Jane Ussher | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Philippa Jane Ussher 1953 (age 69–70) Dunedin, New Zealand |
| Education | Wellington Polytechnic |
| Known for | Photography |
| Spouse | Grant Gallagher |
Philippa Jane Ussher MNZM (born 1953) is one of New Zealand's foremost documentary and portrait photographers. She joined the New Zealand Listener in 1977 and was chief photographer for 29 years, leaving to take up a career as a freelance photographer and author.
Jane Ussher was born in Dunedin in 1953. [1] [2] She describes herself as leaving school unsure of what to do, and taking a photography course at Wellington Polytechnic, which "felt exactly right. It suited every aspect of my temperament. I couldn't have found anything better." [3] She studied photography at Wellington Polytechnic from 1975–76, and was the first student to be offered a second-year scholarship. [4] The first camera she owned was a Hasselblad, using 24-image 120 film, purchased off a fellow student. [5]
Ussher joined the staff of the Listener in 1977 as chief photographer, and over nearly 30 years documented New Zealand culture. [4] She first gained acclaim for her 1984 exhibition of New Zealand sporting personality portraits, The Olympians. [6] This success led to a prolific career mainly focusing on portrait photography, some collected in the book Jane Ussher Portraits, launched in 2004 to coincide with the Listener's 65th anniversary. The book includes many acclaimed portraits from the Listener of major New Zealand figures, ranging from sport stars (Jonah Lomu, Edmund Hillary), to prime ministers (Helen Clark, David Lange, Robert Muldoon) to actors such as Russell Crowe, Sam Neill. [2] She continued to shoot on film while at the Listener, despite the cost, and was a relatively late adopter of digital photography. [5]
In 2008 Ussher left the Listener to become a freelancer, and accepted an invitation from Prime Minister Helen Clark to travel to Antarctica with the Antarctica New Zealand Media Programme. She spent four weeks over the summer of 2008–2009 photographing the three historic huts that served as bases for Scott and Shackleton's pioneering expeditions. A series of photographs from this trip were published as Still Life: Inside the Antarctic Huts of Scott and Shackleton. [7] The book was launched by then New Zealand Prime Minister John Key October 2010. [8] In 2017 she was invited to speak on her Antarctic photography at TEDxScottBase, an event broadcast worldwide. [9]
Ussher uses a Hasselblad medium-format digital camera, on a tripod with long exposures, preferring to shoot outside in natural light. [5] Her work has been displayed many times at leading museums such as Te Papa in Wellington and Auckland Museum. These exhibitions have showcased both her photography and more recently audiovisual experiences. She is considered New Zealand's foremost portrait photographer. [7] [10]
Ussher is married to publisher Grant Gallagher and has a son; she lives north of Auckland. [7] [8]
Catherine Chidgey is a New Zealand novelist, short-story writer and university lecturer. Her honours include the inaugural Prize in Modern Letters; the Katherine Mansfield Fellowship to Menton, France; Best First Book at both the New Zealand Book Awards and the Commonwealth Writers' Prize ; the Acorn Foundation Fiction Prize at the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards; and the Janet Frame Fiction Prize.
The Ockham New Zealand Book Awards are literary awards presented annually in New Zealand. The awards began in 1996 as the merger of two literary awards events: the New Zealand Book Awards, which ran from 1976 to 1995, and the Goodman Fielder Wattie Book Awards, which ran from 1968 to 1995.
The New Zealand Listener is a weekly New Zealand magazine that covers the political, cultural and literary life of New Zealand by featuring a variety of topics, including current events, politics, social issues, health, technology, arts, food, culture and entertainment. The Bauer Media Group closed The Listener in April 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic in New Zealand. In June 2020, Mercury Capital acquired the magazine as part of its purchase of Bauer Media's former Australia and New Zealand assets, which were rebranded as Are Media.
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essa may ranapiri is a New Zealand poet and visual artist. They are of Ngāti Wehi Wehi, Ngāti Raukawa, Te Arawa and Ngāti Pūkeko descent. Their first collection of poetry, Ransack (2019), was longlisted for the 2020 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards. Their second collection, Echidna, was published in 2022.
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