Tomorrow’s histories: photographs by Neil Penman

Neil Penman (1931–2025)

Pātaka Art+Museum
Cnr Parumoana & Norrie Streets
Porirua, Wellington

8 August–8 November 2026

Neil Penman, Last day, Todd Park, 2000

Neil Penman (1931–2025) was a photographer, social historian, woodworker, RNZAF officer and longtime Porirua resident. His photographs of Porirua mark significant moments in the city’s history and honour the legacy of a photographer who believed that ‘every photograph taken today becomes a vital record for the generations of tomorrow’.

At Pātaka, he is perhaps best remembered as a photographer and social historian. His photographs have been shown in multiple exhibitions at Porirua Museum and Pātaka Art+Museum and his publications, produced together with his wife June Penman, include the iconic Portraits of Porirua (2015), University on the Hill (2015) and To Go with The Grain (2023).

In 2025, Penman’s daughters gifted to Pātaka the majority of their father’s photographic work, which form the basis of this exhibition. Tomorrow’s Histories commemorates Neil Penman’s legacy: a firm belief that a photograph taken today becomes a vital record for the generations of tomorrow.