Thread Between Darkness & Light

Stella Brennan
With essays by Dr. Susan Ballard, Dr. Kirsty Baker, Dr. Lissa Mitchell and Dr. Ross Galbreath

Published by Rim Books, June 2024

ISBN: 978-1-99-116524-4

Pages: 120pp, with colour reproduction
Format: hardcover wrapped printed cloth, section sewn
Dimensions: 268 x 207 x 15mm
RRP $50.00

Book launch 2pm Saturday 22 June 2024
Trish Clark Gallery
142 Great North Rd, Tamaki Makaurau Auckland

The book launch will include a discussion with artist Stella Brennan, publisher and award-winning photographer Haru Sameshima, founder of Rim Books, and Shaun Higgins, Pictorial Curator at Auckland Museum, and co-editor, with Catherine Hammond, of A Different Light: First Photographs Of Aotearoa, recently published by Auckland University Press.

This 120 page photo book features an evocative collaborative essay by Susan Ballard, Professor of Art History at Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington, Kirsty Baker, Curator at Te Whare Toi, and Lissa Mitchell, Curator of Historical Photography at Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, bringing their unique perspectives to a text that breathes life into these spectral images.

Brennan’s documentation of her discovery process is complemented by historian Ross Galbreath’s riveting account of Louise’s adventurous mother Lucie, tracing her journey from birth in a London workhouse, to the 1871 Siege of Paris, to her arrival with her three daughters in 19th-century Tāmaki Makaurau. Thread Between Darkness and Light is not just a photobook; it’s a poignant bridge across generations, a tapestry woven from the traces of the past into the light of the present.