It is with sadness that we at Te Papa learned photographer Marti Friedlander passed away in Auckland on Monday 15 November. Marti was born in London of Jewish parents and emigrated to New Zealand with her Kiwi husband Gerrard in 1958. She was shocked by how conservative New Zealand wasRead more

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Now that springtime is upon us in New Zealand, many plants are starting to flower, producing pollen. Many of us have a negative association with pollen due to its role in causing allergies [PDF, 172KB]. But not all pollen causes allergies, and pollen is of course extremely important to the biology andRead more

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What will make people want to look at a photo in 100 years time? Which ones will people be interested in? These were questions we posed to visitors of the exhibition New Zealand Photography Collected that was recently shown as part of Ngā Toi | Arts Te Papa on levelRead more

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In 2014 I was invited by the City Gallery in Wellington to curate a ‘Frock Room’ as part of Creamy Psychology, a major retrospective exhibition of photographer Yvonne Todd. The ‘Frock Room’ featured glamorous gowns from Todd’s personal collection which she used to create portraits of various women, real and imagined. IRead more

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This photograph below was lost the moment it was taken in 1929 or 1930. Mary Sporle, known as Dolly, proudly showed off her son Leslie for the camera at Wellington’s Berry & Co. studio with the intention of giving his grandparents a photograph of him. But her family believes she never returned toRead more

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There are times in the life of a curator when you see something you would really like to use in an exhibition or publication but have no immediate opportunities. Or you feel that your attraction to it is too personal, and other people wouldn’t feel the same way. So youRead more

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In: History, Photography