How the Light Gets In

John Pennington

Tairāwhiti Museum
Kelvin Rise, 10 Stout Street, Gisborne

20 September - 07 December 2025

Opening: 20 September 10:00 am

John Pennington is a photographer who works on long-term community-based documentary projects.

The project (ongoing) How the Light Gets In reflects two of John’s preoccupations. One: how photography can be used to access a geographical place and its communities. For someone new to Tairawhiti this involves photography as sense making, orientation and discovery. By its nature photography forces the photographer to observe closely, to notice the mundane, the comical and the significant. It’s a work of immersion and integration.

The physical landscape is mediated and enriched by the people who live there. Engaging with this richness in all its variety and diversity is an important part of John’s practice. Taking his cue from the Leonard Cohen song of the same name John’s portraits hopefully reflect our imperfections and vulnerabilities not as barriers or obstacles to understanding and connection but the ways in which we recognise the complexity and beauty of people.