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'The Dendromaniac' journal features Mary Macpherson

14/3/2015

Mary Macpherson: Pohutukawa, Devonport, Auckland, from 'Bent'

Great to see the Enjoy Gallery’s online journal ‘The Dendromaniac’. (In case you were wondering Dendromania means an obsession with trees and forests).
This elegant journal features an interesting range of artists and writers who explore the subject of trees, including Photospace Gallery photographer Mary Macpherson with an excerpt from her ‘Bent’ series.
http://journal.enjoy.org.nz/the-dendromaniac/bent
Photospace stocks prints from the ‘Bent’ series which we exhibited in 2014. ‘Bent’ looks at how the tree landscape has been affected by human demands.

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Stock exhibition: PhotoForum@40

11/3/2015

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This exhibition of photographs, from Photospace Gallery's stock drawers, was created in response to the exhibition showing at Wellington City Gallery from 14th March to 14th June, 2015: History in the taking - 40 years of PhotoForum.
While the City Gallery show concentrates mainly on Wellington-related PhotoForum work, there is a recent book PhotoFroum at 40 - Counterculture, clusters and debate in New Zealand by Nina Seja, published by PhotoForum NZ, that details the history of this NZ photographers' organisation since its formation in Auckland in 1974.

PhotoForum@40 stock exhibition at Photospace Gallery, March 2015

The Photospace Gallery exhibition, held in the stockroom while current PhotoForum members Chris Corson-Scott (whose exhibition runs till 2nd April) and Mark Beehre (his exhibition A Queer Existence runs from 9th April to 4th May, 2015) occupy the main rooms of the gallery space.

PhotoForum@40 will continue at Photospace until 14th June 2015 - just as long as the City Gallery's PhotoForum exhibition runs.

The stock exhibition PhotoForum@40 includes photographs by past and present PhotoForum members: Tyree bros., Max Oettli, Tom Hutchins, John B Turner, John Milne, Gary Baigent, John Fields, Lucien Rizos, Mary Macpherson, Peter Black, Reg Feuz, Mark Beehre, James Gilberd, Julian Ward and Karen Lee. The photographs in the show are all available for sale, and some other works by some of these photographers are available to view.

PhotoForum@40 stock exhibition at Photospace Gallery, March 2015

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'A Queer Existence' - photographs by Mark Beehre

1/3/2015

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Mark initially trained as a specialist physician, working for several years in medical practice before studying photography at the Elam School of Fine Arts in Auckland and Massey University in Wellington. His work has been exhibited in New Zealand and overseas and in 2014 he was awarded a Master of Fine Arts from Auckland University. Mark’s work sits at the intersection of documentary, portraiture and social history, and touches on questions of identity, sexuality and the lifelong quest for intimacy. His portraits are often accompanied by first-person narratives drawn from extended interviews with the people he photographs, and this element of oral history opens a unique window into the world of their individual subjective experience. This was the case in Men Alone—Men Together (published in 2010), a major project exploring the lives and relationships of some 45 gay men, couples and singles, living in New Zealand at the start of the 21st century.

'Mike, 2013' Photo: Mark Beehre

A Queer Existence is a new documentary project that again uses photographic portraiture and oral history to record the life experiences of gay men born since a specific historical event, the passage of the Homosexual Law Reform Act in 1986. Prior to that moment sex between men was technically illegal and punishable by imprisonment. Law Reform serves as a symbolic turning point at which the widespread social condemnation of homosexuality that prevailed in the earlier decades of the 20th century was gradually replaced by increasing degrees of acceptance, exemplified by the Civil Union Act in 2005 and Marriage Equality in 2013 granting legal status to same-sex relationships. Along with that came the ever more prolific dissemination of the social script of ‘gay identity’ as the means by which men experiencing same-sex desire constructed their sense of self. Gay men growing up since Law Reform can thus be expected to have a very different set of life experiences from those of their forebears.

'Geraint, 2012' Photo: Mark Beehre

A Queer Existence sets out to document, prospectively, the stories, visual appearances and subjective experiences of some of these men. In the current exhibition, the immediacy and impact of large-scale (1m square) photographic portraits is accompanied by a soundtrack drawn from excerpts from the interviews, allowing the sitters’ own voices to be heard in the gallery space and immersing the viewer in the experiences they narrate.

Mark Beehre's exhibition A Queer Existence is showing at Photospace Gallery, 1st floor, 37 Courtenay Place, Wellington, from 10th April - 4th May, 2015.

For information on Mark's publications and previous exhibitions: www.markbeehre.co.nz

'Stephen, 2013' Photo: Mark Beehre

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'The Dendromaniac' journal features Mary Macpherson

Stock exhibition: PhotoForum@40

'A Queer Existence' - photographs by Mark Beehre

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