Open the Shutter - Video interviews - 1994

Interviews with Mark Adams, Rhondda Bosworth, John Carapiet, Jennifer French, Lisa Ganassin, Glenn Jowitt, Billy Lawry, John Lyall, John Miller, Fiona Pardington, Haru Sameshima, Anna Sanderson, Greg Semu, Marie Shannon, Ann Shelton, Neil Trubuhovich

Produced and directed by Stu Sontier and Jon Carapiet for PhotoForum,
filmed and edited by Nikki Wood, 1994

Digitised and presented here as part of our 50th anniversary celebration

In 1994, PhotoForum presented the exhibition Open the Shutter: Auckland Photographers Now at the Auckland Museum. The exhibition presented the work of 40 photographers and was curated by Ron Brownson of the Auckland City Art Gallery.

A video produced by PhotoForum at the time focussed on the work of 16 photographers to highlight the broad range of approaches and concerns found in New Zealand photography in the 1990s. Thirty years later the 16 individual interviews are digitally re-presented as part of PhotoForum’s 50th Anniversary celebrations in 2024.

Stu Sontier, one of the original producers for the documentary recalls the experience of filming the interviews:
”Thirty years ago, PhotoForum organised a very successful exhibition at the Auckland Museum, where Ron Brownson selected 40 Auckland photographers to show work.

Although the exhibition had a huge attendance (even generating a good income for PhotoForum to continue its ventures, just from donations), Jon Carapiet and I felt that all would be quickly forgotten if we didn’t somehow document it.

We conceived of the supposedly simple idea of doing straightforward interviews with 16 of the artists and engaged Nikki Wood to do the filming, which was mostly done in-situ and around the Auckland Domain. We had very little budget, but everyone was keen to be involved.  Consequently it was a slow process. We used Auckland University’s AV suite to edit (with VHS masters) over several months, to finally produce a VHS cassette that was used by many schools and institutions. The documentary was released on VHS and then DVD and continued to sell until we got tired of making further copies.

What continues to surprise, is that from this selection of artists, over two thirds of them are still practising. While a number have sadly died, several are very prominent in contemporary Aotearoa arts.

PhotoForum pioneered the promotion of art and documentary photography in Aotearoa, often without funding but with blind enthusiasm. 1994 was before the internet really existed. Two years later what might be the first art exhibition website in Aotearoa New Zealand was built by Jenny Gillam and myself (with a lot of help from Mat Carr), to document the follow-up exhibition Currency[1] and this resulted in the first iteration of the PhotoForum website.

Part of PhotoForum’s ethos has always been to document and archive as a form of institutional memory, and I’m happy that this archive will be seen and appreciated by a wide audience”.

Stu Sontier, June 2024

[1] Currency – Contemporary New Zealand Photography, curated by Peter Turner, 15 Sept – 8 Oct 1995, Auckland Museum.

(https://www.photoforum-nz.org/blog/2020/8/6/photoforum-exhibitions-1974-2018)

(https://web.archive.org/web/20050406192247/http://photoforum-nz.org/currency/index.htm)

Note: here are a few remaining copies of the original printed catalogue for Open the Shutter: Auckland Photographers Now available from the PhotoForum bookstore.