Shorn sheep, Islay Downs

Gary Blackman is one of the leading New Zealand photographers of the post-war era and an instrumental figure in helping photography gain recognition as fine art. Many of his photographs capture environments in and around Dunedin where Blackman lived and worked as Associate Professor of Pharmacology at the University of Otago Medical School. His photography balances a stark formalism and detached coolness

with strong humanist undercurrents and a deep connection with place. Scenes of people spilling out onto the footpath at 6 o’clock closing, or children watching scrub burn, are freighted with energy and anticipation. Blackman’s photographic portraits of leading artists and writers reveal a similar feeling of engagement and concern for his subject. He was one of the first photographers to capture crumbling colonial buildings and to establish vernacular architecture as a major theme of photographic practice in Aotearoa New Zealand. The ‘Islay

Downs’ series is one of Blackman’s earliest photo essays and reveals the influence of Dorothea Lange and Edward Weston.

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