The New Zealand Centre for Photography - call for comments

The New Zealand Centre for Photography - call for comments
Originally posted on PhotographyMatters.com, April 2008

http://www.nzcp.com/ is the website. [Link works but is historic, website is no longer live.] Have a look at the statement by NZCP Chairman Peter Ratner on the homepage.

Some of you may be aware that the NZCP and the National Portrait Gallery spent considerable time and energy over the last two years or so in an attempt to secure Shed 11 on Wellington’s waterfront as the permanent home for both organisations. For various reasons, this bid fell over late in 2007. I was disappointed. A prime location such as Shed 11 would have given the NZCP the opportunity to significantly raise the profile of photography in NZ. The  interest created by several well-attended exhibitions held there last year and in 2005 pointed to this (see nzcp website for those listings, under ‘exhibitions’).

As the Wellington City Council has declared the capital city to also be the cultural capital of NZ, it is a shame that they couldn’t have been more helpful and determined to find a solution to this problem. OK, perhaps Shed 11 wasn’t the best possible location; I don’t know, but as far as the WCC is concerned, the issue now seems to be a dead duck. It may happen, then, that some other city council will step up and offer the NZCP a proper home. Wanganui, perhaps, with its historical photographic associations. Palmerston North has plenty of spare buildings and is centrally located, and it’d give us arty types one other reason for visiting that desolate place, (as well as the wonderful Thermostat Gallery http://www.thermostat.co.nz/).

Anyway, I’m not going to say anything more about the NZCP at this stage, but rather call for your comments. What would you like to see in the future of this organisation? Let us know if you’re a current member, or a lapsed member (and why). Should the NZCP and Photo Forum http://www.photoforum-nz.org/ join forces and pool resources?

If you want to join the NZCP there’s a PDF form on their site. They could sure use your support right now, by the look of things. I am writing as a long term member, frustrated that my annual subscription has hardly yielded any more benefit than 4 issues of the NZCP Journal per year, which I could have simply purchased for a fraction of the subscription price. I have retained my membership because of wanting to support the organisation, and in the hope that one day we will enjoy the benefits of a New Zealand Centre for Photography that lives up to its name.

by james | 24 April, 2008

[Note: I am not going to re-publish the posts relating to the demise of the NZCP. It is dead and buried. If you really want to, you can find them by using The wayback machine and searching under www.PhotographyMatters.com and NZCP.]