The Big Island

Ryan Lindborg

Published byPhotoForum Inc., May 2025

Designated as PhotoForum #106

Design By Jonty Valentine

180 x 240mm, Softcover, 50 pages

First edition 165

ISSN 0111-0411

The Big Island is a collection of over a decade's worth of photographs in and around the island of Hawaii. Conventional depictions of the land and sea are vibrant and infused with colour, however, Ryan's photographs suggest something more ominous and foreboding under the surface. The Big Island is a dichotomy, culturally and physically. The ever-changing nature of the volcanic landscape reflects historical currents of colonisation, globalisation, and the enduring resilience of Native Hawaiian tradition.

Known treasure that can only be examined in a second life

Photographs and text by Julie Downie

Published by PhotoForum Inc., May 2025

Designated as PhotoForum #105

Design by Jonty Valentine

165 x 220mm, 52 pages, soft cover

First edition 165

ISSN 0111-0411

“Known treasure that can only be examined in a second life features images that have the appearance of singularity but collectively embody the fascination I have with objects; from the fully functional to the seemingly superfluous. Made over several years they represent different timelines of acquisition, and culminating in some cases after many iterations. Living amongst these objects has been a way for me to both examine and work out their potential agency.

Objects, or the wider realm of things are carriers of meaning, they are neither mute, nor innocent, or neutral; fashioned from materials drawn from earth’s resources, and made by human hand or machine, or shaped by evolutionary processes, I have remained beguiled. The leading question that stays with me - is how is meaning being performed through these things? I have happened across a number of guides along my research trails but one has remained constant in this meandering, the writer Walter Benjamin, who assisted in poetically framing this enquiry one day when I read: “Ideas are to objects as constellations are to stars.” For everything is held in multiple webs and assemblages of relations that are not always perceived or understood in that first encounter with an object.”

PhotoForum 50th Anniversary Set of Books (2024)
PhotoForum #101: This Blasted Heath - Caroline McQuarrie
PhotoForum #102: The Doghouse - Christopher Matthews
PhotoForum #103: Terra Obscura - Clayton Morgan
PhotoForum #104: Slow Light - Jenny Tomlin

Co-published by the individual photographers': Caroline McQuarrie; Christopher Matthews; Clayton Morgan; Jenny Tomlin and PhotoForum and designated as PhotoForum #101 – #104

Gate-fold covers

Digitally printed by SCG
150 × 220 mm, 28 pages

Graphic Design by Jonty Valentine

ISSN 0111-0411
July 2024
Edition of 220

2024 marks the 50th anniversary of PhotoForum. We are proud to continue a strong tradition of showcasing photography by established and emerging artists in Aotearoa New Zealand as well as providing an archive of important, historical photographic work. To celebrate the occasion we have published a set of four books that represent a significant cross-section of styles and approaches to making photographic work in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Caroline McQuarrie
This Blasted Heath depicts small, overlooked sites in northern and western Te Waipounamu South Island, Aotearoa New Zealand.

When Pākehā colonial settler gold miners spread across the area in the 1860s they situated themselves in this new, wild, and strange land by re-naming hills, rivers, forests and creeks. These sites are unusual in being named by ordinary individuals during the chaos of the gold rush rather than by officials. Little effort was made to learn and incorporate existing Māori names which were descriptive of the land and the surrounding area. Many of the settler names might have been meaningful to the individuals who chose them at the time; some were named for a place of origin, others for something they might find on the site, some in an effort to provide information, and others still for something a little more desperate. However, with the passing of time they now feel out of place and lost in their environment.

Christopher Matthews
The Doghouse sold hotdogs. In the winter of 1978, when these photographs were made, it was the only place in Christchurch’s Cathedral Square to stay open 24/7. One side of the premises sold American fast-foods, still a novelty before the arrival of McDonald’s and KFC, while the other was a pinball and video gaming room, a novelty in its own right. That winter, The Doghouse was the place to go in town: a place to hang out, a place to meet up with your mates, dance even. Disco was still king—just. Friendships were intense; so were the rivalries. Shows of affection were frequently matched with outbursts of violence. Some of its regulars were living rough on the streets. Estranged from distant whanau, often on the edges of petty crime, they were tough yet vulnerable. Street kids.

The Doghouse was owned by Zenith Applied Philosophy, or ZAP. ZAP was a homegrown Christchurch cult that mixed eastern mysticism with right wing politics and hard-nosed capitalism. The painted imagery on the walls depicted a post-apocalyptic, sci-fi ruin: remnants of Americana being overrun by rampant vegetation. It was strangely appropriate.

At night on the edges of the square, The Doghouse was a noisy satellite of food and warmth, and sometimes safety.

Clayton Morgan
As we come to understand this changing world, we are compelled to confront the interconnectedness between humanity and the natural world as one entangled web. Landscapes altered by industry and technology offer a paradox; they are both a cause of, and a potential solution to the environmental challenges we face. It is within our ability to replicate and manipulate the planet’s processes, but what kinds of control are now needed, and how far should we go?

Jenny Tomlin
Pinhole is subversive and magical. Sliding somewhere between precision, chance, intuition and patience. A nearly infinite depth of field reveals unexpected relationships between near and far, odd things happen over time. One can also break the rules.

PhotoForum #100: Mirror City - Harry Culy

Co-published by Bad News Books and PhotoForum, and designated as PhotoForum #100
ISSN 0111-0411

Linen hardcover with tipped-in photo

Offset printed with 58 duotone plates
202 × 250 mm, 100 pages

Design by Sam Fraser and Harry Culy

ISBN 978-0-473-65859-5
September 2023
Edition of 500

PhotoForum is pleased to partner with Bad News Books and Harry Culy to bring members this superb publication as PhotoForum magazine’s one hundredth issue, in our 50th year since the foundation of PhotoForum Inc.

‘After spending much of my late teens and twenties living overseas, I came back to this place which represented home for me. On my return, I encountered an eerie feeling: ‘home’ felt strangely unfamiliar. This prompted a desire to explore this uncanny sense of simultaneous belonging and non-belonging, through photographing the next generation of young people living here, and the landscape they inhabit, as a way to picture what home might mean to me now.’ — Harry Culy

Mirror City is a deeply personal and lyrical exploration of Harry Culy’s hometown, Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington. Made between 2018-2022, the photographs in this book wander through a nondescript urban landscape, recording scenes that oscillate between the mysterious and mundane. Enigmatic graffiti, tangled vines and wires, cracked glass, boarded-up doorways and portraits of the young people who live here: these moments are punctuated with private iPhone notes and observations, domestic reminders, and lists. Arranged in sequence, the photographs and text in this book form a dreamlike narrative that rejects any sort of definitive conclusion. It instead looks for patterns and rhythms that may echo the fragility of belonging, and the uncertain future facing us.