Young Country

This fresh and engaging exhibition brings together nineteenth-century photography and contemporary poetry to offer a new and often surprising view of New Zealand’s past. The images are by William Williams, a Railways employee who worked and photographed widely through the country. His outstanding photographs reflect the rawness of New Zealand’s changing landscape as well as its beauty and offer intriguing and unusual portraits of family and friends at work, home and play. Their rich detail, striking composition and absorbing content will be revelation to many viewers. This is work that encourages contemplation, and rewards getting up close, looking and re-looking.

Kerry Hines has written poems to accompany the photographs. The poems are colloquial, vivid and accessible, and include imagined elements as well as drawing on the subjects and contexts of the photographs. Together, poems and photographs combine to create a work that is multi-faceted, immersive, and speculative, inviting reflection on how we envision our history. 

Related event

Sunday 9 October - Poet and researcher Kerry Hines gives an illustrated talk on the background to Young Country. Find out more. 

Image: House Interior, William Williams.  

Exhibition development supported by Mahara Gallery

Toured by Exhibitions Services