This is one of my favourite Brian Brake photographs, and it was one of his as well. You can see it exhibited in Ngā Toi | Arts Te Papa on level 5 of Te Papa at present, and in my book New Zealand Photography Collected. The only time it has previouslyRead more

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Continuing our series of blogs to mark the visit of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge to New Zealand, I thought I would touch on one of the lesser known royal visits of the past, that of William’s grandfather, the Duke of Edinburgh, in December 1956. The relative obscurity ofRead more

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Brian Brake took some intriguing photographs of people in pubs and bars. At the Randwick racecourse bar in Sydney he used Kodachrome to capture the garish colours and dramatic expressions. On another occasion he used black and white 35mm roll film to create a different effect with his images ofRead more

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Brian Brake grew up in Arthur’s Pass and retained a love of New Zealand’s mountains all his life.  He took hundreds of photographs of South Island peaks, lakes and rivers.   If you’re an alpine enthusiast, a keen tramper, or you know the South Island well, please take a look andRead more

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 Te Papa has an enormous collection of photographs, negatives and transparencies by Brian Brake (1927 – 88), one of New Zealand’s best known photographers.  Brake became famous while working overseas as a photojournalist – one of his best known works is the Monsoon photo essay, which he took in 1960. Read more

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56 years ago New Zealanders celebrate victory over Japan (15 August 1945) The photo below shows people celebrating VJ (Victory over Japan) Day in Wellington. It was taken by John Pascoe, who was employed by the government to photograph life in New Zealand during World War Two. The day markedRead more

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In: History, Pacific

Crowd-pulling Exhibition The exhibition Brian Brake: Lens on the World is now touring New Zealand and recently opened at Auckland Art Gallery, where it drew large crowds on its first weekend. This followed phenomenal attendances at its inaugural showing at Te Papa. An estimated 191,000 people visited the exhibition overRead more

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I’ve enjoyed searching through Te Papa’s collections to find items related to Christmas for this year’s advent calendar. Advent calendars developed from a 19th century German Lutheran tradition of counting down the 24 days before Christmas. An advent calendar has 24 doors that you open each day from 1 DecemberRead more

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In: Collections Online, History

Brian Brake is one of New Zealand’s best known photographers. His career covered the golden age of photojournalism  – his images featured in magazines around the world such as Life and Paris Match. He was passionate about New Zealand, the people and landscapes. Te Papa is very fortunate to have been giftedRead more

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