NEWS
Invitation to celebrate the publication and book signing of Derek Henderson's book[details further down this page]
Mercy Mercer: Photographs of the Waikato River
at Parsons Bookshop Auckland
5.30 - 7.00pm . Friday 12th March
Double Take /
Time & Frame
Ann Shelton & John Stefano
The Engine Room, Massey University, Entrance C, Wallace St Wellington
March 4 - 20
WE ARE HERE, AND THERE
City Gallery, Wellington
March 6 - May 16
The first selection of works from the Wellington City Council Art Collection in the Hancock Gallery explores the shifting ways New Zealand artists have looked at and engaged with the land as a contested site.
From watercolour sketches by settler artist C.D. Barraud to the human-modified landscapes of contemporary photographers Wayne Barrar and Anne Noble, this exhibition presents landscape as a complex genre where artistic, political and environmental ideals meet and clash.
Joyce Campbell: LA Botanical and Last Light
Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu
February 20 – May 9
New Zealand artist Joyce Campbell exhibits two bodies of work for Christchurch Art Gallery : LA Botanical and Last Light. Campbell employs two historical photographic technologies – the ambrotype and the daguerreotype – to create arresting, otherworldly images.
In LA Botanical her delicate ambrotypes (negative images on glass that appear positive against a black backdrop) depict medicinal flowers and herbs that have the power to sustain or kill.
The daguerreotypes of Last Light are the results of Campbell 's 2006 trip to Antarctica, and record a landscape that can be eerie and at times redolent of menace.
Neil Pardington & Ann Shelton are included in Unpacking My Library
Te Tuhi Centre for the Arts Manukau City until April 11
Curated by Stephen Cleland
Unpacking My Library considers the act of collecting. Utilising twentieth century media theorist Walter Benjamin's text of the same title as a point of departure, Unpacking My Library seeks out expanded approaches to collecting. Like Benjamin's text, the exhibition takes interest in the process of collecting, as much as the content of a collection. Reflecting on his own library, Benjamin draws upon his obsession with collecting books in order to unpack the psychological drives of the collector. He argues that in a detailed collection certain traits of the collector will be revealed. His invitation into his unpacked library is an invitation to enter a collector's mind - to dwell upon what the order and disorder of collections reveals about their gatherers.
The exhibition presents both artists who actively explore collecting as a daily practice and artists who reflect on pre-existing systems of collating and organising objects.
Works that analyse pre-existing collections include Ann Shelton's studies of the Fredrick Butler Archive and
Neil Pardington's analysis of public art gallery collections
Dan Estabrook At Sea
Daniel Cooney Fine Art
March 4 - April 24
Opening Reception: Thursday, March 4th from 6 - 8 pm
Lyle Rexer in Conversation with Dan Estabrook Saturday, March 6th at 4 pm
511 West 25th Street, #506
New York , NY 10001
AIPAD Photography Show
Park Avenue Armory, 67th Street, in New York City
The World's Leading Photography Galleries and the longest running and foremost exhibition of fine art photography.
Galleries from all corners of the globe, including Paris, London, Berlin, Buenos Aires, Beijing, Czech Republic & Japan.
March 18 - 21
Special Events:
To celebrate the 30th anniversary of The AIPAD Photography Show New York , the 2010 Show will provide vital information from the experts themselves: curators, dealers, artists, and critics. Collectors, photo connoisseurs, and up-and-coming artists will receive essential information about the art of collecting photographs at these special educational events taking place on Saturday, March 20 and Sunday, March 21
Andrew Beck is included in Further Convictions Pending Hirschfeld Gallery, City Gallery Wellington
March 19 – May 2
The title of this exhibition clearly states its approach: new pieces that are part of a still-developing
larger body of work. Each of these artists is at a different stage in their practice, from professionally established Sarah Maxey to recent graduates Tim Thatcher and Douglas Stichbury and currentMasters student Andrew Beck. Yet all are stepping out in new directions and creating new work, which is
the core of this exhibition.
Curator Abby Cunnane says:
“This is new work which represents a specific moment for each artist: a moment of conviction,fulfilment or pause. It's interesting to see the directions these artists are taking. Sarah's wallbased text design is a new field for her, breaking with the restrictions the page she's familiar with as a book designer. Tim's recent move to Wellington from Auckland brings a body of increasingly exciting work to new audiences, and Andrew and Douglas are new graduates showing a huge amount of promise. It's exciting to be able to show them at this moment of transition.”
Further Convictions Pending presents new work by these artists, working across different media:
a typographic wall work, hand-processed black and white architectural photography, and oil painting. The combination of artists is central to this exhibition, representing a cross-section of artforms which intersect at a moment of conviction. As three recent graduates and one more established practitioner, the group represents an interesting sample of new practice. Their shared focus on the future is expressed in the title, emphasised in Sarah's work which presents a graphic banner for the other works to play off against.
The title of the exhibition draws on a book of the same name by Vincent O'Sullivan, a collection of his poems from the last decade. Sarah Maxey designed the cover for this book, and it is one her discarded drafts from this work which served as the impetus for the type design that is included in this exhibition. The drafts, the cast offs, the process as opposed to the product, are all points
of reference for the exhibition.
Wayne Barrar An Expanding Subterra Dunedin Public Art Gallery
March 27 - June 27
Wayne Barrar consistently challenges audiences to think about land use, place and borders in an increasingly controlled world. An Expanding Subterra brings together for the first time a body of work that Barrar has been working on for the last seven years. This project provides a timely insight into a highly industrialized and commodified underground, where vast areas are taken up storing data and nuclear waste, multinational organizations operate 24/7 and teams of workers continue to prospect for rare materials.
Fiona Pardington
Ahua: A Beautiful Hesitation
The Sydney Biennale 2010 THE BEAUTY OF DISTANCE: Songs of Survival in a Precarious Age
Museum of Contemporary Art
May 12 – August 1
A portrait of life-casts of Maori and Pacific people during Dumont d'Urvilles voyage to the Pacific in the 1830s
Anne Noble, Fiona Pardington & Greg Semu are included in Unnerved: The New Zealand Project
Gallery of Modern Art, Queensland Art Gallery Brisbane
May 1 – July 4
The Fairfax Gallery
The Gallery presents the second in a series of country-specific exhibition projects focusing on its contemporary collections with ‘Unnerved: The New Zealand Project'.
Holdings of contemporary work from New Zealand have grown rapidly since the early 1990s, partly through increased awareness and interest in the Asia Pacific Triennial exhibitions.
'Unnerved' explores a particularly rich dark vein that recurs in New Zealand contemporary art and cinema. Psychological or physical unease pervades many works in the exhibition, with humour, parody and poetic subtlety among the strategies used by artists across generations and genres.
Major sculptures by Michael Parekowhai, installations by Lisa Reihana and Michael Stevenson and photographic series by Yvonne Todd, Anne Noble and Greg Semu will feature alongside video art by Sriwhana Spong and Nathan Pohio.
This exhibition will travel to the National Gallery of Victoria, Sydney in late 2010 .
The eight Fulbright New Zealand Senior Scholars include second time Fulbrighter Laurence Aberhart, who previously received a 1988 Fulbright New Zealand Cultural Development Grant to take photographs while travelling the length of the Mississippi and throughout the southern states of the US.
This time he will focus his attention on the Atlantic Seaboard states and visit whaling ports from which fleets sailed to New Zealand and the South Seas in the early 1800s, with a view to unearthing and photographing New Zealand artefacts and materials collected by early American whalers.
Wayne Barrar & Ans Westra are included in the Prix Pictet Earth Book
It presents the portfolios of the 12 short-listed nominees [including Edward Burtynsky, Andreas Gursky and Nadav Kander] as well as a number of images by other selected nominees.
10th annual Arts Foundation Laureates announced
The Arts Foundation has announced its five 2009 Laureates and they include Anne Noble
Anne Noble is one of New Zealand 's most widely recognised and respected contemporary photographers.
She has been described as “one of New Zealand photography's most subtle and poetic of practitioners”.
Anne is Professor of Fine Arts (Photography) at Massey University in Wellington , and was awarded the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to photography in 2003.
Anne's series Ruby's Room was selected by the Musee du Quai Branly in Paris as the keynote contemporary exhibition for the inaugural Paris PhotoQuai Biennale of Photography in 2007.
Anne travelled to Antarctica in 2002 as part of the Artists to Antarctica scheme. She returned to Antarctica in 2008 after winning a prestigious US National Science Foundation Artists and Writers Award.
Photographer Anne Noble
One of the new Arts Foundation Laureates, photographer Anne Noble, whose three trips to Antarctica have produced a large and intriguing body of work.
The Marti Friedlander Photographic Award
Supported by the Arts Foundation, the Marti Friedlander Photographic Award was launched in 2007.
The Award is presented every two years to an established photographer with a record of excellence and potential to continue working at high levels.
The Award includes a $25,000 donation for the photographer to help further their career.
This year's recipients are Mark Adams & John Miller
Alan Bekhuis sent six daguerreotypes to the international contemporary daguerreotypes exhibition in
Bry-sur-Marne, France this year and all have been acquired by the Bry Museum in Daguerre's town, where they are establishing a Museum to honour the photographic pioneer.
195 daguerreotypes were on exhibition from 44 artists.
River/Road:an ecological journey
Waikato Museum, Hamilton, until 18 April 2010
Exploring the parallel arteries of a river and a road as they snake their way from Hamilton to Ngaruawahia, David Cook makes photographs that speak about the ecology of these spaces.
The 20 kilometre journey moves through a mosaic of rapidly changing spaces – industrial zones, suburbs, farms and wild areas. Accompanying the 58 prints is a touch-screen interactive computer that offers background stories and locates the images on a satellite map.
Neil Pardington The Vault Christchurch Art Gallery, November 6 - March 14
then touring to: Wellington, Dunedin, Rotorua and Whanganui
Working behind the scenes in museums and galleries throughout New Zealand with his large-format camera, Neil Pardington reveals the hidden collection storage spaces that are normally closed to the public.
His gathered results ( thirty-five large-scale photographs) hold a strong natural fascination as storehouses of memory or places filled with mystifying treasure.
For Pardington (K a i Tahu, K a ti Mamoe, K a ti Waewae, P a keh a ) the works signify the 'collected culture and history of those things we deem important enough to keep, and what those things tell us about ourselves'.
The Vault Neil Pardington
REVIEWS:
The following artists have photographs included in: Brought to Light: A New View of the Collection
Laurence Aberhart, Margaret Dawson, Andrew Drummond, Paul Johns[see: above right], Fiona Pardington, Peter Peryer, Pauline Rhodes. Ann Shelton [see: above left] & Boyd Webb
Christchurch Art Gallery
November 28 >
Almost seven years since Christchurch Art Gallery opened, the collection display has undergone a complete refreshment. Reconfigured exhibition spaces feature a dynamic mix of new and seldom-seen works, as well as new conversations among old favourites. For any art institution charged with conserving the past, registering the present and offering suggestions for the future, the challenge to 'bring to light' is at once daunting and inspiring. Brought to Light: A New View of the Collection is our response to that challenge.
The Naked and the Nude
Christchurch Art Gallery
December 18 – April 18
Photographers include; Christine Webster , Paul Johns, Fiona Pardington & Anne Noble
The unclothed human figure is one of art's oldest subjects, yet it still catches attention and ignites debate.
This exhibition brings together dozens of bodies from the collection, from languid academic nudes to the fragmented bodies of recent art.
Along the way, the exhibition charts the growing tension between the nude and the naked – between works of art that idealise the body and those that try to tell it like it is.
Beloved: works from the Dunedin Public Art Gallery
Photographers included:
Laurence Aberhart, Mark Adams, Gary Blackman, Ben Cauchi, Di French, Megan Jenkinson, Anne Noble, Fiona Pardington, Peter Peryer, Yvonne Todd & Christine Webster.
December 12, 2009 - October 30, 2011
The Dunedin Public Art Gallery , established in 1884, is New Zealand 's oldest public art gallery.
To commemorate its 125th year, Beloved will showcase a selection of the historical and contemporary gems from the collection. The exhibition and accompanying publication celebrate the history of the collection, paying particular attention to some of the better known and favourite works. Spanning a timeframe of more than 600 years, this rich body of work is both diverse in its content and in the range of media it brings together including painting, sculpture, photography, works on paper, installation and the decorative arts .
Sightseeing
an exhibition and publication of postcards that explores the representation of place in contemporary German and New Zealand photography
Sightseeing with Mark Adams, Fiona Amundsen, Karin Apollonia Müller, Wayne Barrar, Frank Breuer,
John Di Stefano, Jeremy Diggle, Elger Esser, Doris Frohnapfel, Eva Leitolf, Anne Noble, Haruhiko Sameshima, Sarah Schönfeld, Grit Schwedtfeger & Ann Shelton
An exhibition where postcards literally are the exhibition.
It links New Zealand and German photographic artists through a curated exhibition that engages contemporary discourses of globalization and exchange.
The Sightseeing blog is an open, experimental format for research and exchange of ideas around the project.
A portfolio of images from Wayne Barrar's long-term project An Expanding Subterra is included in the latest issue of the European photography journal, Camera Austria #107
Anne Noble's image Spool Henge, South Pole, Antarctica has been chosen from 32 proposals for the photographic billboard at Connells Bay Sculpture Park, Waiheke Island , Auckland
More information at www.connellsbay.co.nz
Diaspora Drawn on the Body Christopher Grabowski
The global Samoan and the enduring art of tatau, photographed by Mark Adams
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
October
16, 2009 – 4 April 4, 2010
In
1967, the NGV established the first separate curatorial Department
of Photography in an Australian art gallery and since that time
we have delivered a continuous program of exhibitions and publications
featuring the rich history of photography. The heart of our activities
is based on the permanent collection which now numbers over 15,000
photographs, of which 3,000 works are by international artists.
This year marks the 40th anniversary of our first acquisitions
to the collection and, as such, it is timely to ‘re-view' what
has been achieved.
In celebration of this anniversary Re-view offers the opportunity
to enjoy a small selection of some of the great international
photographs we have collected. Selected from each decade of the
medium's history from the 1840s onwards, this exhibition shows
the evolution of this unique art form through some of its best
loved and most remarkable images. Every photograph chosen
has a distinct story to tell, not only about what is shown but
also about the place the work has in the artist's career; how
it relates to photographic history; and its cultural and social
context.
From looking at this exhibition it is also possible to chart two
dominant creative strategies that photographers have taken throughout
the last 170 years. For some, photography is a documentary
medium that allows a creative treatment of reality, while, for
others, the medium is a construction or fabrication that exists
as much in the artist's mind as in reality. It is the tension
between these two approaches that animates much of photographic
history and continues to fuel passionate debates
Artists included are William Henry Fox Talbot, Julia Margaret
Cameron, Nadar, László Moholy-Nagy, Man Ray, Ansel
Adams, Robert Frank, Boyd Webb and Yee I-Lann.
New Topographics
900 East Ave , Rochester , New York until September 27, then the exhibition will travel throughout USA until late 2010, then continue on a European tour.
The exhibition New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-altered Landscape, held in 1975 at George Eastman House, signaled the emergence of a new approach to landscape photography and is recognized as a seminal moment in the history of photography, A new version of this seminal exhibition, organized with the Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona, will re-examine more than 100 works from the 1975 show, as well as some 30 prints and books by other relevant artists to provide additional historical and contemporary context. This reconsideration demonstrates both the historical significance of these pictures and their continued relevance today.
It is accompanied with extensive interpretive historic material and a catalog published by Steidl
Ans Westra has a selection of photographs showing at Pataka Museum & Gallery, Porirua, until 24 May, and then touring.
Entitled The Crescent Moon –The Asian Face of Islam in New Zealand the photographs were commissioned by the Asia NZ Foundation and provide insight into the lives of Muslim people living ordinary lives throughout New Zealand and across all levels of society.
The photographs are displayed together with quotes from Adrienne Jensen's text about the people depicted. The Crescent Moon: The Asian Face of Islam in New Zealand, the accompanying book with photographs by
Ans Westra and text by Adrienne Jansen, is published by the Asia New Zealand Foundation.
ISBN 978-0-9582964-0-3.
Mercy Mercer a new book by Derek Henderson
This is Henderson 's second monograph, following the release of The Terrible Boredom of Paradise in 2005
[see: below]
From abandoned rural New Zealand landscapes to the residents of the alternative communities, from Maori teenagers and workers at the Waitoa Slaughterhouse to fashion models and intimate moments from private life, Henderson's varied subject matter is united by an approach marked by a kind of democratic naturalism, where all phenomena, no matter how insignificant or commonplace, is given equal attention.
Although variously described as anti-heroic and anti-iconic, Henderson 's interest in the ‘ordinary' can be deceptive and his narratives often reveal themselves to be more complex and unsteady than they first appear.
Mercy Mercer's 128 colour photographs of the Waikato river, its neighbours, travelers - typically ‘ New Zealand ' in flavour - are punctuated by unexpected moments that tell unofficial stories of New Zealand ;
tales of colonial invasion, poverty, immigration, boredom, and the ecological degradation of the landscape at the hands of commerce.
Mercy Mercer is a cloth-bound, hardcover book featuring128 colour photographs and a foreword by Jan Bryant, Head of Research at AUT School of Art and Design.
Mercy Mercer
Derek Henderson
ISBN 978-0-9582831-4-4
Foreword by Jan Bryant
Design by Fabio Ongarato Design
140 pages, cloth casing
152pp, section sewn
128 colour illustrations
printed on Magno Satin matt artpaper and AA woodfree
cloth-bound with matt black foil blocking on spine, blind debossing on cover
RRP $125
Special
edition (100)
as above plus
box: matt black foil blocking on spine and front
315 x 370 x 40mm overall dimensions
accompanied by limited edition c-type photograph in signed envelope
(250 x 320mm approx.)
RRP $500
THE HOLLOWAY PRESS
BODY ENGLISH: TEXT & IMAGES BY LEN LYE
Edited and with an Afterword by Roger Horrocks
“Body English” was Len Lye's catch-all term for all forms of communication that incorporate a physical dimension – from “body language” (which includes gesture, stance, and facial expression) to surprising combinations of words that function as an “umbilical cord from brain to body”.
Roger Horrocks has brought together lively texts from different phases of Lye's career which focus on this concept central to his aesthetics and combined them with ten “doodles”, free-wheeling drawings which share some of the same qualities of “old brain” imagination, physicality and implied motion. The book is a companion volume identical in size and format to HAPPY MOMENTS, also combining texts and images by Lye which Roger Horrocks edited for the Holloway Press in 2000 and is long out of print.
BODY ENGLISH is designed and letterpress printed for The Holloway Press by Tara McLeod on a Littlejohn cylinder press using metal types. The text is 12 pt Granjon, linotype set by Longley Printing Co. Titles are handset in 18pt Lydian italic. Images are printed from photo-polymer plates made by Inline Graphics.
Binding is by Design Bind. Paper is Evergreen Ivory text 104gsm. Tipped-in photograph by John Phillips, c. 1938. Edition of 150 signed and numbered copies. Price: $200 until publication day (27 November); thereafter $250.
Please send orders to p.simpson@auckland.ac.nz or post the order form on the website www.hollowaypress.auckland.ac.nz to Dr Peter Simpson, Director, The Holloway Press, c/- English Dept., University of Auckland , Private Bag92019, Auckland, New Zealand.
Bold
Centuries:
Photographic History Album
Haruhiko Sameshima
Haru arrived in New Zealand in 1973 knowing the country only from his father's photographs, postcards and picture books. “ Bold Centuries is my attempt at placing photographs in an open narrative, collected as a photographer and as a consumer of this image culture.”
With essays by: Kyla Macfarlane, Ingrid Horrocks, John Wilson,
Tim Corbalis, Aaron Lister, Damian Skinner and Claudia Bell
ISBN 9780473144821 (pbk.) 2009
Satin laminated paper back cover plus 196 pages. 220mm x 240mm.
illustration 4 colour spot varnished throughout as well as duotone
black and white on 175 gsm matt art paper. Approx 930gms
1st edition 1000 copies
RRP $59.95 inc.GST
REVIEWS:
Rauru:
Tene Waitere, Maori Carving, Colonial History
Over the last ten years, in collaboration with anthropologist
and historian Nicholas Thomas,
Mark Adams has tracked the carvings of Tene Waitere (1854-1931)
in New Zealand, Germany, and Britain.
Art
at Te Papa
The evolution of the national art collection is closely linked
with the story of Aotearoa New Zealand itself – its places,
its people and their passions, and its developing sense of identity.
Art at Te Papa,
a major new book from Te Papa Press, spans the Museum’s
collection – from superb early European prints to exciting
contemporary acquisitions. Te Papa’s curators have selected
more than 400 artworks, each one beautifully reproduced, and accompanied
by an engaging mini essay.
Photographers featured include:
Laurence Aberhart, Mark Adams, Peter Black, Murray Cammick, Richard Collins, Frank Hofmann, John Johns,
Anne Noble, Robin Morrison, Max Oettli, Fiona Pardington, Peter Peryer, Ann Shelton, Chrsitine Webster & Ans Westra
Art at Te Papa Standard Edtn
NZ RRP (incl. GST): $130.00
ISBN: 978-1-877385-38-4
Extent: 440 pp
Illustration: over 400 full-colour plates
Format: Flexibind, 315 x 250 mm
Richard Orjis is included in Seen This Century: 100 Contemporary New Zealand Artists; A Collectors Guide
These artists have come to prominence since 2000, and each is allocated 4 pages in the book.
A brief glossary is included.
The Journal of New Zealand Art History Volume 30 (2009)
Editors: Mark Stocker and Anna Petersen
Published by The Hocken Collections, Uare Taoka o Hakena, University of Otago , New Zealand
Features include:
Leonard Bell on migrant central European photographers Frank Hofmann and Irene Koppel
RRP $50 (NZ/AU) or direct from publisher $40
plus postage and packing within New Zealand $5.00 Australia $8.00 Elsewhere $15.00
For orders and inquiries write to: The Hocken Collections, University of Otago , P.O. Box 56 , Dunedin
Fax (6-03) 479-5078 or email anna.petersen@otago.ac.nz
A Field Guide to Camera Species
Darren Glass
Rim Books
ISBN 978-0-473-14735-8
This book is a chronological guide to the cameras I have built since 1990. All are pinhole or slit cameras of simple design, homemade and constructed with readily available materials. Actual photographs taken by the cameras have been excluded in order to focus on camera making and its consequences. I was first alerted to the possibilities of the pinhole camera by my eight-year-old brother. His paper negative of a car next to a shed in Australia , taken with a rudimentary pinhole in the early 1980s, had made its way into the family album.
Years later when I was studying photography I began building my own cameras.
Most of these contraptions have been tested, although some have never been used, others; which failed to produce unexpected ways of seeing the world, have been abandoned. Those not included here are lost, borrowed or destroyed. Often a prototype originates in the desire to photograph a specific subject; a dandelion, the Tongariro Crossing, military search light emplacements built around Auckland , even the camera itself.
Some of these creatures have gone on to produce whole families of cameras that continue to evolve.
My activities are provoked by an interest in how the camera contributes to the interpretation of its subjects. like early photographers who transported giant glass negatives in wagon-darkrooms in pursuit of extreme resolution, I have made cameras that are large, difficult to carry, and often intended for the depiction of remote pictorial sites. I like to think that the work of experimental camera design, begun by Nineteenth Century pioneers of photography, is still in its infancy.
Darren Glass, 2009
REVIEWS:
Peter
Peryer: Photographer
Montana New Zealand Book Award finalist
Essays by Peter Peryer & Peter Simpson
Review on RNZ National's Speaking Volumes
Peter Peryer is one of New Zealand’s leading contemporary
photographers.
As author Peter Simpson writes, ‘Peryer has over the past
three decades and more constructed a world—call it Peryerland—which
has its own distinctive typography, climate and features. Only
the best photographers are capable of such a feat’. Peryer
is also one of New Zealand’s most innovative photographers,
constantly refining and expanding his photographic practice, notably
with his embrace of digital photography from 1998.
Peter Peryer: Photographer includes a plate section of eighty
photographs, the largest body of Peryer’s work yet assembled,
personally selected by the photographer. Complementing these plates
are an engaging, wide-ranging introduction to Peryer’s work
written by Peter Simpson and an autobiographical essay by Peryer
himself, discussing aspects of his life from infancy up to the
time he acquired his first camera in the early 1970s. While
interested in doubles, pattern and repetition, problems of scale,
the surreal and the grotesque, Peryer’s work most often
focuses on the ‘thingness’ of his subjects and objects.
Here are whitebait, shells, two goats, a Meccano bus, a ‘sand
shark’, planes and a windsock, as well as a Moeraki boulder,
the trig on Rangitoto and the Alexandra clock. Rich in lovingly
examined bits and pieces, and prompting a viewer always to think
harder about their significance, this book is a quirky and intimate
guide to Peryerland.
Peter Simpson is associate professor and former head of the Department
of English at The University of Auckland. An academic, writer,
curator and publisher (for the Holloway Press), he specialises
in New Zealand literature, art history, modern poetry and post-colonial
literatures. Simpson is the author of Colin McCahon: The Titirangi
Years (AUP, 2007) and Answering Hark: McCahon/Caselberg, Painter/Poet
(Craig Potton, 1999), and has edited numerous other books.
He has been a friend of Peter Peryer’s for ten years.
ISBN 978 1 86940 417 8
260 x 240mm, paperback with flaps, 176 pages
approx, colour and b+w illustrations, $60
ISBN 978 1 86940 427 7
Special limited edition of 100 copies:
signed and hand-numbered.
We
can accept orders now & they will be available at Parsons
Books
$120
REVIEWS:
Art News NZ Volume 29 / Number 3 Spring 2008, page 164
The National Business Review, Life seen through a differing lens John Daly-Peoples NBR review
...to...concentrate the image.
Art New Zealand Number 130/ Autumn 2009 page 66 - 8 Leonard Bell
New Zealand Books Vol.19 No.3 Issue 87 Spring 2009 page 9 Peter Ireland
Ron
Brownson [Auckland Art Gallery]
– BLOG - On Photography
These fortnightly posts will address photography, from both the
past and the present.
It will include photographs held in Auckland Art Gallery Toi o
Tamaki collections as well as other collections,
both
public and private.
The aim is to open up some discussion
about various practices of photography –
here in New Zealand and elsewhere.
PHOTOGRAPHY AND AUSTRALIA
Helen Ennis
An original and compelling account of Australian photographic history, from the 1840s to the present
Contains many iconic Australian photographs, as well as many lesser-known images of and by Aboriginal
Australians, Photography and Australia focuses on those aspects of photographic practice that can be considered distinctively Australian. It argues that the colonial experience has been crucial in shaping photographers' concerns. The relationship between settler Australians and Aboriginal Australians is regarded as central with photographs of Aboriginal people or by Aboriginal photographers included throughout. Also considered are photographers' responses to place, modernity and globalisation. Images include post-mortem studies of bushrangers, wilderness photographs, documentary photographs, and some of the iconic images in Australian photographic history. The book is visually impressive, illustrated with more than 80 photographs from public collections in Australia .
Photography and Australia provides an original and lively account that will appeal to the general reader, as well
as to specialists and students in the field.
Helen Ennis is one of Australia 's leading photography historians. She was a former Curator of Photography at
the National Gallery of Australia and has worked extensively as an independent curator. Since 2000 she has curated exhibitions for the National Portrait Gallery, the National Gallery of Australia , the National Library of
Australia
and the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Her most recent publications
are the biography MargaretMichaelis: love, loss and photography
(2005), which won the Victorian Premier's Literary Award
for non-fiction (2006) and Reveries: Photography and Mortality
(2007). She is currently a Senior Lecturer and Associate
Head at the Australian National University School of Art.
Photography
and Australia (published
by Reaktion Publishers)
ISBN
9781861893239
Available in NZ from Parsons Books, Auckland
I believe that one can readily contemplate the often parallel NZ considerations whilst reading this book.
LOOK !
Contemporary Australian Photography
Dr Anne Marsh
Published by Macmillan
LOOK ! Represents over 150 artists and more than 400 colour plates.
The book is driven by the photographs and accompanied by a series of scholarly essays that examine photography, its exhibition and its technological developments which have led to the prominence of the photographic medium in contemporary art.
Dr Anne Marsh is Professor of Theory in the Faculty of Art & Design, Monash University . Her books include Pat Brassington: This is Not a Photograph (2006) and The Darkroom: Photography and the Theatre of Desire (2003).
The research for LOOK ! was supported by an Australian Research Council Discovery Grant and a New Work Grant from the Australia Council for the Arts.
LAURENCE ABERHART has come to occupy a singular position not only within the world of New Zealand
photography, but also within the wider visual arts culture.
His images—like those of Eugene Atget and Walker Evans, two presiding spirits in the Russell darkroom—gain
resonance with each passing year.
GREGORY O'BRIEN
A GREAT PHOTOGRAPH is like an underground tunnel, linking histories that seemed to be separate. Aberhart's
extraordinary achievement has been to create photographs that carry the intimacy and urgency we associate
with certain scenes from our own family albums. In the last two decades, he has widened the focus of his art
without diminishing its intensity, moving from the rites and intimacies of his immediate family out into those of
the wider culture—an album encompassing, as he put it in an eight-word manifesto from 1985, ‘My family, my
country,
my head, my heart.'
JUSTIN PATON
LAURENCE ABERHART has been at the forefront of New Zealand photography since the late 1970s, and is
recognised as a major international figure. Like the paintings of Colin McCahon—an artist with whom Aberhart
is frequently paired—his photographs are a sustained meditation
on time, place and cultural history.
They are also virtuoso pieces of photographic craft.
This book is a landmark in New Zealand art publishing. In a definitive overview of Laurence Aberhart's work to
date, 235 full-page reproductions of iconic photographs of churches, marae, cemeteries, Masonic Lodges and
other subjects are accompanied by illuminating essays by leading New Zealand art writers Gregory O'Brien and
Justin Paton. O'Brien pursues the motif of the horizon through Aberhart's work, considering the many journeys
that his career encompasses and the shelters and structures seen along the way, while Paton focuses on the
human presences that quietly animate Aberhart's extraordinary body of work .
REVIEWS:
NZ BOOKS Vol 17 #4 Issue 80 Summer 2007 p14 Then and now Peter Ireland
...he'ill resolutely continue doing Aberharts to reshape our culture to the end.
...what he's doing is making images that speak to us about the now of history, the our lives bit of the spectrum.
Human endeavour is central to his project, the structures depicted are allegories teeming with human aspiration...
Even those minimal horizons are saturated with an ineradicable human longing for the limitless.
ARTBASH [exhibition]
PHOTOFILE #83 Anne Kirker, Art Consultant, Curator and Writer, Brisbane
Exhibition review: Architecture NZ No. 3 2008 May/June, page 120 - 121
The
book is available in:
Sydney
Gleebooks
49 Glebe Point Road, Glebe
02 9660 2333
Canberra
NGA bookshop
We have available the booklet: ON COLLECTING PHOTOGRAPHS
sponsored by The Association of International Photography Art Dealers AIPAD
$15
+ $2 p & p
& this leads into:
COLLECTING PHOTOGRAPHY Gerry Badger [Mitchell Beasley] -available from Parsons Bookshop [see below]
A HISTORY OF NEW ZEALAND PHOTOGRAPHY
ISBN is 1-877333-54-5
ANS WESTRA: Private Journeys/ Public Signposts screened in the Telecom International Film Festival & on
TNVZ in 2006.
The DVD of this 72min documentary is now available & will retail for $39.95rrp, wholesale $26.95.
ANS WESTRA: Private Journeys/ Public Signposts
Ans Westra, whose photographs of New Zealanders constitute a uniquely expressive record of who we are
and have been, now sits for the camera herself. Contemplating her career with amusement and gratitude, she
speaks as one for whom photography is as natural and indispensable as seeing or remembering. Luit Bieringa,
first-time filmmaker and curator of the superb touring retrospective, intercuts her testimony with cordial
interjections from friends, family and other well-informed admirers - and shows us the photos. Drawn to big
public occasions, she's rarely interested in big public figures. Her images are captured at the peripheries of
official activity and are all the more piquant for that. Framed by a conversation with Hone Tuwhare, the film
roundly acknowledges the progressive role her work played in 60s counterculture and in the cultural renaissance
of Maori.
This 72 minute documentary is the extended festival version of Luit Bieringa's film, commissioned by TVNZ and
joins in celebrating a great New Zealand image-maker.
Please advise if you would like more information. Jan Bieringa jan@bwx.co.nz . 04 385 9435 or 027 535 7370
WHITEBAITERS NEVER LIE
Some say great skill and knowledge is required, but others believe in the mere fact of just ‘being there' and being lucky – and those as young as 3 and as experienced as 93 can be bitten by the bug. As an activity stretching back even beyond our colonial past, whitebaiting truly transcends age, race and gender and stands alone as one of the last pioneering activities still practiced today.
Photographers Anita Peters and Murray Hedwig began in 2006 to explore some of New Zealands major river-ways in search of whitebait and their hunters. Hindered at times by poor weather or the results of, and sometimes just no whitebait, the challenges were many.
The resultant collection of digital images show reverence for not only the pristine river environments but also introduce us to an iconic culture that highlights the passion of the real ‘kiwi' character, one that shows great patience and takes pure pleasure from the ethic of hard work.
An outdoor exhibition titled ‘Whitebaiters Never Lie' was held during the Christchurch Arts Festival 2009 from 23rd July to 9th August, precluding the book by the same name due released in late August. The exhibition consisted of 118 selected landscape format images, enlarged to the grand scale of 1.8 meters wide that paraded on double sided top-lit panels down three blocks of Worcester Boulevard from Cathedral Square to the Museum in the Botanic Gardens. The work in this show was selected for the differences of ‘baiting' and river environments and got up close and personal to the inside and outside culture typical of any average river across the country during the season. Text and dialogue enhanced the images in caption panels below.
The book ‘Whitebaiters Never Lie' by comparison takes a tour river by river around the 8 main regions of the country, showcasing ‘hero' rivers to tiny creeks in environments often unseen on the usual tourist trails. The colourful characters captured within the pages of this book represent countless others throughout the land who will go to enormous lengths seeking the thrill of the catch, to sit on wet riverbanks all over the country in the howling winds and driving sleet of winter in pursuance of these tiny fish. The title of both exhibition and book comes from the fact that each whitebaiter has their own theory about nearly everything, and it's unwise to believe what any of them may say. Captions and philosophies throughout back this up. A foreword written by passionate whitebaiter Keri Hulme endorses the richness of this lifestyle.
Both exhibition and book captured images that rejoice and pay tribute to a fascinating culture uniquely New Zealands own. The book was launched on 21st August at the Whitebait Inn in Mokau, North Taranaki, along with a small exhibition of photographs and proof prints of the Mokau River, the river where the three year long project began. This show will remain for the duration of the whitebait season until the end of November.
Whitebaiters Never Lie by Anita Peters and Murray Hedwig with a foreword by Keri Hulme is a David Bateman Ltd hardback published August 2009 at RRP: $49.99
Edwardian Wellington has taken William Main several years to research and accumulate sufficient illustrations to compile a book on the life and times of the photographer Joseph Zachariah .
This
was because his photographs were originally sold in small
editions of real photo postcards under a shortened abbreviation
of his name - Zak . Another factor hindering
this project was that postcards are sometimes classified in collections
at our libraries and museums as ephemera. Because of this they
are sometimes automatically excluded from picture reference files
that are made available for the general public. Realising these difficulties,
the author joined the New Zealand Postcard Society in order
befriend those who had Zak cards in their collections. Their generosity
in permitting him to copy upwards of 750 postcards for this
project, revealed cards ranging from corporate picnics at Days Bay
to couples listening to a brass band on the lawn at Wellington's Botanic
Gardens. All of these activities along with other gems of Edwardian
Society were faithfully recorded by Joseph Zachariah and appear
in this book.
Edwardian Wellington has155 pages 230 X 210mm with 190 duotone photographs
with extended captions. Perfect Bound.
Copies of Edwardian Wellington ISBN 978-0-9597836-1-2 can be obtained
from booksellers or direct from the publisher: EXPOSURES 93 Burma
Road , Wellington 6035. N.Z.
(04) 971-3535
wmain@paradise.net.nz
r.r.p. $50.00 plus $5 post & packing (N.Z. only).
True
North by Tim White
Remote Northland communities are the subject of a new documentary
and a photographic book .
Over four years, photographer Tim White visited the townships,
staying with a local families, earning the trust of the local
Kaumatua (Maori elder) and other community members and documenting
them in photographs and on film.
White says he was originally attracted to this project because
of the area’s past reputation as the most 'Maori' place
in New Zealand – a mysteriously spiritual place with a reputation
of “hopelessness”. But after spending years meeting
and entering the lives of different people and families, White
discovered this 'truth' turned out to be anything but. “In
fact, their way of life is uplifting and it made me question what
is important in my life and what I need to be happy?” says
White.
White
liked the irony of calling the book True North. “There is
no truth in photography. Photographs lie. Words lie. Truth and
lies are relative to the observer and the observed. “You
should not assume any real knowledge from these or any photograph.
Journalism has too often become distorted and sensationalized,
fear is any easy
emotion to prey on stereotypes and preconceptions are often wrong
too. Indeed most of my preconceptions were wrong. My underlying
message is for people to constantly question the media, try to
talk to people yourself, ignorance breeds fear, listening and
trying to understand someone else’s viewpoint may solve
a lot of the worlds problems? “I hope only to try and portray
a positive message of the people I have met in the North and the
landscape itself. There are of course negative aspects to all
our lives but I have chosen to try and look past that and focus
on their beauty,“ he says.
The book, True North, contains over 70 photographs exploring people’s
relationship to the land and each other, spirituality, conservation,
family, sound and oral and written communication. “There
are interesting themes that worked their way into the photos,”
says White. “Roads, paths, gates, religion – they
are all symbolic of a spiritual journey.”
Among the people White captures on film are three generations
of organic farmers, a local Maori elder and recent landowners
together with long-time landowners from
the area.
Whakarongomaikio, which translates from Maori as ‘listen
towards ambience’, is a three-part video documentary that
experiments where still photography leaves off. It explores the
sounds and movement of the Northland community where White stayed.
A Limited Edition version, book + print + dvd-r in hand made box,
of 75 copies, is available through Parsons Books, Auckland
REVIEWS:
Art News NZ Winter 2009 p124
Viva Mag Auckland Herald,13-5-09, p10
Remix Magazine, Issue 62 (current), p189
No magazine, issue 6 (current), p161
D-Photo issue 31 (current) 6 page article reviewing the
project ,p 24
Harpers Bazaar Australia Aug 2009 (current), p 190
For further information contact:
Lucy Slater, Beat Communications
showroom@beat.net.nz
09 361 2480 or 021 745 829
Rick Alexander is a New Zealand photographer who was mainly active between 1976-1991. He specialised in
photography at Ilam School of Fine Arts where his tutors included Larence Shustak and Laurence Aberhart.
Rick pursued photography fulltime for the next eleven years, creating three solo exhibitions and contributing
to many group shows. Hinterland is a collection of photographs, many previously unexhibited, which brings
together a diverse collection of works so that they can be seen in relation to one another, rather than in
isolation.
Technical experimentation is important to this work and Rick has made and used a number of cameras including
a unique process combining a pinhole camera with Polaroid film. The work provokes a range of responses in the
viewers. Peter Ireland has described Rick's work as depicting the “dark underbelly of this [NZ's] pictorial
wonderland”. Rick describes the theme of the work as an “eclectic reflective journey through New Zealand 's
interior and exterior”.
Hinterland
Soft cover only
280 x 225 mm
17 four colour, 47 tritone black and white
RRP $75.00 incl GST
A catalogue raisonne of Laurence Aberhart's Domestic Architecture photographs 1974 – 2005
Along with N.Z. images are those from Australia , Vanuatu , Japan , China and France
This project follows on from our 2002 Aberhart exhibition & publication [with essay by Justin Paton] The Interior
ISBN
0-9582430-8-5
Published by: McNAMARA GALLERY Photography
500
copies printed; individually numbered
REVIEWS:
Architecture New Zealand, March/April 2006, p 94-5
N.Z. Home + Entertaining, April/May 2006, p 25
Architectural
Centre [Wellington] Newsletter March/April
2006
The book is available in:
New
Zealand
Parsons Bookshop, Auckland
Unity Books, Auckland
Borders, Queen Street, Auckland
Magazzino,
Ponsonby Road, Auckland
McLeods Booksellers, Rotorua
Govett-Brewster Gallery shop, New Plymouth
Unity
Books, Wellington
Dymocks Booksellers, Wellington
Gallery Shop, Christchurch Art Gallery
Gallery Shop, Dunedin Public Art Gallery
University Book Shop [Otago] Ltd
Melbourne
Centre for Contemporary Photography
404
George Street, Fitzroy
Sainsbury's Books
534 Riversdale Road, Camberwell
03 9882 7705
Sydney
Published Art, Shop 2
23-33 Mary Street, Surrey Hills
02 9280 2839
Gleebooks
49 Glebe Point Road, Glebe
02 9660 2333
Contemporary
New Zealand Photographers
Laurence Aberhart Mark Adams
Fiona Amundsen Wayne Barrar
Peter Black Ben Cauchi Marti
Friedlander Darren Glass Gavin
Hipkins
Anne Noble Fiona Pardington
Neil Pardington Peter Peryer
Edith Sagupolu
Ava Seymour Marie Shannon
Ann Shelton Deb Smith Yvonne
Todd Boyd Webb
published
by Mountain View Publishing distributed by Craig Potton Publishing
sales@cpp.co
SOLD OUT
REVIEWS:
Photofile 78 Spring 2006, p78 Anne Kirker
Derek Henderson The
Terrible Boredom
of Paradise
SOLD OUT
REVIEWS:
Art News New Zealand Vol 25 #3 Spring 2005, p86
D
- Photo #7
August/September 2005, p9
photoeye booklist, Winter 2005, p31 Darius Himes
Photofile 77 Autumn 2006, p79
Printing-out paper [P.O.P.] is a commercially manufactured paper coated with silver chloride emulsions designed to develop a print from a negative by using light alone, rather than developing using chemicals.
The negative is placed in contact with the sensitized paper, exposed to light [daylight or strong electric light], and the image would then appear spontaneously. The print is then toned [with gold salts], fixed and washed. These papers were quite popular from the 1880s until the late 1920s. The advantages of the gelatin [sometimes collodion] printing-out papers, over earlier albumen paper, was the variety of surfaces, warm image tones, contrasts, and better image stability.
Atget used this process in his exhaustive documentation of Paris.
The process for making platinum prints was invented in 1873 by William Willis (1841-1923), thirty-four years after Louis Daguerre in Paris and William Henry Fox Talbot in London presented the discovery of photography to the world.
However, Sir John Herschel & Robert Hunt had observed the action of light on platinum salts as early as 1832 and 1844 respectively. Willis continually refined the process until 1878, when commercially prepared platinum papers became available through the Platinotype Company he founded.
Unlike the silver print process, platinum lies within the paper surface, while silver lies in a gelatin or albumen emulsion that coats the paper. As a result the final platinum image is absolutely matte with a deposit of platinum absorbed slightly into the paper, and has the texture of whatever paper was used.
The process depends on the light sensitivity of iron salts. A dried sheet of paper, sensitized with a solution of potassium chloroplatinate and ferric oxalate, an iron salt, was contact printed under a negative in sunlight (or another source of strong ultraviolet light) until a faint image was produced by the reaction of the light with the iron salt, forming ferrous oxalate. The paper was developed by immersion in a solution of potassium oxalate that dissolved out the iron salts and reduced the chloroplatinate salt to metallic platinum in those areas where the exposed iron salts had been. An image in platinum metal replaced one in iron. The paper was washed in a series of weak hydrochloric or citric acid baths to remove remaining excess iron salts and yellow stains formed in the earlier steps. Finally, the print was washed in water.
Metallic platinum is one of the most stable substances known, and as such the prints are as permanent as their paper base.
Platinum prints were popular until the1920s , when the price of platinum rose so steeply as to make them prohibitively expensive They were in part replaced by the somewhat cheaper palladium prints, the process for which was very nearly the same.
Both processes were valued for their great range of subtle tonal variations, usually silvery grays, and their permanence.
Conservation advice
The LIFE EXPECTANCY / STABILITY of photographs depends on: the type of photographic process, how well they were processed, and the way in which the photographs are stored [light exposure {can be reduced significantly by UV-protective ‘conservation glass'} humidity {aim for relative humidity of 30 – 50%}
and temperature {maximum no more than 18 - 25° and temperature variation of = 4°}] and handled.
Unframed prints 28 x 36cm or greater, should be stored horizontally rather than vertically, in stacks not exceeding 5cm high.
Simple measures for reducing light exposure include: drawing curtains & turning off lights [when room is unoccupied] and rotating displays so no single photograph remains on display on a permanent basis.
From the time of its production a photograph undergoes change.
Factors influencing such change include: whether it is an analogue or digital print, pigments or dyes used
[& compatibility between these and the paper type], paper used, chemicals /toners employed, and
support materials [especially acidity levels {aim for pH between 7 – 8.5}, adhesives used and metal-expansive properties]. Colours may change [fading or colour shift] and black & white photographs may develop yellowing, microspots, silver-mirroring or cracking. Agents used for spotting photographs may also fade.
For further detail refer to: www.wilhelm-research.com
The Permanence and Care of Colour Photographs … by Henry Wilhelm, 1993
An introduction to the editioning of photographs
This text, which should be seen as a discussion paper, will be reviewed periodically [last revision 5. 3. 10]
It has been discussed at public forums in Auckland [Webb's Auctions July 2008] & Melbourne [Centre for Contemporary Photography, March 2009] and there was no significant dissension to the notions put forward.
Paul McNamara
Association of International Photography Art Dealers member
McNAMARA GALLERY Photography
Though a discussion paper, one can be categoric about some points:
1. The multiple nature of photography should be celebrated, despite
market pressure to limit editions.
2. Each photographic print should be uniquely identifiable; either
by numbering or editioning of prints.
Absolute clarity is required. Editions can
be closed [indicated by a fraction] where the number of prints
to
be produced is nominated at the outset, or open, consisting
of sequentially numbered prints.
3. Artistic freedom should be nurtured.
4. The provenance of photographic prints is particularly important.
Historically, the monetary value of an artwork was determined
by rarity as well as aesthetics, which raises interesting tensions
with photography’s innate capacity for endless reproduction.
Some see editioning as contrary to the nature of the medium, and
purely a marketing phenomenon. In the U.S.A., before the period:
1960s – 1980s, editioning was unnecessary because no one
was buying photographs in large quantities, and photographers
printed on demand. Frequently actual print numbers from the era
are unknown, but it is often rare to find more than 5 copies of
any one image. This is also the likely number in NZ. When working
with material from the 1960s – 1980s I endeavour to ascertain
the actual number of prints made from each negative. This is reflected
in the pricing of prints. In the U.S.A. the word edition
was not applied until after 1972 - 3.
New York dealer Lucy Mitchell-Innes, who ran the contemporary-art
department at Sotheby's in the 1980s, has recently observed that
the multiple nature of photographic prints no longer bothers collectors.
"People now want to own pictures that other people own,"
she says."That's a major shift…." However, this
is not just a contemporary observation. Ansel Adams’ Moonrise
over Hernandez is notable as a work that held the highest price
paid for a photographic print in the 1970’s for a very long
time. The fact that there were hundreds of examples of it in existence
didn't seem to have deterred the price from being set at the time.
“Photography has become the "hot" medium of the
visual arts in the past decade. Prices have escalated and buyers
seem unfussed that photographs might be one of many editions.
The Age art critic Robert Nelson said the fact that there might
be multiple copies of a photograph was no different to multiple
editions of Rodin's sculptures or Rembrandt's prints. Describing
[Jeff] Wall as a "very significant artist", Nelson said
photography was finally being recognised for doing what no other
medium could do.” [Raymond Gill The [Melbourne] Age
16.12.06]
With the move to digitally produced images, the growth in the
market, and the potential for endless identicals, the desire for
artificial limitation [i.e. editions] has intensified.
“As much contemporary work is now printed mechanically from
digital files, it has been said that in a crude way the act of
editioning is the residual mark of the artist “[Sally
Breen, Photofile #77, 2006]
My policy has always been to leave the issue of editioning
to the artist, as part of their expressivity –
for how long & how widely they wish a particular image to
be in circulation, prior to releasing their next work, and
thereby
maintain a creative momentum and dialogue with their audience.
A hand-printed analogue photograph, crafted one print at a time,
may be better characterized as a ‘multiple
original’. Each print, when viewed alongside
others from the same negative, is recognizably though subtlety
unique in most cases. However, it can take a very experienced
eye to assess the technical ‘quality’ [and ‘value’]
of a particular print. This notion, of the ‘multiple original’,
is reinforced by identifying each print accurately.
As anyone who has spent time in the darkroom will know, the ‘infinite
reproducibility’ of analogue photographs
is something of a fiction; the medium is self-limiting because
of the effort and time required to produce a fine photographic
print. The number of prints made from a negative is generally
limited by demand for a particular image. If there is a high level
of demand for an image at the beginning - in other words it is
popular - then print numbers will be higher than for another image.
In the case of open editions the collecting public does not know
when the artist will actually stop making more prints of a particular
image.
With analogue cameras, film, paper and chemicals presently becoming something of an endangered species, print supply can stop abruptly. I am now of the opinion that 'material supply' is the limiting factor in analogue print edition size, and we should dispense with 'artificial' limitation, and allow demand to be the prime determinant.
In the last decade, analogue photography has become the nearly exclusive preserve of artists and high-end professional photographers, and the business empire that analogue-based photographic manufacturers ruled over has crumbled. [Hamish Tocher, artist, 11.11.09]
However, with closed editions, one will know in advance just how many prints are available. Popular images from an open edition[that eventually closes] will of course remain in demand in the secondary market and thereby attain a degree of rarity. Conversely, a less popular image from a closed edition may always remain available and be less rare. In other words, the ‘value’ of a specific image is not necessarily related to the quantity of prints made.
When
an artist decides on a fixed edition size for their work, this
tends to imply an even public response; however, there is a highly
variable response to images, with some being popular and others
not.
When a favoured image sells out quickly this can result in a thwarted
public response.
George Eastman House, the worlds oldest museum of photography, established in 1947 and Image Permanence Institute have established a Center for the Legacy of Photography to collect and share knowledge about 19th and 20th century photographs, to examine the importance of understanding the material nature of photographs and ensure their uniqueness as a fine art and visual communication medium. There is a need to understand and define the ways in which the material nature of silver-halide photographs [chemical technology using lightsensitive silver emulsions] differs from that of digital images and to make clear that the preservation and interpretation of the two pose distinctly different challenges. Changing the materials, working methods, and the aesthetics of photography have altered in profound and lasting ways, and highlight how its specific technical characteristics are intrinsic to its aesthetic qualities .The Centre will inform the appreciation of photographs through a materials-based art history that unifies the technical and aesthetic understanding of photography.
If the artist does choose to limit the edition, which has became
common practice since the 1980s, the negative is retired [but
rarely destroyed] once the nominated edition has been printed;
though the whole edition is often not printed all at one time.
Some photographers like to print the edition in stages so that
they can interpret the negative differently, use different papers,
or take advantage of newer technologies. Also, if demand is slow,
the whole edition may never be fully realized. Also, some artists
may decide to 'kill' the edition before it is fully realised.
Conversely,
with a popular image, when the finite [limited] edition sells
out interest can be deflected toward other images by the artist.
Limited supply can, therefore, drive interest toward an artist’s
entire body of work.
The term edition should not be used retrospectively,
rather the print number, or an estimate of the this.
Included in this calculation should be a list of works held by public collections.
When an artist decides to produce a finite / limited edition of an image that was previously non-editioned, then the new prints could be annotated, for example, with: Edition 2/10 [c. 12 earlier non-editioned prints exist]
Print-to-print variation, of the same image, can of course also
be present with digitally produced photographs.
Again the artist may change the final appearance of an image from
the original digital file, or printing technology or paper stock
may change.
My recommendation on editions is
one sequentially numbered [as produced]
edition of prints for each
image which may
be of the same or different dimensions [dimensions
variable] and printed
using one or more
printing
techniques.
Since photographs can be printed in different sizes, there is
potential for confusion if a photographer prints an edition in
one size but later considers that a different size print can be
produced in an additional edition. My recommendation is that there
can only be one edition regardless of size.
This is now becoming a more accepted practice in NZ. It is
clearer to collectors and the artist remains free to
vary the image size as the edition sells.
If different sizes are to be available within the nominated edition they should be announced at the beginning.
If there
are more than one printing method [print type]
I believe it is best to keep these within the image edition,
but to specify on the print, and in any documentation, the print
type and the number of prints produced of this type.
Also, it is my practice to price work with little or no differential
according to size. I favour a single [image] price with any required
differential based on scale to be in accord with production costs.
Large works can be more difficult to frame [from a conservation
perspective] and more difficult to accommodate in domestic environs.
The scale of image selected by the artist should be based only
on aesthetic considerations.
I am not an advocate for step-pricing [escalating prices that evolve over the life of the edition], however, pre-orders can attract a lower price, and of course price reviews on an artist's work will apply to remaining works within an edition. If step-pricing is employed there should be a central registry though.
My recommendation on titling and dating photographs is:
title; image /negative year; print
year; edition number*; signature [+/- artist stamp]
*e.g. 3/15, if work is editioned
or
print number [if it is an open edition of sequentially numbered
prints]
I like to see two dates on all prints, unless the prints were
all made in the same year as the negative.
Some artists refine this by writing “first printing”
on a work. This is informative when there is an interval between
the date of negative production and when the first print was made.
When photographs are framed this information inscribed on the
print should be transcribed onto the back of the framed work.
This titling and dating information may be written on the front of the print [recto] and covered with the framing overmatt, or on the back of the print [verso].
If an
artist is deceased, this print year information informs as to
whether the print was made under the artist's supervision, or
it is a posthumous print.
One could make a case for a limited edition when photographs are:
- digitally produced
- large and expensive to produce
- presented as albums or portfolios
- printed by a master printer, under the artist’s direction
When actual prints are large, editions tend to be correspondingly
small.
Currently ‘recommended’ edition sizes are getting
smaller[Internationally], and the range is:
[‘artists’
using photography: 3 - ] 5 –10 [ - 25 ‘traditional’
photographers]
Large editions in this small country of ours seem naively optimistic
in many cases.
Once a photographic print is finally determined, they cease to
be artist proofs in the correct sense of the word in that they
are likely to be identical to the editioned prints.
It is now preferable for the artist to make an edition and to
retain artist copies from the edition. [eg one artist copy* &
one artist estate copy] In other words, the edition includes
any designated artist copies; the stated edition is finite
and purchasers know just how many prints are produced and how
many are for sale.
*Artists occasionally reserve one [or more] works in an edition
for public institutions.
Prints gifted by artist, or exchanged with other artists, should come from the nominated edition.
Some of these will eventually enter the secondary market. Artist copies may eventually enter the marketplace when a family sells estate prints.
Some artists produce unsigned, not-for-sale 'work prints' [for demonstration purposes, mailing-out for viewing, etc] and these do not constitute part of the edition.To protect against any confusion later, these should be annotated Work print. Not for sale.
It has been said it is important for public collections to be
developed with a longer view and curators didn't want to feel
pushed to buy a work at its inception. They might consider a work
long after it has been made as the appropriate time to collect
it. Also, a senior curator of photography in Australia has said:
"I favour the system
where artists can provide a short term reprint for exhibition
tours if it is destroyed afterwards, and they should also be able
to provide prints for publication scanning."
The artist copy[s] of an image is expected to appreciate in value
alongside those sold from the edition.
This may serve to circumvent the need for the more bureaucratic Artists’ Resale Right question, with regard to photography.
Editions also control wildcard factors like avaricious relatives not concerned with the artist's posthumous reputation, but on the other hand, is the undesirability of so doing on an archive being so completely closed off to the possibility of public gallery exhibitions. Depositing archive negatives in public institutions may serve to deal to these issues. Estate prints that are unsigned, or posthumously produced prints [from the original negative], can be authenticated by a family member [e.g. photograph and print by..., and signed and dated by a family member or estate representative]. However, the role of an artist stamp being appled posthumously is potentially confusing.
A vintage print is one made ‘close to the aesthetic moment’,
and is thus an object made not only by the artist [or under their
supervision] but produced, contemporaneously with the taking of
the image – say within five years.
Vintage photographs can be indicated with either a single date,
or two dates; the second date being no greater than five years.[Some
would say no greater than one or two years]. However, improved
clarity is provided by the notation of negative year/ print year
outlined above.
A vintage print tends to fetch a higher price because it reflects
best the intentions and thinking of the artist at the time the
negative was made, as well as the aesthetic of that period generally.
More recent prints from an older negative are referred to as modern
prints.
A photograph may be printed differently at various stages of an
artist’s career due to a change in the artist’s interpretation
of the negative, a refinement in printing style, changes in available
materials and improved technology. Also, another printer may be
able to produce a better result than the photographer themselves
[I always acknowledge both the photographer & printer in such
cases].
Therefore it follows that a vintage print is not implicitly superior.
| PHOTOGRAPHY |
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| photography - now
www.photography-now.com |
photo-eye www.photoeye.com |
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Te Manawa ART, Palmerston North Pataka, Porirua |
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| AIPAD
The AIPAD Photography Show, at the Park Avenue Armory, 67th Street , New York, is the longest running and foremost exhibition of fine art photography. A wide range of the world's leading galleries show at this event. |
Gus Fisher Gallery, Auckland Gus Fisher Gallery - National Institute of Creative Arts and Industries – The University of Auckland Tauranga Art Gallery |
| WANGANUI |
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| sarjeant gallery www.sarjeant.org.nz |
whanganui regional museum www.wanganui-museum.org.nz |
| emma camden - glass artist www.emmacamden.co.nz |
paloma gardens www.paloma.co.nz |
| WANGANUI INFORMATION, ACCOMDATION & EVENTS |
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