PhotoForum #83: PhotoForum at 40: Counterculture, Clusters, and Debate in New Zealand by Nina Seja

With contributed chapters by John B. Turner and Athol McCredie. Published by Rim Books in collaboration with PhotoForum, 2014.

Cover photograph by Barney Brewster

ISBN 978 0 473 28325 4
290 x 245 mm, 300 pages, 167 plates with additional illustrations, Softcover
RRP $65.00

In this richly illustrated publication, art historian Nina Seja gives an illuminating account of the communities, relationships, and events that have shaped PhotoForum’s first forty years, and charts the development of photographic art in New Zealand during this time. 

PhotoForum Inc. is a not-for-profit Society dedicated to the promotion of photography as a means of communication and expression. Acting as an intellectual and creative meeting place for New Zealand’s photographic community since its inception in 1973, PhotoForum has published, exhibited, and promoted an impressive list of New Zealand photographers. 

PhotoForum at 40 brings together some of its most significant portfolios, critical thinking, and debates about photography to date, drawn from the PhotoForum archives as well as from dynamic personal correspondence between the photographers and editors. It includes new interviews and conversations with some of the key players who have shaped PhotoForum’s history. From the formative portfolios of Anne Noble, Peter Peryer, and Murray Cammick to the written reflections and conversations of Bruce Connew, Rhondda Bosworth, and Glenn Busch with Tim J. Veling, and others, PhotoForum at 40 delves into the past, present, and future of photography in New Zealand. In contributing essays, co-founder of PhotoForum John B. Turner offers a personal recollection of the Society’s early days, and Athol McCredie, Curator of Photography at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, provides a brief history of PhotoForum’s sister organisation, PhotoForum/Wellington. The volume concludes with a chronology mapping the development of photographic art in New Zealand over more than half a century.

PhotoForum at 40 was published in conjunction with the exhibition History in the Taking: 40 Years of PhotoForum at Gus Fisher Gallery, from 6–28 June 2014, as part of the Auckland Festival of Photography.

Reviewed by Gary Blackman for Landfall Online

Reviewed by Christine Olsen for Artlink

Reviewed by Jonathan Ganley for Public Address

Exhibition reviewed by Peter Ireland for EyeContact

More information about the exhibition here

Also reviewed by Virginia Were for Art News New Zealand Spring 2104 pp116-120