Desmond Kelly

It was sad to hear of the recent passing of Desmond Kelly.

Best known as an actor, with many stage and screen credits, (NZ Onscreen has an excellent profile that details his acting achievements) Des was also a teacher, photographer and writer, and a significant contributor to the creation of PhotoForum and PhotoForum/Wellington.

In the late 1960s in Wellington, Des Kelly and John B Turner perceived and encouraged public interest in photography as an art form, organising two public film screenings at which photography books were also shared and discussed. The first at the Wellington Teachers College in Karori where Des was teaching geography, and the second in 1970 at the Dominion Museum (where John was the photographer) which journalist Bruce Weatherall attended and was inspired to publish the national  newsletter Photographiic Art & History which started in May 1970, and changed title to New Zealand Photography in 1971.

Des was a contributing editor to these titles, and when they evolved again to become PhotoForum Magazine from 1974, he contributed reviews and articles.

In 1976 he was one of eight photographers who exhibited in the 36 Exposures exhibition at the “Taj Mahal” venue in Wellington, a collaboration that led directly to the formation of PhotoForum’s sister organisation PhotoForum/Wellington, for which Des served as founding President.

He wrote an excellent essay outlining the background of PhotoForum/Wellington in PhotoForum #35 (1976/77) (reproduced below).

He also wrote for Art New Zealand on Leslie Adkin, Paul Hewson and a group show called The New Image: Twelve Contemporary Photographers . In 1983 he wrote and presented a series on photography for television arts show Kaleidoscope.

He was also editor of the book New Zealand Photography from the 1840s to the Present (PhotoForum, 1993), and it is in that publication that he is credited with encouraging Anne Noble, (then a student at Teachers College where Des was a lecturer) to take up photography. He also encouraged Grant Douglas as a student and perhaps his last book introduction was that for Grant’s 2019 book Hunter of Beauty.
Anne and Grant have both furnished some recollections printed below.

In retirement Des returned to his country of birth - Australia, and amongst other projects published a novel Death of a Friend (Gumbark Books, 2015).

It is difficult to find any of Desmond’s own photographs published. It seems that he operated mainly as an informed enthusiast for the medium, encouraging and facilitating the work of others, but remaining in the background himself. He did do the photography for the book Home landscaping in New Zealand : a design guide by Bryan McDonald; photographs by Desmond Kelly, published by Collins, Auckland 1980.

The only time I met Des myself was when he was playing a (typically) supporting role in the feature film The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey (1988), and I was the unit stills photographer. Combing through my archives I could only find one photo that includes him, and I think it is illustrative of how he operated, as an actor and photography activist. He is not the central figure, but is in the background, slightly obscured, but providing vital character to the scene.

Thank you, Des, for providing vital character to so many scenes, on stage, screen and in life. You will be missed.

Geoffrey H. Short, February 2024

Recollections by photographer Anne Noble:

.. I attended Wellington Teachers College in 1974.  At this time there was a teacher shortage and for a period there was government enticement to train. I got paid to go – enough to pay my rent and run my first car.  How lucky we were.  While there I was privileged to meet and spend time with Des Kelly who, drawing on his background as a geologist, was charged with expanding the realm of ‘Social Studies’ for would-be primary school teachers.  The lecturers then had embarked on an experimental training stream called ‘AREA N’  The philosophy underpinning it was that to become a good teacher you first of all must be passionate about learning.  We were encouraged to explore and develop across all areas of the arts and given plenty of time to do so.  It was during a ‘Social Studies’ module that Des introduced a small group of us to photography and I became a devoted student, largely in response to Des’s engaged and delightful introduction to the histories and practices of photography.  There was a darkroom, and I still remember those first photographs I made and Des’s encouragement and pleasure in the results.  He really was a great teacher.  I’d pop into his office with another friend of mine and there would always be a new pile of photography books for us to pore over.  He introduced me to Edward Weston, Paul Strand and Minor White and it wasn’t long before I got the bug.  I completed two years at Teachers College during which time I found what it was that I really wanted to do with new found passion for learning that Des Kelly enabled and nurtured.  He questioned the wisdom of not completing teacher training.  We had long conversations about it. But I took the bull by the horns and headed off to Art school.   Not long afterwards, Des made his own switch to pursue a career as an actor.   I look back at my time at Teachers College and remember Des with great fondness and gratitude.  He was a great teacher.  He is someone I have always carried with me as a source of inspiration especially when eventually I did become a teacher – of photography.

Recollections by photographer Grant Douglas:

I grew up in the Hutt Valley and went to Wellington Teacher’s College in the year of 1969, because I felt that by training as a teacher I could make a positive change. It was an extremely academically liberal time in the late 60’s/early 70’s. Des was the head of the Geography Department and very well liked by all the students, and there was an Art Department,  but this did not have a photography component.  I was expressing to Des one day my frustration at the lack of creative outlet and he passed me one of the College’s cameras and said have a go at this.  I was back the next day with an assortment of odd exposures.  He immediately showed me how to develop a film and then a couple of days later the basics of printing in the College’s darkroom and that was it – lessons over, apart from introducing me to the great photographers of the past.  I loved it!  In my third year of College most of the time was spent on our specialist credit.  Somehow Des wangled it that my credit was photography, even though there was no photographic department at the College.  At the end of Training College Des continued to support me in my photography and personal endeavours and became a close friend of myself and my family.  Over the next 50 years he has continued to be supportive and inspirational, recently writing an introduction to a monograph I produced. Hunter of Beauty: Photographs by Grant Douglas (2019).

Des introduced me to the work of a number of photographers from the past, everyone from Dorothea Lange to Ansel Adams, but the ones that struck a chord with me were Frederick Sommer for his photography of discarded objects, Minor White for his interest in Zen, and Alfred Stieglitz for his idea of equivalence.  He once asked me what I thought was the difference between my work and Edward Weston’s (whose work I admired for the subject matter and tonality) and I replied that I got about a metre closer, removing the subject from its surroundings.

Des once introduced me to a dancer he knew, who was performing at the college, Paul Cassidy.  I was very flattered when he introduced me by saying “Grant photographs the way you dance”.

Des told a lovely story of how (his wife) Elizabeth said she would be happy for him to continue acting, if he could make $4,000 in his first year.  When they totalled his income up at the end of the year, he had earned $3,395.00 and Elizabeth gave him the extra $5 to bring it up to the required amount.

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