Distinguished Professor Anne Noble, Yumi Goto and Ryo Kusmoto (left) welcome Governor-General Dame Patsy Reddy and her husband Sir David Gascoigne to the Photobook Festival at the Wellington campus with fellow photographers Tammy Law and Michiko Hayashi.
Photography’s lens has focused strongly on Massey University in 2018 with Whiti o Rehua School of Art director of photography David Cook, and Distinguished Professor Anne Noble, leading Massey’s contribution to the 2018 Photobook NZ Festival.
The biennial Wellington festival hosted at Massey and Te Papa, celebrates small press photobook publications and connects networks of photographers, designers, publishers, gallerists and book lovers.
To coincide with the festival, in early March the school, hosted a visit by renowned British landscape photographer Jem Southam who was invited to New Zealand to deliver the annual Peter Turner Memorial Lecture. During his month-long visit, funded by the International Visitors Research Fund, he undertook some preliminary research towards a future collaborative New Zealand project.
Professor Southam also led an archives seminar with senior Massey lecturer Associate Professor Barrar that saw discussions between museum archivists and conservationists from institutions including Te Papa, Hocken Library, National Library, Puke Ariki and Auckland Museum about the future of photographers’ archives in the digital age.
At the festival he was part of an International Photobook Masterclass led by Professor Noble and Mr Cook with six other international Photobook New Zealand international guests. The Masterclass attracted 22 participants from throughout Australia and New Zealand.
Guest speaker Carolle Bénitah from France (centre) who held a workshop based on her own practice for secondary school art and photography teachers.
In its second iteration the Photobook festival also included a Photobook fair and the Momento Pro Photobook of the Year awards.
The festival also featured free public talks and lively panel discussions with award-winning local and international photographers, publishers and curators including Carolle Bénitah ( France/Morocco), Yumi Goto (Japan), Katrin Koenning (Germany/Australia) Perimeter Books ( Australia), Bryan Schutmaat ( USA) and Professor Southam.
Photobook NZ is a partnership initiative developed through the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding last year between the museum and Massey including its College of Creative Arts.
Photobook NZ was an extraordinarily successful event, drawing together experts, amateur and professional photographers, gallerists, publishers and distributors from throughout Australia and New Zealand, Professor Noble says. Funding partners included the United states Embassy, the French Embassy and Creative New Zealand.
“It is this kind of outward facing event that positions Massey University as a discipline leader known for excellence in photographic education and research and service to the medium.”
The University’s focus on photography continued last week with staff involved in the Wellington Photography Festival called Photival, which is being co-hosted at the Wellington campus till April 29.
With a focus on social documentary photography, Ms McQuarrie was joined by School of Art colleague Associate Professor Ann Shelton for workshops and panel discussions. Associate Professor Sean Phelan from the School of Communication, Journalism and Marketing also spoke.
Professor Noble, School of Art lecturer Shaun Waugh and Master of Fine Arts graduate Andrew Beck also have work exhibiting at the Monash Art Gallery, Melbourne till May 27. The exhibition Antipodean emanations: cameraless photographs from Australia and New Zealand showcases more than 80 cameraless photographs and provides opportunities for audiences to engage with the nature of photography through a variety of cameraless processes. These include prints created through direct contact between subject matter and a light-sensitive surface, as well as experiemts with photocopiers and digital scanners.