Oriental Parade, Wellington, March 1960

Brian Brake is New Zealand's most celebrated photo-journalist and his images have been published in such prestigious journals as National Geographic, Paris-Match and Life, and exhibited at New York's Museum of Modern Art. In over twenty books and ten films, Brake established that a New Zealand camera artist could achieve international acclaim. His work often recorded the significance of water, both as a life source for all people and as a medium for recreation. New Zealand, Gift of the Sea (1963), with a text by Maurice Shadbolt, brought a people and a place together and became the most popular illustrated book ever to be published in this country. It revealed among its many cultural verities the fact that New Zealanders never forget that they live on a series of islands and that the shoreline is never more than half a day's car drive away. Brake noted of his photographic method: 'You've got to imagine you are invisible. You lose yourself in your work. Technique must be mastered, so you can be very quick. Sometimes you must be like a thief, stealing a your picture before anyone knows it is taken'. It must have given him much satisfaction to later observe that only one person in this crowded scene appears to have noticed the photographer. (from The Guide, 2001)

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