“The New Photography”, is an exhibition and book of New Zealand’s photographer pioneers of the 1960s and 1970s.
Max Oettli (b.1947)
Max Oettli was born in Switzerland in 1947 and migrated to New Zealand with his family in 1956. He was brought up in Hamilton and was a trainee press photographer at the Waikato Times over university vacations from 1966 to 1969. He applied this experience to his work in student journalism while he studied English, history and art history at the University of Auckland.
From 1970 to 1975 Oettli was technical instructor in film and photography at the University of Auckland Elam School of Fine Arts. During this time he was also founding president of PhotoForum Inc (1973-75) and had four solo exhibitions as well as being included in The Active Eye touring exhibition.
Oettli left New Zealand with his wife Simone in 1976 to travel extensively His most substantial quantity of published work up until 2006 was a selection of photographs from those travels that were reproduced in Photo-Forum in 1979.
The couple settled in Geneva, Switzerland, where Oettli worked in architectural and aerial imaging while also teaching photography. In 2007 he came back to New Zealand to take up a position as lecturer in photography at Otago Polytechnic. When the position ended he returned to Geneva and semi-retirement
Oettli’s entire collection of New Zealand negatives is held by the National Library of New Zealand, Wellington.
From Athol McCredie (Ed.), The New Photography, Te Papa Press, Wellington, New Zealand, 2019.
The Exhibition:
The New Photography – Life in the 60s and 70s.
until October 13.
Te Papa Tongarewa The Museum of New Zealand Toi Art Level 4
55 Cable Street
Wellington, New Zealand
https://www.tepapa.govt.nz/visit/exhibitions/toi-art/new-photography-life-60s-and-70s
The book accompanies the exhibition :
The New Photography, Te Papa Press. Publication date: June 2019. Hardback 22x27cm, 216 pages ISBN: 978-0-9951031-9-1. RRP $NZ70.00.
Buy the book here : https://www.tepapastore.co.nz/collections/te-papa-press/products/the-new-photography-new-zealand-s-first-generation-contemporary-photographers
