A brief history of PhotoForum

Geoffrey H. Short
PhotoForum Director 2012 - present

April 2021

PhotoForum’s history extends back to 1970, so there are a lot of stories to be told. Below is a brief summary from my personal point of view, but I wasn’t around for most of it so please forgive any inaccuracies. For a comprehensive account I recommend the very fine book PhotoForum at 40: Counterculture, Clusters, and Debate in New Zealand by Nina Seja (Rim Books, 2014).

I should begin with an explanation of what PhotoForum is. In essence it is an artist-run space, but one that doesn’t have a physical location. We promote the medium of photography as a means of communication and expression, primarily by way of the publication of photobooks and online editorial on this website, and occasional exhibitions and other events. PhotoForum publications are distributed to members and sold through bookshops and the website - PhotoForum Online. Membership of PhotoForum is open to anybody interested in photography, and any member is eligible to join the organising committee and help steer our activities. The committee members work on a volunteer basis, but thanks to recent grants from Creative New Zealand, we have been able to pay the contributors of reviews, essays and featured portfolios on the website. The only regular funding comes from member subscriptions and some sponsorships.

PhotoForum Inc. was created in 1973 with the express purpose of publishing a new magazine to be titled Photo-Forum, the first issue of which was released in February 1974. The magazine was an evolution from an earlier publication launched in 1970 by Bruce Weatherall, first titled Photographic Art & History, then New Zealand Photography. When Weatherall moved on in 1973, his co-editor, John B. Turner, took the opportunity to re-imagine what the magazine could be. Corralling a small group of fellow photographers, PhotoForum Inc. was created as a way of funding the new magazine with the production values that Turner aspired to.

As founding editor and longest serving director John has given an enormous amount of time and energy to PhotoForum and the promotion of photography in New Zealand. But a forum involves more than one person, and combing through the archives, it becomes clear that hundreds have taken on roles of responsibility within the Society. Between PhotoForum and its sister organisation PhotoForum/Wellington, over fifty people have served as either president, vice-president, or director of the society or as editor or co-editor of PhotoForum, Photo-Forum Supplement, PhotoForum ReView or Newsletter, and countless others have contributed in other capacities. Far from being a one-person operation, PhotoForum has always been a gathering of people, shaped by the particular talents and interests of those who have chosen to put their energy into it at any given time.

PhotoForum’s first decade saw a remarkable level of activity and output, with 55 issues of the magazine produced by the end of 1984, along with six issues of the substantial newsprint publication Photo-Forum Supplement, collectible posters and postcards.

The magazine provided a print venue that had not previously existed for photographers, and this encouraged and influenced many who were just starting to work in the medium. Some of those who have gone on to become major photo artists had early work published in PhotoForum. Peter Peryer, Fiona Clark, Megan Jenkinson, Clive Stone, Murray Cammick, Glenn Busch, Rhondda Bosworth, Ans Westra, John Miller, Marti Friedlander, Gary Baigent, Robin Morrison, Anne Noble, Allan McDonald, Mark Adams, Peter Black, Laurence Aberhart, Jane Zusters, Bruce Foster, Bruce Connew, John Johns, Glenn Jowitt, and Margaret Dawson are among the many who had work published in the first 55 issues.

Alongside the magazine, PhotoForum published posters of historical photographs and postcards of historical and contemporary work, and organised exhibitions, workshops and lectures.

In 1975 a major survey exhibition of contemporary New Zealand photography was organised in collaboration with the Manawatu Art Gallery. The Active Eye toured the country and introduced many important photographers to a wider audience.

1976 saw the first of what were to become annual exhibitions at the Auckland Museum, and PhotoForum supported the touring exhibition of work by the American photographer Edward Weston, along with accompanying lectures by his son Cole Weston.

After attending Cole Weston’s talk in Wellington, a group of local photographers were inspired to create a Wellington branch of PhotoForum.

PhotoForum/Wellington was formed in May of 1976 and PhotoForum Gallery established. Run by Leslie Haines and Sharyn Black, the gallery showed a string of exhibitions at a series of venues over the next few years. The Wellington group also contributed to the magazine, produced posters for most of the exhibitions, and toured some of the shows to Auckland venue Snaps – A Photographers Gallery. Like the Auckland based national organisation, PhotoForum/Wellington also hosted lectures and workshops, and when the gallery space became no longer sustainable in 1982, their energies turned to publications. Their most ambitious publication was the landmark Witness to Change: Life in New Zealand Photographs 1940–1965, a survey of photographs by John Pascoe, Les Cleveland, and Ans Westra. A collaboration between PhotoForum/Wellington and Wellington City Art Gallery, the exhibition and catalogue was curated and written by Janet Bayly and Athol McCredie, and the exhibition toured nationally in 1985.

The PhotoForum/Wellington newsletter, which started as a single page printed on a gestetner machine, moved to offset printing which allowed the inclusion of photographs, and was distributed nationally. Later revamped as an A5 booklet with expanded editorial content and renamed PhotoForum ReView, it carried news, reviews and features of substance until a lack of consistent funding saw its demise in 1990, and PhotoForum/Wellington finally closed in 1992.

Meanwhile, from issue #55 in 1984, the Auckland based PhotoForum Inc. transitioned from publishing a regular magazine to occasional books, and an emphasis was put on exhibitions and education. There were more PhotoForum exhibitions at Auckland Museum, and in 1988 the first of a series of Winter Lecture programmes was launched, with talks by a wide range of photographers.

The early nineties saw a renewed level of activity, with two major survey exhibitions at Auckland Museum, and a return to more frequent publication of books. The late Harvey Benge was a major contributor to both, with his first book Four Parts Religion, Six Parts Sin (1993) being one of three books of his work published by PhotoForum in that decade, and his advertising background being key to the success of the survey exhibitions Open the Shutter – Auckland Photographers Now (1994, curated by Ron Brownson) and Currency – Contemporary Photographic Art (1995, curated by Peter Turner).

The influential New Zealand Photography From the 1840s to the Present by William Main and John B. Turner was published in 1993, profiling 80 photographers with 100 superb reproductions.

Harvey Benge’s Not Here. Not There (1998) marked a new strategy of co-publication, in this case with London publisher Dewi Lewis. This collaborative approach allowed PhotoForum to offer much more substantial publications to members than could have been achieved otherwise, and is still an important part of our publishing mix.

The nineties also introduced the concept of electronic publishing, and PhotoForum, ever pioneering, was quick to adopt the new technology. The first version of the PhotoForum website, designed by Stu Sontier, went live in 1996 with a web version of the Currency exhibition, and has been continually added to and updated since. The concept of “electronic only” exhibitions was pioneered with up:date// The Active Eye, a survey of contemporary New Zealand photography in 2000,  published on the website and as a cd-rom (PhotoForum #68).

In the new millennium to date, PhotoForum has published or co-published 42 books, including major monographs such as Handboek, Ans Westra Photographs (2004), survey projects such as 14 New Zealand Photographers (2008) and Pictures They Want to Make – Recent Auckland Photography (2012), first book projects by young artists such as Immanshaha by Saynab Muse (2019, and historical work such as Tom Hutchins – Seen in China, 1956 (2016) and Real Pictures – Imaging XX (Nina Seja, 2017).

The most ambitious of the historical projects was our 40th anniversary publication PhotoForum at 40: Counterculture, Clusters, and Debate in New Zealand by Nina Seja. This book and the associated touring exhibition (curated by Nina Seja and Geoffrey Short) was a huge project for us, and while it was very successful and generated a lot of renewed interest in the organisation, it did exhaust a lot of resources. Serious consideration was given to calling it a day at that point.  Forty years did seem like a remarkable run for a loose collective of artists and activists, and the book was an extraordinary document of what had been achieved in that time so would have made a very respectable end point. However, that renewed interest brought in new members and new enthusiasm and so the momentum continued, with the next major project being the launch of a national Photobook festival. The first Photobook/NZ event was held in Wellington in March 2016, a collaboration between PhotoForum, Massey University Wellington, Te Papa Tongarewa and incorporating the Momento Pro New Zealand Photobook Awards, the three day festival featured a book fair, workshops, exhibition and talks from local and overseas photobook makers. It was a great success and has become a regular biennial event, with planning underway for 2022.

The other major project in recent years has been the redesign of the PhotoForum website. With support from Creative New Zealand we were able to launch PhotoForum Online in 2018 and under the editorship of Mary Macpherson, maintain a continuous programme of commissioned content including reviews, essays, featured portfolios and listings of photography exhibitions and events throughout the country. Building on what had been published online since 1996, and adding new content on a regular basis has meant that PhotoForum Online is now a remarkably rich resource of and about non-commercial photography in New Zealand, and we are committed to keeping it freely accessible to all who are interested in the medium.

The goal that the organisation started with in 1973: “to promote and sponsor the use of photography as a means of communication and expression”, continues to be the touchstone for our activities. It was an inspired choice of words, allowing a great freedom of interpretation as to how that goal may be achieved. I am in awe of all those who have brought their diverse ideas and energies to the collective enterprise over the years, and am excited that new members continue to join and bring fresh enthusiasm and possibilities. It seems that PhotoForum Inc. will keep going for a while yet.

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Geoffrey H. Short is a photographer and artist based in Auckland. He studied photography at the Elam School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland from 1980 to 1983, and finally finished his degree there in 2009. In between he worked at Real Pictures Gallery & Laboratory for the Camera Arts 1985 -1990, then pursued commercial photography, eventually specialising in stills photography for the screen production industry. He was a member of PhotoForum sporadically from 1982, re-joining in 2008, and was elected director in 2012.