Brian Brake: Lens on the World

Description

The complete life and work of Brian Brake, New Zealand's best-known photographer, has at last been encapsulated in one stunning book. Comprising more than 300 superb photographic reproductions and six all-new essays, this publication gives the reader new insights into Brake, the man, and how he saw the world. Remembered for his rare images of communist China in the 1950s and photo essays such as Monsoon, this is the first time Brake's work has been critically considered in its entirety.

Athol McCredie is curator of photography at Te Papa, where he has worked since 2001. His involvement with photography began in the 1970s when he was an exhibiting photographer. Towards the end of this decade he co-curated an independent exhibition on the early-twentieth-century photographer Leslie Adkin. The success of this exhibition led to his employment at the National Art Gallery as photography exhibition curator, where he organised four historical exhibitions. Following ten years as a freelance researcher, curator, collection manager and photographer he became art curator (and subsequently acting director) at the Manawatu Art Gallery (now Te Manawa) in 1993. His publications include Witness to change (with Janet Bayly, 1985) and Fields of golden daffodils (1991). At Te Papa he has curated Brian Brake: Lens on the world (2010) and Striking poses: New Zealand portrait photography (2003), and he took a lead role in the development of Toi Te Papa: Art of the nation (2006).

"Insightful essays examine Brake's practice from a critical point of view for the first time, peeling back the myths that have accumulated around his name."