It was great to see such a large crowd in attendance last Sunday night (19th May 2013) for the exhibition opening  of Recent Auckland Photography, at Northart Gallery.  Below is a selection of photos from that evening.

Curated by Chris Corson-Scott and Edward Hanfling, the exhibition, (in association with the Auckland Festival of Photography) runs until 12 June 2013. Featured artists are: Mark Adams, Edith Amituanai, Fiona Amundsen, Harvey Benge, Bruce Connew, Chris Corson-Scott, Ngahuia Harrison, Derek Henderson, Ian Macdonald, Haruhiko Sameshima, Geoffrey H. Short and Talia Smith.

We hope many of you will join us at Northart on Saturday June 8 (from 3pm), for the talk by Ron Brownson with Edward Hanfling, followed by an informal “Meet the artists” session.

Also accompanying the exhibition, is the book  Pictures They Want to Make - Recent Auckland Photography by Chris Corson-Scott and Edward Hanfling, and published by PhotoForum. A very limited quantity of advance copies have been made available for viewing or purchase at Northart Gallery. The remaining stock  is due mid-June. Enquiries regarding this publication can be emailed to photoforumnz@gmail.com.

Our thanks to Nikon New Zealand, Progear Professional Photographics, Vista Entertainment Solutions and The James Wallace Arts Trust for their generous support towards making this publication possible.

Pictures They Want to Make - Recent Auckland Photography also part of PhotoForum’s current subscription offering to members. It’s a great way to receive this substantial publication while also supporting the promotion of NZ photography. To find out more about PhotoForum, visit our website at www.photoforum-nz.org.

Ron Brownson (Senior Curator New Zealand and Pacific Art at Auckland Art Gallery) speaking at the opening of the exhibition “Recent Auckland Photography” at Northart Gallery, 19 May 2013.

PhotoForum director Geoffrey H. Short, speaking about the accompanying publication
Pictures They Want to Make - Recent Auckland Photography. Exhibition opening of
“Recent Auckland Photography” at Northart Gallery, 19 May 2013.

Co-curators Chris Corson Scott (far left), and Edward Hanfling (centre) with exhibiting artist Fiona Amundsen. Exhibition opening of “Recent Auckland Photography” at Northart Gallery, 19 May 2013.

John B. Turner discusses Ian Macdonald’s work with sculptor John Radford. Exhibition opening of “Recent Auckland Photography” at Northart Gallery, 19 May 2013.

Exhibiting artist Ian Macdonald (centre) in conversation with gallery visitors. Exhibition opening “Recent Auckland Photography” at Northart Gallery, 19 May 2013.

Gil Hanly, Pat Hanly in Studio with Tamsin (c. 1968)

Gil Hanly: Artists in Situ

4 June 2013 - 28 July 2013, Pah Homestead, Photography Gallery, Boardroom & Master Bedroom

Opening  3 June, 6-8pm, Upper Level
Q+A with Gil Hanly: Sat 15 June, 1pm.

Gil Hanly is one of New Zealand’s best-loved photographers. For more than five decades she has documented the people of New Zealand at times of great social change, with a special focus on the protest movement. Many of her images of New Zealanders in protest are internationally famous. She is also our most prolific and widely published garden photographer. Gil and painter Pat Hanly (1932-2004) have been at the heart of New Zealand’s art and peace movements and her images record thousands of amazing social events and personalities.

Curated especially for the Auckland Festival of Photography, Gil Hanly - Artists in Situ features portraits of best-beloved and emerging Kiwi artists at work, providing rare glimpses into the most intimate and vital part of an artist’s working life - the studio.

The Pah Homestead, TSB Wallace Arts Centre
72 Hillsborough Rd, Hillsborough, Auckland
Open Tues to Fri, 10am - 3pm
Sat, Sun & public holidays, 10am - 5pm
T 09 639 2010 E enquiries@wallaceartstrust.org.nz

Neil Pardington - The Order of Things
Daniel Crooks - remapping

24 May - 7 July 2013
Private View: Thursday 23 May 6-8pm
Neil Pardington - Artist talk: 1pm, Fri 21 June

Two Rooms
16 Putiki Street
Newton
Auckland

Hours: Tuesday – Friday 11am – 6pm
Saturday 11am – 3pm

Phone 64 (9) 360 5900
info@tworooms.co.nz

Sacred Geometry: Standing Stones of the Scottish Isle - Jo Elliott
1 - 17 June 2013, opening Fri 31st May, 5 - 7pm
View further detail about this artist and exhibition here

Photospace Gallery
1st floor, 37 Courtenay Place, Wellington
T: 04 382 9502  M: 027 444 3899
Open 10am to 4pm Mon-Fri, 11am to 4pm Sat

June 7 - August 30 2013
Reception with some of the artists 5.30 pm Friday 7th June
An edited version of this exhibition will be shown at Auckland Art Fair, August 7 - 11

Available light: imagining more than we see

Laurence Aberhart, Mark Adams, Fiona Amundsen, Wayne Barrar, Richard Barraud [Estate], Andrew Beck, Peter Black, Rhondda Bosworth, Murray Cammick, Joyce Campbell, Ben Cauchi, J.W. Chapman-Taylor [Estate], Richard Collins, Lisa Crowley, Hayden Fritchley, Frank Hofmann [Estate], Nikolai Kokx, Adrienne Martyn, Anne Noble, Max Oettli, Fiona Pardington, Trent Parke [Australia], Peter Peryer, Steve Rood, Andrew Ross [image above], Haruhiko Sameshima, Justine Varga [Australia] & Len Wesney

Throughout the history of photography artists have exploited the creative potential of natural and artificial light in their work. Light, and its absence, is a source of inspiration and new technologies have expanded this field considerably.

In this exhibition we explore the transformative quality of light on film “…light changes the ways we respond to the appearance of place…” [2]. Conversely, light pollution can distract from the creative effects of low light.

Utilising available light, darkness becomes both tool and subject. Seemingly unremarkable objects and spaces unpredictably assume a mysterious otherness when emancipated from full light, allowing our imaginations to create the narrative; a perceptual or psychological truth. Restricted light thereby focuses attention, emphasising mood over subject matter and enhances the transcendent power of the medium. Visual legibility is subservient to emotional magnitude. Human presence may be intimated, via ‘props’, through absence. A stage set which, devoid of players, concentrates instead on the evidence of an absence. Capture of available light, and careful attention to tonal values, can also encourage our peripheral awareness. More light, and detail, can distract the mind.

Harnessing the subtle effects of low light is possible with film; a photo-chemical continuum.
“They [traditional photographs] are material objects tangibly connected to the world through the nature of their creation: impressions created with silver filaments suspended in animal gelatin, altered by light and chemistry.”[3] Low light generally means longer camera exposure of the film and a consequent ‘absorption’ of time into the image. Expanding on this point in relation to Laurence Aberhart’s work, Geraldine Barlow writes “[he] chooses a process of stillness, an extended measure of moments over which light acts upon a prepared surface,…There is a special sense of light in Aberhart’s work, never entirely of the now.” [4]

Film has the potential to capture things the eye [and therefore the photographer] cannot see. This potential is expanded with new technologies such as night-vision equipment, which magnifies the available light or is sensitive to infrared light, transforming reality into a science-fiction alien melancholic place. Other equipment can record the infrared and ultraviolet parts of the spectrum, as well as those visible to the eye, creating ‘wide-spectrum’ black-and-white images. New sensors in digital cameras have a low-light capability such that there are no limitations to what hour of the day a photographer can work.

[1] Todd Hido “…imagining more than we see…”

[2] Ron Brownson, exhibition notes: In Shifting Light, New Gallery, Auckland, 2009

[3] Robert Burley The Disappearance of Darkness: Photography at the End of the Analog Era, Princeton Architectural Press, 2013

[4] Geraldine Barlow. Published to accompany the exhibition Laurence Aberhart: Monumental, Darren Knight Gallery, Sydney, May - June 2012

McNAMARA GALLERY Photography Ltd
190 Wicksteed St. WHANGANUI 4500
NEW ZEALAND

Tuesday / Wednesday - Saturday 11 - 3 [often open to 6] or by appointment
Please check website INFORMATION page for occasional closed days due to travel commitments
06 348 7320 027 249 8059 mcnamaraphotogal@xtra.co.nz
www.mcnamara.co.nz

Connection is a collaborative exhibition showcasing personal works which include medium format film, mixed media and fine print by a diverse group of emerging photographers.
Above image: Delena Nathuran

Note - Pictures They Want to Make: Recent Auckland Photography has a RRP of $59.95.  Published by PhotoForum, it is also part of our subscription offer for  this current membership year. With the standard subscription rate being $65.00 it’s a great opportunity to receive the publication (along with other benefits), while also supporting PhotoForum’s broader promotion of New Zealand photography. All enquiries can be emailed to photoforumnz@gmail.com

Update: Check out these recent articles about the exhibition & publication: Harvey Benge’s blog & D-Photo’s interview with Chris Corson-Scott.

Links:
Northart Gallery
Auckland Festival of Photography
PhotoForum
Creative New Zealand

Silent Wings - Denise Batchelor
17 May - 17 June 2013
Opens Fri 17 May, 6pm

Lopdell House Gallery (off-site)
5 Totara Ave, New Lynn, Auckland
Gallery hours: 10am - 4.30pm Mon to Fri.

Photographer and video artist Denise Batchelor creates a contemplative video installation in the Window Project Space and main gallery at Lopdell House Gallery’s New Lynn location titled Silent Wings for the Auckland Festival of Photography.

There is a familiarity to Batchelor’s work, a sense that we are being shown something that perhaps we tend to overlook or not take the time to notice. With images that appear to be moving and videos that appear to be still, Batchelor plays with the passages of time and space, creating a quiet and meditative work.

The viewer is encouraged to get close to the work and to connect with the nature that she depicts. These are works of contemplation that offer the viewer access to an interstitial realm between movement and stillness. The deliberate combining of the stillness and silence of photography with the time and motion of moving image provides for meditative encounters with the natural world, one that is distinctly New Zealand.

Read the full article here.

Lili Kraus, 1947, Hofmann, Frank (1916–1989), New Zealand.
Gift of the artist, 1986. Te Papa.

Arts After Dark | Nga Toi o te Po

When: Thursday 16 May 2013, 5.30pm-7.15pm
Where: Nga Toi | Arts Te Papa, Level 5
Cost: Free Entry
Explore photographic works in Arts Te Papa with Wayne Barrar, Peter Ireland, and Athol McCredie. Then enjoy a performance, inspired by the pianist Lili Kraus, on Michael Parekowhai’s carved Steinway piano.

5.30pm-6.30pm
Athol McCredie: Photographic works in Arts Te Papa
Te Papa’s curator of photography, Athol McCredie, talks about Walker Evans, Diane Arbus, Lee Friedlander, and other international photographers featured in On Looking.

He also discusses a collection of remarkable 19th-century photographic portraits of Maori, and the album of Wellington landscapes captured by photographer James Bragge in the 1870s.

Wayne Barrar: Nauru Portfolio
Wayne Barrar has documented uncanny underground spaces, probed New Zealand’s history of landscape photography, and produced a series of photographs exploring the presence of a New Zealand icon - the ti kouka (cabbage tree) - in England’s south-west.

For Arts After Dark, he discusses Nauru Portfolio - a suite of works exploring the environmental impact of phosphate mining on the Pacific island of Nauru.

Peter Ireland: Frank Hofmann and the avant-garde
Whanganui-based painter and writer Peter Ireland discusses the work of the influential Czechoslovakia-born photographer Frank Hofmann.

He pays special attention to Hofmann’s portrait of concert pianist Lili Kraus, whose Steinway piano Michael Parekowhai transformed into his virtuoso Venice Biennale work He korero purakau mo te awanui o te motu: story of a New Zealand river (2011).

6.30pm-7.15pm
He korero in performance: A tribute to Lili Kraus
Elena (violin) and Craig Newsome (piano) present a programme of music inspired by Frank Hofmann’s photographic portrait of pianist Lili Kraus.

Info source:
Museum of New Zealand - Te Papa Tongarewa