History in the taking: 40 Years of PhotoForum

‘History in the Taking’ present around 150 photographs and focuses to promote the medium of PhotoForum in New Zealand. The thing I really liked from this gallery was due to the fact that photography wasn’t widely considered an art form in 1973, many of the photos contain a very simple setup. Some of these include images from the 1981 Springbok tour protests and other political protest event. This type of historical photography is very interesting because they aren’t flashy and just capture the event as it is. Another portion of the line-up that was captured well was the portraiture. These photos included straight on portrait photos of different working class people such as: businessmen, housewives and labourers. The emotion shown in each of these portrait shots captured perfectly the emotions behind each of these domesticated individuals. Some images that were very stunning to the eye were the few landscape shots that were on display. Some of these include a long shot of a river accompanied but fog and rolling forestry. Another capturing a very similar landscape setting but with a beach. Lastly, a recurring theme that was presented in some of the photos was racism. For example in one of the photos there is a group of people including 1 white women and 3 Maori individuals. The reason I thought this photo was very powerful was because in the photo you see the White Women facing forward and 1 of the Maori individuals is looking up at her as see continues to ignore him. This depicts very well some of the racial difference that were relevant during the time, due to the unsettled look in the women’s face.