Photography As Relevant And Popular As It Was 50 Years Ago

The art of analogue photography, darkroom processing and developing prints is in high demand 50 years after the tertiary photography course was first offered to Wellington students in 1975.

Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa Massey University opened its new state of the art 18 booth darkroom in the former Dominion Museum building last week, alongside a suite of other photographic resources including lighting studios, film scanners, digital print and alternative process facilities.

This semester, more than 70 students are enrolled in the first year Introduction to Darkroom course at Massey’s Toi Rauwhārangi College of Creative Arts.

Photography Major Coordinator Shaun Waugh says as the country’s longest-running photography programme, the course is as relevant as it was at its outset.

“Our programme continues to shape generations of image-makers, researchers and cultural commentators who explore how we see and interpret the world around us.”

Analogue(n.) exhibition opens today

Massey University is celebrating the 50-year anniversary with an exhibition of images provided by over 100 alumni, former and current photography teaching staff. The exhibition is being held in the Engine Room at Massey’s Wellington campus from Tuesday 22 July to Saturday August 9.

The exhibition features images from photographers who are spread all over Aotearoa New Zealand and the world including Professor Emerita (fine arts) Anne Noble, David Cook, Wayne Barrar, Ann Shelton, Gavin Hipkins, and the founder of the original photography course, William Main.

Renowned photographer Peter Black was one of the students in the very first photography course offered by the then Wellington Polytechnic in 1975. He remembers using photographs from a roll of black and white film developed from his first camera (a Pentax spotmatic) to support his application. Just seven years later his Fifty Photographsshow (1982) was the first one-person show of photography at the National Art Gallery. Mr Black chose a colour image he took in 1984, Woman with Lizard for the exhibition.

Senior lecturer Shaun Waugh says it’s ironic that in the same year that Massey’s photography course began, Kodak built the first CCD-based digital still camera—a toaster-sized device capturing just 0.01 megapixels.

“This technological coincidence underscores a key tension explored in the exhibition: between the mechanical past and the computational future of photography, and the enduring value of analogue ways of seeing and making,” he adds.

Photography is available as a major within the Bachelor of Design (BDes) at Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa Massey University. Students can complete a three-year BDes, four-year BDes (Hons) degree, a Masters in Fine Arts, Masters in Design or PhD with a focus in Photography.

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