Brian Brake: Lens On Asia, gallery Lecture by Athol McCredie

In response to the exhibition Picturing Asia: Double Take, co-presented by Auckland Arts Festival and Te Uru, Athol McCredie will give an illustrated talk on the career of New Zealand-born photographer Brian Brake (1927—1988), with a special emphasis on his work in Asia. Brake was a member of the famous photo agency Magnum, and travelled the world from the mid-1950s to the late 1960s taking photographs for international picture magazines such as Life, Paris Match and National Geographic. He focused on covering Asia and is known for his rare images of China in the 1950s, as well as the photo-essay ‘Monsoon’ on India that catapulted him to fame in 1961 with its iconic ‘Monsoon girl’ image. He returned to New Zealand in 1976, settling in Titirangi.

Athol McCredie is Curator of Photography at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. He began a life-time involvement with photography in the 1970s as a darkroom assistant at the former National Museum before becoming a freelance researcher, curator and photographer. He was art curator and acting director at the Manawatu Art Gallery (now Te Manawa) from 1993 to 2001. He then joined Te Papa as curator of art and visual culture and became curator of photography there in 2006. He was curator of the museum’s 2010 survey exhibition Brian Brake: Lens on the World and editor of its associated publication. His most recent book is New Zealand Photography Collected (Te Papa Press, 2015). He has contributed an essay to the Picturing Asia: Double Take publication.

Picturing Asia: Double Take is supported by the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. Te Papa gratefully acknowledges the gift of the Brian Brake Collection by Wai-man Lau.

02 April, 1-1pm

Organiser

Exhibition Partner

Presenting Partner

With support from