Lens on the World – Brian Brake

Our walk along the waterfront ended at our destination, the Te papa Museum.  We joined the crowds of people streaming into our marvellous national museum, all busy to see what was on offer. 

Waterfront view of Te Papa Museum

The reason for our visit was to view the Brian Brake exhibition.  Brian Brake was New Zealand’s most successful photo journalist.   Although he was incredibly well known for his work, we didn’t know a great deal about him, or his life.  We were interested to see this collection of his life’s work.

His interest started as a schoolboy when he attended a photography club in Christchurch.  There were many examples of his early black and white prints of New Zealand mountain scenes.  As we moved further into the exhibition, I noticed a sign prohibiting photos.  Oh dear, just as well they hadn’t seen me take this, my first and last one inside the exhibition.

Somewhere on a NZ mountaintop

Brain Brake‘s work was published internationally in Life, Paris Match and National Geographic magazines.  He is remembered today for his rare photographs of Communist China in the 1950s.  He loved living and working in Asia and produced beautiful images  from the Asian countries.  I particularly liked the photo of the Sanzen-in Temple in Japan.  It showed a black silhouette of a monk through the window of a temple, also in silhouette, set against a flame red tree glowing in the sunshine.

It was interesting reading that he was not happy with his Hadrian Wall photos, which were originally shot in summer.  He felt that the images taken did not adequately portray the miserable conditions of the Roman Centurions, and asked to be able to return in winter when snow was forecast.  When the conditions were right, he flew back from Algiers to London, was chauffeured by limousine,  and completed the journey by helicopter.  This extra travel cost Life magazine US$5000.00, a huge amount for extra photos in 1965.  It goes to show that he was a perfectionist in his work.

His beautiful New Zealand book, Gift of the Sea, is full of stunning scenes.  This book has been re-published several times, and this image of Milford Sound is just one of a whole series of photos of natural beauty.

Milford Sound

Brian Brake died of a heart attack in 1988.  His entire collection of photographs is now housed at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.

Interested in fashion?  We also checked out the Enriching Fashion exhibition on our visit to Te Papa.  Read all about it on our other blog:   www.romanyquilting.blogspot.com