial and poetic guide to this place and its peoples.
Related links: http://emilmcavoy.com/peoplespark/– a recent photographic project by McAvoy, exploring an environment similarly unfamiliar to him.
Gallery Public Programme:
Wed 11 May, 10.30 – 12pm. Flowers for the Home Workshop
Dawson Clutterbuck and Emil McAvoy will lead a workshop introducing the mechanics of floral arrangements. This workshop will be hands on and interactive. Please bring some flowers, greenery or containers to contribute on the day. Limited spaces available. Please contact the gallery to register. email: papakuraartgallery@aucklandcouncil.govt.nz or phone: (09) 297 7510
UK photographer Justin Quinnell is giving an illustrated lecture on pinhole photography and camera obscuras as part of his travels through New Zealand and Hong Kong. The talks are open to the public and mostly free. Schedule of dates & venues are listed below. For further information visit Justin’s website at www.pinholephotography.org
The Pinhole – from Aristotle to the Selfie stick’
New Zealand – Hong Kong Pinhole Lecture Tour – March 9th – April 2nd, 2016
Tuesday 22nd March – Auckland PhotoForum event held at MTG RM
2 Kingsland Tce, Kingsland
6.00pm
All welcome to our free event – as seating is limited please registerHEREto reserve your place. Please direct all bookings & enquiries for this Auckland event to PhotoForum.
Contact photoforumnz@gmail.com
For the first time, the Photo Media Department of Whitecliffe College of Arts and Design has placed emphasis on the photo book format within their curriculum. Year 3 Photo Media students will present their own photo books at the inaugural end-of-year book event launching on 13th November 2015 and running over two days.
The work will also be on display on Saturday 14 November, accompanied by a talk from Anita Tótha (Founder of Photobook Club Auckland and Remote Photobooks) and includes a screening of the short film documentary ‘Pictures on Paper: Photobooks in New Zealand’ (produced by Tangent Photography Collective).
The film profiles both established and emerging artists and photobook makers such as Ann Shelton, David Cook, Solomon Mortimer, and Shelley Jacobson and delivers a lively insight into the current photo book phenomenon.
The Year 3 photobook launch is on Friday 13 November from 5.30pm – 7.30pm.
The talk and screening takes place Saturday 14 November from 11am – 2pm. 11:15am Artists’ Talk with Anita Totha, Founder of Remote Photobooks and Photobook Club Auckland 11:45am Screening of ‘Pictures on Paper-Photobooks in New Zealand’ documentary film produced by Tangent Photography Collective (30 minutes)
All events will be held at the Whitecliffe campus located at 24 Balfour Road, Parnell, Level 5 – Lecture Hall.
Bruce Connew’s latest photobook, ‘Body of Work’, launches with a few others, Thursday, 12 November, 16-19h, at Le Bal, Paris, during Paris Photo 2015 .. as well, he signs the following day, 16.30h, at Polycopies, the very busy off-Paris Photo photobook fair aboard the Concorde Atlantique on the Seine.
‘Body of Work’ is available, at a pre-launch price, on Bruce’s website: http://www.bruceconnew.com/books/ until midnight GMT, 11 November 2015.
NEW ZEALAND PHOTO BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARDS 2015 OPEN FOR ENTRIES
The inaugural New Zealand Photobook Of The Year Awards 2015 are now open for entries until
8 February 2016. Presented by Photobook New Zealand and Momento Pro, the Awards celebrate excellence and innovation in photo book creation, and provide the opportunity to showcase the work of New Zealand photo artists to a growing local and international audience.
The $10,500 in prizes is designed to help photographers produce and promote their publication. Self Published Prize: $2,000 cash + $5,000 Momento Pro printing Trade Published Prize: $1,000 cash + $2,000 Momento Pro printing People’s Choice Prize: $500 Momento Pro printing
Books can be made via any means or print service but they must focus on photographic content in a visual narrative. The entrant must be the photographer, designer or publisher of the book,and only New Zealand citizens, permanent residents or registered companies are eligible to enter. Entrants must register online and submit a physical book, into one or both categories: Self Published Photobooks: Published by the creator, includes Dummy books Published Photobooks: Published by an Independent or Trade Publisher
Judging Chair, David Cook, a founding member of Photobook New Zealand, will lead a panel of design and publishing experts as they assess the books’ excellence in photography, layout, format and audience suitability. “The New Zealand Photobook Of The Year Awards is an important vehicle to promote the work of local artists, and to connect them with the growing international community of photobook makers, festivals, fairs and awards,” says Cook.
Entry to the Awards is free, and submissions close on Monday, 8 February 2016. Winners will be announced at the opening night celebrations of Photobook New Zealand on 11 March 2016. Full details and all Terms and Conditions are available at www.photobookoftheyear.co.nz.
Momento Pro Pty Ltd was the first photobook company to produce premium on-demand photo books and custom stationery for the Australian and New Zealand market.
More at www.momentopro.co.nz Photobook New Zealand is the inaugural event for photography book creators in New Zealand in Wellington from 11-13 March 2016. More at photoforum-nz.org/photobooknz Media Contact: Libby Jeffery, +61 2 8568 302, libby@momentopro.com.au
PhotoForum NZ Blog archive 
