PhotoForum/Wellington - A History
Rear Vision: A History of PhotoForum/Wellington to 1988 (Wellington City Art Gallery, 1988)
Cover photo Sharyn Black Moonshine Road, 1977
PhotoForum/Wellington: Working Independently
Athol McCredie
This article is an extracted chapter from the book PhotoForum at 40: Counterculture, Clusters, and Debate in New Zealand by Nina Seja, (Rim Books, 2014) and is a shortened and updated version of Athol McCredie’s essay originally published in Rear Vision: A History of PhotoForum/Wellington to 1988 (Wellington City Art Gallery, 1988)
Extra illustrations have been added thanks to a generous recent gift of exhibition posters that were not available at the time of publication of PhotoForum at 40.
Thank you to Athol McCredie and Rim books for permission to reproduce this essay.
Peter Black: Leslie, Sharyn and Lucien, 1978. Photo-Forum Supplement 5 (Spring 1980)
The origins of PhotoForum lie in a series of film meetings organised in Wellington in 1970. These led to publication of the magazines Photographic Art & History and New Zealand Photography, and eventually to the formation of PhotoForum Inc. in Auckland in December 1973. But energy and enthusiasm continued in the capital city even after the publishing initiative shifted north. This was boosted by PhotoForum summer workshops held in Wellington in 1975 and 1976, and sustained by receipt of regular copies of the new, professional looking Photo-Forum magazine coming out of Auckland.
This background interest coalesced around two groups. The first consisted of students from the newly founded Wellington Polytechnic photo-technicians course. They gained a public profile by mounting an exhibition of their work in 1975 at the architecturally elaborate, disused toilets in lower Kent/Cambridge Terrace popularly known as the Taj Mahal. The second was a group of mostly professional photographers or individuals involved with the advertising industry who were galvanised by the fact that one hundred people turned up to hear a public talk by Cole Weston in 1976. They too decided to hold an exhibition of their work at the Taj Mahal as well as advertise a public meeting to gauge interest in forming a local branch of PhotoForum. The meeting was held on May 19, a committee elected, and PhotoForum/Wellington duly registered as an incorporated society.
The new committee resolved to hold evening talks and lectures at the National Museum; continue a programme of exhibitions at the Taj Mahal; produce a Wellington number of Photo-Forum magazine (eventuating as the December 1976/January 1977 issue); publish a newsletter, and plan a summer workshop.
Five exhibitions, including the initial 36 Exposures, were held at the Taj from May. The quality of marketing and poster design produced by media-savvy members that were associated with these exhibitions helped establish PhotoForum/ Wellington’s image as professional and well-organised at an early stage. Talks and workshops also became a standard feature of PhotoForum’s activities over the following years, with the week-long summer workshops a particularly important source of new members and energy. In a sense these fuelled the organisation, and the talks, exhibitions, one-day workshops, and other activities through the year were a follow-through of the summer workshops.
A “Permanent” Gallery
Unfortunately the Taj Mahal ceased to be an affordable exhibition space for PhotoForum in late 1976 following a rent increase. A replacement was soon found in Repertory Theatre’s greenroom but this venue lasted just a matter of months as well. After much searching a permanent venue and office space was eventually located in the former stock exchange rooms in a demolition-due building at 17 Grey Street. A peppercorn rental of ten dollars per week was charged by the owners and a renewable three-monthly lease granted. The rooms were almost ideal, since the exchange took roughly the form of a gallery, and once the dozens of brokers’ telephones were removed, hessian-covered Pinex panels installed, and a fresh coat of paint applied, the new gallery was ready for its first exhibition in December 1977.
Exhibitions now became a much more prominent and visible part of PhotoForum/Wellington’s activities. The organisation itself divided its functions between gallery and society, the latter run by the committee, and continuing to involve workshops, lectures, meetings and other activities. PhotoForum Gallery was operated semi-autonomously with its own bank account and curatorial independence by volunteer Co-Directors Sharyn Black and Leslie Haines (ex-advertising industry and photo-technicians course respectively).
Given the minimal income from print sales, of which the gallery took only a twenty percent commission, exhibitors were expected to pay for most of the costs associated with their shows, including rent to cover overheads. At the Taj Mahal and Repertory venues exhibitors were required to be members of PhotoForum, to provide most of the minding of an exhibition, and to play an active role in organising and promoting it. With the new gallery there was a more professional support structure, albeit unpaid, to organise and run exhibitions.
The gallery also provided a venue for organised lectures and talks, and acted as a photography centre, with a library, a small book and magazine stall, a stock bin, and most importantly, a place where one could meet others with an interest in photography. The exhibitions were often only a partial reason to visit the gallery—just as likely it was the chance to talk to Black or Haines, or whoever else happened to be there. The two Directors frequently complained that they rarely had time to do any administrative work during opening hours, since most of it was taken up with conversations with visitors. However, they also freely acknowledged that one of their aims— promotion of expressive photography—involved talking to people and encouraging their interests.
As well as promotion, support of photography was an important aim, and it was agreed quite early on that expressive photography should be supported at all levels, since even the best had to start somewhere. One way of doing so was to have open invitation group exhibitions such as On the Road (1978). The other was to hold mini exhibitions in a space ancillary to the main gallery. Little or no rent was charged for these, and exhibitors were chosen simply on a first come, first served basis.
A permanent venue also provided an opportunity for exhibitions from other parts of the country to be seen in Wellington. Snaps—A Photographers’ Gallery had already been in operation for two years in Auckland by the time PhotoForum Gallery was founded. Historical Show, Family and Friends, and Instant Pictures were all group exhibitions organised by Snaps and then shown by PhotoForum Gallery in 1978. Endless, Endless and Leslie Adkin went in the reverse direction that same year. Two group exhibitions from Christchurch galleries were also seen in Wellington: Ten Christchurch Photographers (1978) and Street Photos (1980). In a pre-internet era when air travel was still expensive these connections enabled work to be seen in more than just one part of the country.
Continuing at Harris Street
The inevitable demolition notice on Grey Street was finally given in late 1978, and for a third time newspaper headlines proclaimed, “PhotoForum Seeks New Home.” The search was considerably more desperate on this occasion, since a gallery structure had been set up, two Directors committed, and a list of exhibitors positioned for shows. Eventually suitable premises were located at 26 Harris Street, another building due for demolition at an unspecified future date. After protracted negotiations with the City Council owners approval to move in was given in May 1979. PhotoForum’s top floor (the Women’s Gallery later rented the ground floor) was actually partitioned office space and required extensive modification to make it usable as a gallery. Students from Victoria University’s School of Architecture redesigned the rooms and their plans were executed by PhotoForum members and City Council employment project workers, with financial assistance from the Queen Elizabeth II (QEII) Arts Council. Darkrooms were built into the space as well as a print mounting area. These were used for workshops and the darkrooms also hired out. With these facilities, and a discounted film and materials service, the gallery approached—even more closely than at Grey Street—the ideal of a multi-functional photography centre.
Increased level of performance and professionalism was signalled by the QEII Arts Council’s acceptance of the gallery as qualifying under the Dealer Gallery Exhibiting Artists Subsidy Scheme. This allowed solo exhibitors a substantial reimbursement of the cost of mounting an exhibition—especially helpful for a non-commercial gallery like PhotoForum where they otherwise had to pay for everything.
The Established Years
1980 was a busy year for the gallery, with a full programme of eighteen main and nineteen mini exhibitions. Several toured, and Collection ’80 and Illusions, Fantasies and Lies were two major open invitation shows sent to other venues. These reflected a desire to keep a balance between exhibiting recognised photographers and encouraging and providing an outlet for newcomers.
Organising all these exhibitions, especially the group exhibitions, placed a heavy burden on the two unpaid Directors however, and by mid-1980 Leslie Haines announced she would retire at the end of the year. Black followed by stating that she was only prepared to continue into 1981 if she was either paid a full-time wage or substantially assisted by others. The AGM voted to pursue the former option by seeking commercial sponsorship.
A sponsorship proposal, which included a supporting letter from the Minister for the Arts, was produced, but although the quality of the package was universally praised, the invitation to sponsor a full-time Director gained no support. A common response from companies approached was that they preferred to assist specific, one-off projects, ideally those with national coverage, rather than on-going operations. As a result, Black began working on a number of concepts for touring exhibitions that might generate a fee for a gallery Director/Curator. In early-1981, however, she decided to move to Australia for personal reasons.
Janet Bayly took over the directorship and with some behind-the-scenes string-pulling by the QEII Arts Council she eventually gained a salary under a Department of Labour six-month Project Employment Programme (PEP) from June, having worked for PhotoForum the first half of the year unpaid. Her project was intended to support the research initiated by Black into touring exhibitions, with the long-term plan that sustaining commercial support could then be gained. Inevitably, however, Bayly’s time was taken up simply with keeping her head above water running the gallery. Her year, 1981, was almost as busy as 1980, with fourteen main and seventeen mini exhibitions. Once again several either originated from or were sent to other galleries. These include Visions/ Realities, an exhibition by three well-known German photographers toured to Auckland’s Real Pictures. Open invitation exhibitions organised for 1981 were Collection ’81 and The Tour (not to be confused with the Real Pictures exhibition also on the controversial Springbok rugby tour, The Tour is Here).
A number of important lectures and a seminar were held around this period. In May 1980, Peter Ireland gave a talk titled, “Photography, Art and Realism: a Problem of Perception,” on how photography should be viewed in relation to art in general. In the same year visiting Italian performance artist Giorgio Colombo gave a lecture, and in 1981 Lynne Silverman spoke about her own work and that of other Australian photographers.
“Issues Confronting New Zealand Photography” was a three-day seminar held in August 1981. This featured John B. Turner as guest speaker talking about his recent overseas investigation of collections and photographers. Seminar topics discussed were perennial ones: survival as an expressive photographer; how galleries such as PhotoForum could be sustained; publishing photography; dealing with sales tax; and how, in general, photography should be promoted. Specific resolutions or strategies for action seemed few, though it was agreed that the Wellington Newsletter should go national by seeking content from around New Zealand and by being mailed to the full PhotoForum membership.
Trying a New Mode of Operation
Enthusiasm and some optimism was warranted in 1981, for this year saw a peak in gallery attendance of 7,100 visitors and a profit of just over $2,000 ($7,500 in today’s terms) from commission on sales of photographs. At the end of the year, however, Bayly’s PEP finished and the City Council gave notice to evacuate the premises. The PhotoForum committee set up a working party to look at the future of the organisation. They found that although the sales figures hinted that PhotoForum Gallery might eventually follow the photo-boom overseas and be self-supporting, the expansion of activities, sales and attendances was largely due to extra time put into the gallery by the Director.
Because there was little prospect of finding funds to pay a Director, and no-one willing to do the job on an unpaid basis, for the first time in PhotoForum/Wellington’s history it was decided to wind down, rather than expand activities. No plans were made to find new premises after the Harris Street demolition.
Instead, two PEP positions were sought for Athol McCredie and Ivan Rogers to research ways of allowing PhotoForum/Wellington to operate its photography centre concept from a sound financial base. Since they needed an office to work from, a pair of small rooms at 35 Taranaki Street were rented and the space used as an office-cum-miniature gallery. With the lead given the previous year by good sales from stock, they expanded the range and promoted the work in the stock cabinets. The idea was to operate primarily as a dealer rather than exhibition gallery, though this strategy met with only limited success. Given the somewhat inaccessible location of the gallery, and the saturation of those public galleries that had made extensive purchases the previous year, stock sales were only a quarter of the 1981 figure.
McCredie and Rogers looked at overseas precedents for photography centres and how they were funded (mostly with annual grants from government or local authority agencies), as well as investigated how other arts and related organisations were supported in New Zealand. Unfortunately this research drew a blank in terms of practicable models for PhotoForum/Wellington given the by now familiar story that most companies and organisations (including the QEII Arts Council) were very wary of providing on-going funding. Beside self-generated funds, the only other option was direct governmental support, and that was being actively sought by a group with high-level connections (the future New Zealand Centre for Photography).
Upon expiry of the two six-month PEPs a decision was made to terminate the lease at Taranaki Street, since a gallery or centre could only be maintained by one or two energetic people working for free, and none were forthcoming.
PhotoForum/Wellington now reverted to its position before it had a gallery, with the committee organising talks, lectures and workshops, and publishing a newsletter.
Life Without a Gallery
The period after the gallery closed was marked by intense discussion on what form photographic support in New Zealand had and should take. Peter Ireland gave a talk to members in which he attacked what he saw as the failings of PhotoForum and suggested that if something could not be done well then it was better not to attempt it at all. Other talks included a more helpful one by QEII Arts Council Advisory Officer John McCormack on funding for the visual arts, and John B. Turner presented a seminar on the history of photography from a New Zealand perspective.
A submission in response to the QEII Arts Council discussion paper “A Policy for the Visual Arts” was prepared by a group of members in 1983. Suggestions included support for a visual arts workshop within which a photography centre could be incorporated; more Arts Council support for publishing photographic and other art work; appointing advisory staff or consultants with particular expertise in photography; establishing a cultural exchange budget in order to bring a wider range of overseas practitioners to New Zealand; and providing more support for criticism and research. To some disappointment, but perhaps not surprise, the photography-specific proposals were not taken up, though with time some of the other suggestions were adopted to varying degrees.
In 1984 further matters of support for photography were discussed when the New Zealand Centre for Photography (NZCP) first publicly announced its policies. A good deal of indignation was raised by its stated plans. The lack of clear intent and apparent duplication of aims and activities with PhotoForum (as well as implied ignorance of PhotoForum’s activities and achievements), were the main areas of concern amongst PhotoForum members and stiff letters from both PhotoForum Inc. and the Wellington branch were sent to the Centre. Wellington president Martin Taylor wrote that his organisation was unable to provide the endorsement sought by NZCP for their funding application to government. Tension continued between the Centre and PhotoForum/Wellington for the rest of the decade, though with conciliatory efforts made on both sides these gradually reduced to the point where PhotoForum events were being held at the Centre’s rooms and $150 was donated to NZCP when it launched an appeal during a funding crisis in 1990. (A measure of the delicate nature of the détente is that in the same month the money was granted a stinging attack on the Centre was written by Michael Kopp in PhotoForum’s magazine ReView 45 in which he claimed the Centre was “in danger of dying,” an event, he said, that was “about time.” Legal action was threatened in return for what were seen as “malicious accusations,” “false facts, and innuendos”).
Janet Bayly and Athol McCredie, Witness to Change: Life in New Zealand, Photographs 1940–1965. PhotoForum/ Wellington. 1985
Witness to Change
The 1985 Witness to Change exhibition was the largest single undertaking by PhotoForum/Wellington other than its gallery operation, and certainly involved greater sums of money than the organisation had ever dealt with before. Its origins lay in one of the exhibition concepts Sharyn Black worked on in 1981 for possible commercial sponsorship. When Wellington City Art Gallery agreed to partially support the project some years later Janet Bayly and Athol McCredie refined the concept and researched images. They selected three photographers—Les Cleveland, John Pascoe and Ans Westra—as key figures in the development of New Zealand social documentary photography between 1940 and 1965.
Further funding was essential to realise the exhibition and PhotoForum member Martin Taylor was co-opted as fundraiser, eventually securing substantial sponsorship from Government Life in 1984. Later that year the Sarjeant Gallery offered to tour the exhibition on the basis of the City Gallery being the originating institution. Finally, funds to pay for the printing of the work were gained from the sale of a set of prints to the National Art Gallery.
The exhibition was a great success with the public on its circulation to ten venues around New Zealand in 1985 and 1986, and the catalogue sold out soon after publication. Designed and produced by Brian Moss, it also came first-equal in the 1986 New Zealand Book Awards for production.
During the Witness to Change development the Director of the City Gallery, Anne Philbin, suggested the exhibition could serve as a model for PhotoForum/Wellington’s future operation, operating as a gallery without walls to organise exhibitions for public galleries. This is a current model of overseas organisations like Curatorial Assistance and the Foundation for the Exhibition of Photography, but at the time it seemed too great a leap, and in reality would have been unlikely to succeed in such a small market as New Zealand. The suggestion was symptomatic of the common perception, based on the quality of its products, that PhotoForum was a professional, corporate-like entity when it was really just a diverse group of enthusiasts who got together regularly and typically operated with piles of PhotoForum posters, magazines, and files stored under their beds.
ReView
Besides Witness to Change, energy was channeled into the PhotoForum Newsletter in the years after the gallery closed. This had grown from a single Gestetnered sheet in 1976 to a five-to-ten-page, offset printed, national newsletter edited by Mary Macpherson from 1983 to 1985. Later issues sported one or two pages of photographs printed on glossy paper.
In 1986 Janet Bayly and Athol McCredie took over the editorship of the Newsletter and renamed it ReView, changing it to a magazine format and packing in far more content by multiplying the number of pages two to three times over and then shrinking them down to A5. The QEII Arts Council financially supported this development by granting a modest honorarium to the editors. Attempts to introduce some serious critical discussion into the New Zealand photography scene met, however, with mixed reactions. One reader canceled their subscription with the comment that the magazine was “words, words, words,” an undeniable statement but probably intended to express dissatisfaction with the book and exhibition reviews that were a staple of the revamped publication and a preference for news articles and more photographs. Others welcomed the changes.
Michael Kopp took over editorship of ReView in 1987, again with some support from the QEII Arts Council. A computer was purchased by PhotoForum/Wellington and with its desktop publishing abilities Kopp revamped both the content and format of the magazine entirely, introducing far more photographs (for which there had been a strong demand), glossy paper stock throughout and, befitting his journalism background, a strongly news-oriented approach. Unfortunately, the amount of time and money required to produce six issues a year of such substantial content were too demanding for Kopp to maintain and the magazine was soon slimmed down or printed by photocopying. Issue 37 was not a magazine at all but the Wellington City Art Gallery catalogue Rear Vision: A History of PhotoForum/Wellington to 1988 that was published in conjunction with a survey exhibition of work shown at PhotoForum Gallery over the years. And issue 38 was a two-sheet essay contextualising PhotoForum/Wellington’s development that the City Gallery declined to publish in Rear Vision because they considered it too critical of other public galleries.
Two changes of editor and an irregular publishing schedule eventually led to ReView ceasing altogether. The final issue was a catalogue for PhotoForum 90, a members show exhibited at the NZCP premises at the end of 1990.
New Players on the Scene
As PhotoForum/Wellington’s activities slowly reduced, other ventures moved in to fill the vacuum. Photo-historian (and President of PhotoForum/Wellington from 1985 to 1988) Bill Main opened a small, private photography gallery named Exposures in Ghuznee Street in 1984 where he held a mix of historical and contemporary exhibitions. Four years later the NZCP obtained rooms in Hanson Street under an arrangement with Communicate New Zealand, the privatised former National Publicity Studios. Sharyn Black was employed as Director and mounted a number of photography exhibitions in the premises. When Black resigned at the end of 1989 Main closed his own gallery and took up the position, continuing the exhibitions as well as building up a collection of historical photographs and developing the Centre’s newsletter into what in November 1992 became the more substantial New Zealand Journal of Photography.
Mission Accomplished?
Without a gallery or a sustainable publication, and with Exposures and then NZCP partially serving as new gathering places for photographers, membership of PhotoForum/Wellington declined by half in the five years to 1990. On July 17, 1992 the organisation was formally wound up due to what secretary Julian Ward described as “the almost total lack of interest from our members in recent years.” Little surprise was expressed. Like its parent organisation, PhotoForum/ Wellington arose largely because photographers found few opportunities for exhibiting, publishing, or discussing photographs and decided to band together to make things happen. By the time of its demise PhotoForum/Wellington’s mission of promoting the medium and providing outlets for its dissemination and examination had in many ways been achieved: dealers were beginning to exhibit photography, public galleries were certainly doing so (and purchasing it for their collections), tertiary-level courses in the subject were increasingly common, and a score of New Zealand photography books had been produced. In contrast to NZCP, PhotoForum/Wellington was a grassroots organisation, one that arose from a felt need of individuals to band together in order to examine and understand a medium that had long been ignored. Once that need was satisfied in other ways there was little to sustain the organisation and the baton was returned to PhotoForum Inc. in Auckland to pick up again full responsibility for the organisation’s activities.
William Main’s obituary for PhotoForum/Wellington published in The Photographer’s Mail, 1992
Click on image above for a PDF of the original 1988 Rear Vision publication
See documentation of the Rear Vision exhibition at City Gallery Wellington here
Exhibitions:
1976 PhotoForum/Wellington exhibitions, Taj Mahal gallery:
Anne Noble - Taking Off 31 May -14 June
Wellington Thomas Gordon Cody 6 -20 May
Ans Westra - A Private View 20 - 30 September
Photographs by Trevor Ulyatt and posters by Frank Wylie 15 - 28 November
1977 PhotoForum Gallery, Wellington exhibitions, Repertory Theatre:
Graeme Gillies – Astra 24 March - 7 April
National Museum photos of World War 1 amputees Limbies 4 - 8 May
Jocelyn Carlin, Athol McCredie, Robin McKinlay - Scapes 15 - 26 June
Tom Fraser and Paul Johns – Andrew 27 July - 7 August
CBA Bank venue:
Wellington, Look at it Now 26 September - 7 October
Grey Street gallery :
Joseph D. Jachna Jr. - Door County Landscapes 3 - 16 December
1978 PhotoForum Gallery, Wellington exhibitions, Grey Street:
Group Show - Historical Show 28 February - 26 March
Group Show - Family and Friends 28 March - 23 April
Group Show - Instant Pictures 26 April - 21 May
Darius McCallum - Ceremonies and Celebrations 23 May - 18 June
Bruce Foster and Gillian Chaplin - Circumstantial Evidence 20 June - 16 July
Paul Hewson - Simulated Breakdown 18 July - 13 August
17 Wellington Photographers 15 - 20 August
Anne Noble 22 August - 10 September
Group Show - On the Road 12 September - 8 October
Tom Fraser and Rowan Belcher - Endless Endless 10 October - 5 November
Terry Austin, Gary Ireland, Paul Johns, Glenn Jowitt, Brian McMillan, Stuart Page, Jae Renaut, Larence N. Shustak, Gail Wright, Jane Zusters - 10 Christchurch Photographers 7 November - 2 December
Leslie Adkin 5 - 22 December
1979 PhotoForum Gallery, Wellington exhibitions, Harris Street:
Six NZ Photographers 3 - 21 July
Peter Hannken - A Self Portrait 24 July - 11 August
Group Show - Photo Art 79 14 - 25 August
Glenn Jowitt - Race Meetings in NZ 28 August - 15 September
Gary Blackman 18 September - 6 October
Gillian Chaplin 9 - 27 October
Ron Brownson 30 October - 17 November
Grant Douglas 20 November - 8 December
Terry Austin 11 - 22 December
Mini Exhibitions:
Peter Black - 14 Photographs 24 July - 11 August
Vicky Belcher - Swelling Itching Brain 14 - 25 July
Vicki Ginn 28 August - 8 September
Michael Gallager - Is that life on the wall? 11 - 15 September
Brian Davis ?
James Stratton - Two dozen colour photographs 9 - 20 October
Mary Macpherson - Weekend Behind the Incredible Hulk 11 - 22 December
1980 PhotoForum Gallery, Wellington exhibitions, Harris Street:
PhotoForum ‘79 15 - 26 January
Stuart Page - Artifacts 29 January - 16 February
Janet Bayly - SX-70 Pictures 19 February - 8 March
Tony Kellaway - Letters Home 11 March - 29 March
Contemporary Photography - prints from private collections 1 - 12 April
Peter Black, Helen Mitchell, Shona Watson - Summer 79 14 - 19 April
Jane Zusters 22 April - 10 May
Alan McOnie 13 - 31 May
Terry Austin, Stuart Page, Graham Snowden, Laurence Aberhart, Margaret Dawson, Brian McMillan, Robin Neate, Murray Hedwig - Street Photos 3 - 23 June
Collection 80 24 June - 12 July
Gary Ireland - Urban Identity 15 July - 2 August
Trevor Ulyatt - Traditional Themes and other Explorations 5 - 23 August
Murray Hedwig - Images from the Land and the City 25 August - 13 September
Diane Quin - One Room in Bobo and Bruce Connew - Portfolio 1976 - 1980 16 September - 4 October
Christine Lloyd-Fitt 7 - 25 October
15 Wellington Photographers 28 October - 15 November
Illusions, Fantasies and Lies 18 November – 6 December
Anne Noble, Peter Black, Mark Adams, Laurence Aberhart, Larence N. Shustak, Gary Blackman - The Galerie Paper Show 9 - 20 December
Mini Exhibitions
Phil Fogle 29 January - 2 February*
Jane Wilcox 5 - 16 February*
Harry Fraser 19 February - 1 March
Lucien Rizos 4 - 15 March*
Peter Muller - This way up 18 - 29 March
Paul Hewson 1 - 12 April*
Martin Taylor 3 - 7 June*
John Pine Snadden 10 - 21 June
Michael Gallagher - 10 Seconds 15 - 26 July*
Elizabeth Madle 29 July - 2 August*
Phil Fogle 4 - 23 August*
Andrew Keedwell 26 August - 6 September*
J Redward 8-20 September*
Julian Ward 23 September - 4 October*
Gavin Colthart 21 October - 1 November
Chris Nicol - Berhampore 1979-80 4 - 15 November
Anne Noble 18 - 29 November*
Janet McCallum 2 - 13 December*
Group Exhibition - 16 x 8 16 - 20 December
1981 PhotoForum Gallery, Wellington exhibitions, Harris Street:
Stock Works 27 January - 14 February
Reinhold Hilgering, Wolf Harhammer, Rolf Rettenberger - Visions/Realities 10 - 28 March
Peter Black, Reg Feuz, Brian Davis, Peter Butler, Janet McCallum, Tony Kellaway - Points of View 31 March - 18 April
Glenn Jowitt - Black Power, Christchurch 28 April - 9 May
Baigent, Collins, Fields - Three NZ Photographers 12 - 30 May
Mary Macpherson and Martin Taylor - Frame Ups 2 - 20 June
Group Exhibition - Collection 81 23 June - 18 July
Grant Douglas -Twenty photographs 21 July - 8 August
Stuart Page - Media Mirage 1 - 19 September
Cathryn Shine - We’re Moving Now 1 - 19 September *
Michael Cubey, Jeremy Opie, Eric Gotleib 10 - 29 August
Claire Fergusson - Photographs / 10 years 22 September - 10 October
Laurence Aberhart - View portfolio, Plus 19th century prints by Bragge, Gibbs and Foelsch 20 - 31 October
The Tour 3 - 20 November
Anne Noble - Stock work Plus 2 mini shows 24 November - 5 December*
Mini Exhibitions
Gail Wright - Little treats 27 January - 14 February
Athol McCredie - Self portraits 16 February - 7 March
John Wilcox 30 March - 18 April
Reg Feuz ?*
Jocelyn Carlin ?*
Ivan Rogers 14 - 25 July
Work from New Faces: pieces from Teachers College Palmerston North 17 - 29 August
Jo Horrocks 14-26 September
Janet Bayly 28 September - 3 October
Janet McCallum - In the Eye 6 - 12 October
Peter Sainsbury 19 - 31 October
Jim Payne ?
John Beggs - Photoshow 2 - 4 November
Jenny Hames - Rural Greece 17 - 28 November
Lawrence Cotton 24 November - 5 December*
Stephen Paris - Stilled moments 24 November - 5 December
1982 PhotoForum Gallery, Wellington, Taranaki Street:
Stock Show 5 May - ?
Michael Cubey - Nirvana 16 June - 9 July
John B. Turner - Time Release 12 July - 30 July
Last Century - original prints by the Burton Bros. and others 2 - 13 August
Anonymous Portraits - prints made by Clive Stone from John Perry coll. negatives. Displayed at Camera & Camera 9 - 27 August
Angela Gunn - Flowers and Landscape 17 August – 3 September
*Unconfirmed by poster