The first New Zealand Portrait Gallery exhibition devoted wholly to portrait photography.
“Personals” is comprised of photograhic portraits by Hawkes Bay artist Richard Brimer. “Kin” is a series of intimate photographs of family members by prominent New Zealand Photgraphers curated by Paul McNamara.
KIN - Contemporary Photographers look to immediate family
PERSONALS - Richard Brimer catches turning points and life-changing moments New Zealand Portrait Gallery, (in association McNamara Gallery Wanganui and Hastings City Art Gallery)
Shed 11 Wellington Waterfront July 29 - September 12
10.30 - 4.30 daily Free Admission
Featuring photographers Richard Brimer and Bruce Foster
A new combined exhibition at the New Zealand Portrait Gallery explores the dynamics of family relationships, and significant turning points in peoples’ lives.
In Kin, developed for the McNamara Gallery in Wanganui for the New Zealand Portrait Gallery, the work of nineteen contemporary photographers graphically demonstrates the elements of kinship as seen through the lens of the professional photographer. All photographers are currently practising and their subjects are close relatives spanning the years 1973-2009. Many of New Zealand’s foremost photographers are represented, including Laurence Aberhart, Anne Noble, Fiona Pardington, Peter Peryer and Ans Westra.
In Personals, Hastings photographer Richard Brimer’s 20 large portrait subjects are caught in images which reveal significant, life-shaping events in their lives, which are exemplified in the companion texts. Both image and text work together to isolate moments, offering the viewer the chance to contemplate the subject as they appear at that instant and to reflect on the possibilities of their inner worlds. Some are well-known- others simply people with interesting lives and stories.
“The personal and private images in this collaborative exhibition are a valuable part of our social history” Director Avenal McKinnon said. “The exhibition has special relevance to the continuing story of our national identity . Because it falls outside works that are publicly or conventionally ‘important’, these images are significant in that they explore myriad facets of kinship within families, the dynamics of family intimacy, and capture ordinary people during significant, private and sometimes life-changing moments.”
While the challenge within photographic portraiture is often the tension between resemblance and the ‘essence’ captured by the photographer, these introspective images invite the viewer to look beyond the actual portrait and look into it to find those moments of connection or significance.
KIN and PERSONALS at the New Zealand Portrait Gallery with McNamara Gallery Wanganui and Hastings City art Gallery
Shed 11 Wellington Waterfront , July 29 – September 12 10.30 – 4.30pm daily Admission free