Exhibitions
Events
On display
Hidden Light: Dual Focus
Talk
Past event
Philip Carter Family Auditorium
Free
Curator Ken Hall highlights in particular the stories of pioneering West Coast photographers and the work of local early women photographers.
Featuring the photography of Helen Connon and the Stoddart sisters.
Related
Exhibition
Hidden Light: Early Canterbury and West Coast Photography
25 August 2019
Uncovering the remarkable, largely unseen work of early New Zealand photographers.
Commentary
Portraits for the Million
Scottish-born brothers John Tait (1836–1907) and Alexander Tait (1839–1913) established themselves as photographers in gold rush Hokitika in about 1866, the period in which Catton’s The Luminaries is set. While building up a broader picture of photographers for the Hidden Light: Early Canterbury and West Coast Photography book and exhibition, I recalled an interview with the novelist at around the time of her 2013 Man Booker Prize success, and her mention of having restricted her reading for a year before starting the novel to nothing published after 1866, giving the National Library’s Papers Past credit as a vital source. The trails and condensed stories of many of the photographers in Hidden Light were largely brought together via this same indispensable means.