What I think the counter culture offered was the idea of self-expression and ‘doing your own thing’. But photojournalism was losing its way in the 1960s in the face of television. This was really big in the 1950s and into the 1960s and most of the photographers recall poring over issues of Life magazine early in their careers. Some of it sprang from the counter culture but it wasn’t just that, was it?

This was a significant departure from most photography that had gone before. And if it depicted close friends or family it was in a way that was more universal than particular to those people.

It was outward facing, recording a mostly public world, but driven from within. But neither was it quite as personal as a family snapshot, to be shared with only an intimate circle and to record a family event. It was personal in that it wasn’t made for a mass audience, like photojournalism, nor for an employer, or to win a prize in a camera club competition. I did the book on Brian Brake in 2010, and while Brake was New Zealand’s most celebrated photographer from the 1960s to the 1980s, I was acutely aware in working on that book that there was a less known, underground almost, photography that ultimately had more lasting impact and which spawned a whole movement in New Zealand photography. I am also interested in understanding and setting down on record the story of photography in this country. I had only a dim appreciation of it at the time, but it has nevertheless stuck in my mind. I want to better understand the New Zealand photography I first saw as I became interested in the medium when I was about twenty. I think we are all interested in the era in which we grew up, both because it was formative, but also because we don’t remember sufficiently well. Ten Questions with Athol McCredie This is a book you’ve been wanting to write for quite some time. His most recent book is New Zealand Photography Collected (Te Papa Press) which was shortlisted for the 2016 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards. Prior to that he was curator and acting director at Manawatu Art Gallery (now Te Manawa), and he has been involved with photography as an author, researcher, curator and photographer since the 1970s.

Corporate partnerships Hononga kaipakihiĪthol McCredie is Curator Photography at Te Papa, where he has worked since 2001.

Friends of Te Papa: Our membership programme Ngā Hoa o Te Papa: Te hōtaka mema.

Media sales and licensing Te hohoko papāho me te manatā.

Past exhibitions Ngā whakaaturanga o mua.

Touring exhibitions Ngā whakaaturanga poi haere.Guides to caring for objects Tiaki Kohinga, Tiaki Taonga.For museums and galleries Mō ngā muhiama me ngā whare toi.Read, watch, play Kōrero, mātaki, purei.Discover the collections Tūhuratia ngā kohinga.

Ten x Ten by Athol McCredie