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Introduction

Marti is a documen-

tary about the life and

work of an important

photographer, Marti

Friedlander. Because

Marti has been taking photographs of

New Zealand life for more than 40 years,

documenting its various social groups and

historical changes, the documentary traces

not only Marti’s story but also the story of

the country itself.

This is a film rich in content - with sections

on social change, the arts in New Zealand,

Maori culture, the immigrant experience,

and the art of photography (among other

topics). The film can be screened complete

(73 minutes), or a single section can be

used as a stimulus or discussion-starter.

Marti will be particularly relevant to NCEA

level 2 or 3, but can also be used in some

Level 1 units. It relates to the following ar-

eas of the curriculum: a) Social Studies and

History, b) Visual Arts, c) English, and d)

Media Studies. We shall now discuss these

areas in turn, though some topics and

questions will overlap and we suggest that

teachers read the study guide as a whole.

The guide will end with a synopsis of the

documentary (to help teachers to locate

particular sections), plus some additional

discussion-starters and a list of related

resource material.

IN SENIOR SOCIAL STUDIES, Marti can be used for ELANZ (Essential Learning about New Zealand) in relation to such objectives as:

1.1: Examine change in society.(The documentary draws vivid contrasts between New Zealand society as Marti found it when she arrived in 1958 and as it has developed since. Those interviewed on the subject include historian James Belich.)

1.3, 2.3, or 3.3: Conduct a Social Studies enquiry.(Through her photography, Marti sought to identify aspects of New Zealand society that were particularly characteristic and distinctive. An enquiry could focus on the theme of the country’s ‘identity’ (which Marti saw as only just beginning to de-velop); on what life was like in the 1950s; on patterns of gender (an aspect of New Zealand that Marti found particularly strik-ing); and on ways in which our society is different today. Students can find their own examples to compare with those provided

by the photographer or by Professor Be-lich.)

4.4: Examining different values positions. (A section of the documentary focuses on Marti’s photographs of protest activities, including the debate over South African rugby tours, the Vietnam war, the women’s movement, family values, and the hippie ‘counterculture’.)

1.1: Examine diversity in society.(Marti’s personal story is that of an im-migrant who at first had great difficulty adapting to New Zealand. Experiencing a ‘complete change of life’, becoming ‘a stranger in a strange land’, was an impor-tant motivation for her photography. She took a particular interest in documenting migrant groups, as we see from the section on the Dalmatians who played a central role in the creation of the New Zealand wine industry. Marti also talks about her sense of ‘cultural identity’ as a member of the New Zealand Jewish community. She is an

RIGHT: TIM AND NEIL FINN (2004). MARTI WAS ASKED BY THE FINNS TO TAKE PHOTOGRAPHS FOR THEIR NEW CD, ‘EVERYONE IS HERE’. THE FINNS FEEL A PARTICULAR EMOTIONAL LINK WITH THE WAIKATO RIVER AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. MARTI’S PHOTOGRAPHS OF TIM AND NEIL HAVE APPEARED IN NEWSPAPERS AND MAGAZINES AROUND THE WORLD. ABOVE: WEST COAST (1969). MARTI HAS ALWAYS BEEN FASCINATED BY PEOPLE AND THEIR CONTEXTS, BY RELATIONSHIPS, BY BODY LANGUAGE.

Social Studies

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eloquent advocate of the benefits that cultural diversity can bring to a society. Marti makes an interesting parallel with other documen-taries about immigration to New Zealand such as Long Lost Sons, also available in this series with a study guide.)

One section of the documentary focuses on Maori culture and heritage. Marti collaborat-ed with Michael King on his first book, Moko, a survey of all the Maori women who had traditional moko (facial tattoos). At this time

(1972), Pakeha New Zealanders tended to be much less aware of Maori culture.

For History, Marti’s study of the 1950s and ‘60s is relevant to such objectives as: 1.1 Carry out an historical investigation; 1.2 Com-municate historical ideas; and 1.4 Examine the perspectives of people in an historical setting. Or the related objectives at Levels 2 and 3.

THOSE STUDYING ANY AREA OF THE VISUAL ARTS may find the film useful as a stimulus or discussion-starter about a New Zealand artist who has thought long and hard about how to record the distinctive features of her time and place. Marti has also sought to document the lives of New Zealand artists, and the film includes news footage or pho-tographic sequences of Gretchen Albrecht, Rita Angus, Don Binney, Barry Brickell, Phillip Clairmont, Tony Fomison, Ralph Hotere, Alan Maddox, Patrick Reynolds, and Michael Smither, among others.

Marti is a particularly detailed resource for the ‘research’ or ‘theory’ component of the study of Photography – for example, when students research how photographers work, what ideas they express, what techniques and tools they use, how they relate to their histori-cal context, etc.

Students may also explore Marti’s work as part of an ‘art movement’ or ‘art-making tradition’, discussing its relevance to current photographic practice. Marti can be grouped with other ‘documentary photographers’ – a strong tradition in New Zealand. There is an excellent documentary, Visible Evidence, that explores this tradition, linking her work with that of Kapil Arn, Fiona Clark, Bruce Connew, Gil Hanly, Tom Hutchins, John Miller and Ans Westra. There is much more to Marti’s pho-tography than social documentation, but that is certainly an important ingredient.

Types of photography touched on in the documentary include:

- portraits- self-portraits- fashion photography- advertising photography- photographs of children- photographs of artists- promotional photographs for musicians

Among other technical aspects, the docu-mentary discusses: lighting (such as Marti’s use of natural light), shadow, composition, framing, exposure, film speed, lens, focus, camera angle, darkroom, negative, develop-ing, retouching, enlarging, etc. While she is interested in the new possibilities of digital photography, Marti believes that any pho-tographer will benefit from an understanding of traditional development processes: ‘It’s a wonderful experience making enlargements from your negatives – the excitement, the mystery of it…. I actually don’t believe you can really be a photographer unless you learn how to print your own negatives.’ (Why does Marti see this as such an important learning experience?)

Black and white versus colour: Many of Marti’s photographs are B&W. (The excep-tions include her photographs for a book about contemporary New Zealand artists.) This raises the interesting question: what advantages might a photographer see in B&W images? (Possible answers include subtle gradations of light and shade, and the fact that the B&W image is so different from eve-ryday life that it can allow us to see a subject with fresh eyes.)

Visual Arts

LEFT: MANGERE, A YOUNG MIGRANT (1982). THE LABEL PINNED TO HER SWEATER STATES HER NAME AND A NUMBER.

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Framing: Seeing a variety of photographs transferred to the cinema or television screen can heighten our awareness of framing and cropping. In film-making, the technical term is ‘aspect ratio’ (or the screen’s ratio of width to height). Screens always have a sideways or ‘landscape’ format. Television screens conform to an aspect ratio of 4 to 3 (or 1.33:1, as it is usually expressed). A wide-screen television format of 16 to 9 (or approximately 1.77:1) has started to appear on the market. Cinema screens have a standard aspect ratio of 1.85:1, or 2:1, and so films made for the cinema have to be cropped when trans-ferred to television (we do not see the sides of the image), or else they are ‘letterboxed’ (shown with a black strip at top and bottom). A photographer has the advantage of greater freedom, being able to use a vertical format or to crop the photographic image. This is an in-teresting topic for discussion - the importance of size, proportion (or ‘aspect ratio’), framing and cropping in photography.

The comment by Roland Barthes quoted by photographer Patrick Reynolds is a potential discussion-starter: ‘ Yet it is not, it seems to me, by [imitating] painting that photography touches art, but by theatre.’ Patrick adds: ‘Marti’s work is a good example of that, it’s a kind of theatre of life.’

Other possible questions for discussion include:

• Why might an artist be interested in iden-tifying what is distinctive about their time and place?

• Why did Marti puzzle New Zealanders by the subjects she chose to photograph?

• What does she mean by trying to ‘capture the essence of a person or event’?

• When she photographed artists in particu-lar, what did she choose to emphasise?

Interacting with the subject: There are a number of comments in the documentary about how Marti interacts with those she is photographing. How can we sum up her particular approach? Do individuals respond to this approach in different ways?

More generally, students can discuss the pros and cons of the various ways a photographer may relate to his or her subjects – for exam-ple, detached observation compared with active intervention and direction.

Motives for taking photos: Marti describes

RIGHT: CORBAN’S VINEYARD, HENDERSON, AUCKLAND (1967)6

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various reasons or ‘catalysts’ for her decision to embark on her serious career as a photog-rapher. Discuss what these reasons were and how they may have shaped her approach to photography.

Any discussion of ‘what makes photography an art?’ will find plenty of relevant material in this film, such as Don Binney’s comment about Marti’s ‘authorship’ (or unique vision): ‘A photograph of oneself by Marti Friedlander is a Marti Friedlander artefact. It isn’t a ques-tion so much of seeing oneself as of seeing oneself in a “very Marti context”…. Marti is definitely [the person] hitting the shutter!’

In Art History, relevant objectives include: 2.4 Examine an art movement; 2.5 Research an art history topic; 3.5 Investigate an art history topic; and 3.6 Examine the context of an art movement. (For example, see the comments

above on New Zealand ‘documentary photog-raphers’.)

In relation to the objective ‘Examine media and processes in art’ (for 3.3), the film estab-lishes vivid contrasts between three media: (a) painting (painters at work), (b) photography (Marti’s portraits of painters), and (c) moving images (the documentary itself). This is an op-portunity for students to discuss the distinc-tive strengths of each medium.

The history of photography: Which pho-tographers are represented in the film, and what can you find out about them? (They include Yousuf Karsh, Douglas Glass, Gordon Crocker, and Humphrey Spender.) The film also notes the great impact of The Family of Man exhibition in 1955 and the influence of pictorial magazines such as Life in the devel-opment of documentary photography.

THE FILM CAN BE A USEFUL RESOURCE for a unit on living in New Zealand to accompany a unit on New Zealand literature.

Several aspects of the documentary are relevant to ‘visual language’ in English – for example, the section on the protest placard or banner as a text communicating a politi-cal message, often based on word-play (See pages 12-14). Marti discusses the amount of information that can be carried by such slogans. (On her photograph of a 1960 protest against an All Black tour of South Africa, then a racially segregated country, she says: ‘I love that slogan “I’m all white Jack” because it says something to me about how it was in those days….’) She also notes the possible ambiguity of slogans when read by those who do not share the same belief system. (She uses the example of the slogan ‘Sex within marriage’ from a protest march by Pentecos-tal Church members.)

Potential questions include: ‘What are the characteristics of typical protest slogans (as a genre)? What can make this type of political communication more or less effective?’ And: ‘Analyse some examples of protest slogans, in terms of the verbal techniques used (e.g. pun, irony, metaphor) and the political at-

titudes communicated.’

The ability to make a close reading of a photograph is an important ‘visual language’ skill because this type of static image makes up such a large part of our environment today (in magazines, on billboards, via the Internet, etc.). The documentary is relevant to the ‘Study and analysis of a visual text’ (English 1.5, 2.5 and 3.4). The images in this book-let are a few of the many photographs by Marti that may be discussed in terms of: the relationship between words and imag-es; gesture, expression and body language; the effects of light; composition and fram-ing; contrasts and other juxtapositions; etc. (Often her choice of composition or framing creates a particular emphasis or contrast, the lighting creates a particular mood, and the body language is highly expressive.)

Marti offers her own comments on these themes in the film and reminds us that in any good photograph, ‘It’s not just what you see, it’s underneath what you’re looking at’ and ‘There is much more to it than is obvious – it’s about life itself.’

English

LEFT: TIRAHA COOPER AND HER GREAT-GRANDDAUGHTER (WAIKATO, 1970)

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MARTI IS INTERESTING NOT ONLY FOR ITS SUBJECT MATTER but also as an example of documentary-making – relevant to a media genre study (2.4), or to the close reading of an unfamiliar media text (2.2). The documentary was directed and produced by Shirley Horrocks who has made a number of notable arts documentaries – including Flip and Two Twisters (about Len Lye), Pleasures and Dangers (about six women artists), Early Days Yet (about poet Allen Curnow, and Act of Murder (about Miranda Harcourt’s performance to prison audiences of a play about murder). Shirley’s documentaries have won awards and been screened in film festivals in New Zealand and overseas. Marti is broadcast by TV ONE as one of its special series of ‘Festival’ documentaries.

‘Documentaries about the arts’ form an important genre in their own right. How to make a good documentary of this kind? Generally, the two factors that provide the necessary basis are: (a) extensive research, and (b) the trust and cooperation of the person or group that is the subject (a relationship that the documentary-maker must develop and maintain). Implicitly, these factors strongly influence the success of a documentary.

Many choices have to be made about the structure and mode of narration. No docu-mentary can cover every aspect of its sub-ject and so it is important to decide on prior-ities. Photographs can be discussed without any reference to the person who has made them, but this director saw Marti’s personal-ity and background as strongly shaping her approach to photography. Shirley also saw the photographer as a fascinating person in her own right and wanted to make a record for future generations of this artist’s life and working methods. (Shirley has commented: ‘There are many artists – such as Katherine Mansfield or Colin McCahon – that I would like to be able to see talking or working, yet there appears to be no film record of them.’)

In keeping with this approach, the director decided to let Marti tell her own story, talking directly to the camera or providing her own ‘voice-over’ commentary. The documen-tary does not have an outside ‘presenter’ or commentator to provide an ‘omniscient

narration.’ In interviews with Marti, the interviewer (the director herself) remains ‘off-camera’ or ‘out of shot’. A few other people appear to offer comments, but they are mostly fellow artists or people who have worked with Marti. An alternative documen-tary could have been constructed from a series of interviews with (say) art historians or art critics. This could be very interesting in its own right, but it would certainly be dif-ferent. Shirley has chosen to concentrate on Marti’s own viewpoint.

It is important to remember, however, that even the most intimate documentary is still a construction - this film is one director’s pro-file of Marti, her interpretation of her subject. There is always creative space in the editing of a film for a director to raise questions or to make points of her own. This portrait, for example, includes some affectionate humour as well as admiration, and at times the direc-tor has deliberately juxtaposed divergent views (for example, different opinions about whether or not Marti sometimes gets ‘bossy’ when she takes photographs). The director comments: ‘Life isn’t simple, and a docu-mentary has to be aware of complexities and subtle shadings if it wants to give a three-dimensional portrait of its subject. Rather than offer cut-and-dried conclusions, I like to leave viewers some freedom to make up their own minds.’

What is the structure of the documentary? Shirley chose to use a basically chronologi-cal approach moving through Marti’s life, though each section of the documentary also focuses on a particular theme. The early years could have been abbreviated but the director saw this first twenty minutes of the documentary as important in helping us to get to know Marti and to emphasise the dramatic contrast between what she knew in London and what she found in New Zea-land. In this way, viewers can relive some of Marti’s experiences. (In Marti’s words: ‘Can you imagine what it was like being a new migrant to New Zealand….the sheer wonder at most of the things I could see?’) We can then understand why she turned to photog-raphy as a way of ‘coming to terms’ with her new environment.

The beginning and ending of a documentary

Media Studies

ABOVE: SALEYARD (1972)

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MYERS PARK (1960)’. (A PROTEST AGAINST THE 1960 ALL BLACK TOUR OF SOUTH AFRICA)

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are both important. Students can be asked about these choices made in this case - why they think those choices were made, and how well they work.

The present film departs from chronological structure in its opening sequence (also known as an ‘intro’ or ‘set-up’) in order to establish Marti in the present, revisiting a cattle auc-tion-yard that she had photographed 40 years earlier. She is then shown at the Wellington opening of an art gallery exhibition based on her four decades of photography. These scenes serve to inform us that Marti is an important photographer and they introduce us to her ‘personal odyssey’, the life story that will follow. After the title of the film, we return to her earliest memories, like a flashback.

And the ending? After seventy minutes, the film brings us full-circle back to the exhibition (now in Dunedin, the ‘last stop’ on its national tour) where Marti makes some concluding comments about her ‘odyssey of photograph-ing New Zealand’. As the titles start to roll, the director adds a couple of light-hearted moments (known in the television industry as an ‘outro’) - they remind us of one of Marti’s mottoes (‘If you ask me to photograph you, I do it my way!’) and of her experience as a migrant (‘Oh, you’re a new migrant!’). These scenes help to end the documentary on a positive note, reflecting Marti’s lively, ‘feisty’ personality.

Some other aspects of the documentary genre:

Archival (historical) footage: Media students can be asked to discuss such questions as: What is archival footage? What functions

does it serve? What choices are involved? What represents a good use of archival foot-age?

Historical footage can be a valuable tool for bringing the past to life, but in some cases footage of this kind is difficult to locate or too expensive. For Marti, Shirley was able to make significant use of old newsreel and documentary footage (about England in the 1930s and ‘40s, about New Zealand in the 1950s and ‘60s, and about the photographer herself over the last 30 years). Hundreds of hours of research were required to track down the rare London footage. Shirley decided to retain some of the original voice-over narra-tion on the old footage because she felt that it helped to convey the mood of the period.

The attempt to document Henderson in the 1950s and ‘60s finally led the director to an extensive collection of ‘home movies’ (on the old 8mm format) by a dedicated film-maker named Frank Morris. His family kindly gave permission for selections of his work to be used. Shirley’s assistant, Rebekah Kelly, spent many hours looking for possible shots.

To help to dramatise the earliest period of Marti’s life - not an easy task since there were almost no childhood photographs of herself – the director took her back to London to revisit the old locations and to relive her ex-periences (some pleasant and some painful). Use was also made of historical photographs of the East End, some by the famous photog-rapher Humphrey Spender.

Conventions: Students can be asked to identify conventions of the documentary genre. These include: mode of narration, archival footage, interviews, montage (a quick series of related images), captions (known to film-makers as ‘base-line supers’) such as the names of interviewees, etc.

Choice of music: The director sought music that would have connections both with New Zealand and with Marti’s Jewish ‘cultural identity’. She found it in some pieces by New Zealand composer Jonathan Besser which had a klezmer flavour. (Klezmer is an energetic genre of Jewish popular music). Combining such music with a cattle auction was a way of getting the documentary off to a lively and unusual start.

Title: Students can debate the relevance of the title: Marti - The Passionate Eye.

LEFT: PENTECOSTAL MARCH (1972). A PROTEST AGAINST CHANGING ATTITUDES TO SEXUAL MORALITY. ABOVE: DON BINNEY (1965)14

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Tone: Even the most serious documentary needs some variations in tone if it is to hold our interest. Marti includes a number of lighter mo-ments to add variety.

Special moments: Almost all documentaries are put together from a large number of short scenes or sequences, carefully edited and or-dered. A good documentary will include at least a few moments that are exceptionally vivid or expressive. In the case of any film we can ask: ‘Are there moments we find particularly mov-ing or memorable, and if so, what makes these moments striking?’

Understanding of media and the language of media: This documentary brings together at least three media – photography, painting, and the moving image. What are the similarities and differences between these media? What does each medium do best?

Funding and cooperation: Funding can be a difficult issue for anyone making an unusual documentary. Along the way, the Marti project received invaluable support from Creative NZ, NZ On Air, and TVNZ.

The cooperation of many people is also crucial in making an ambitious documentary of this kind. At the Film Festival screening, the director made a particular point of acknowledging the cooperation of the artist and her husband over the many months that the documentary was in progress: ‘This film has been quite a journey for me - and for Marti. I thank Marti and Gerrard for their trust in me. Gaining their friendship has been one of the biggest rewards in making the film.’ In addition, Shirley was assisted by many people and institutions in the arts community, such as the Auckland Art Gallery which had organised Marti’s retrospective exhibition.

Synopsis: The sections of the documentary

1 Introduction: Marti taking photographs at a cattle auction. Then Marti visits a retrospec-tive exhibition of her photographs. (The main title of the documentary appears.)

2 Marti’s childhood, growing up in a Jewish orphanage, amidst the poverty of London’s East End.

3 The war years. At the age of 14 Marti studies photography at Bloomsbury Trade School.

4 Marti as a young adult studying art and pho-tography and working as an assistant to two photographers (Douglas Glass and Gordon

Crocker). Enjoying the social and cultural life of London.

5 Meets and marries Gerrard Friedlander and tours Europe with him.

6 Arrives in New Zealand in 1958, which she finds very different from London. Surprised by its lack of a distinctive cultural identity. (James Belich and C.K. Stead comment on New Zealand in the 1950s as a ‘tight soci-ety’.)

7 Marti turns to photography, starting with portraits of children.

8 She takes photographs of daily life in vari-ous parts of New Zealand as her way of coming to terms with an unfamiliar coun-try. These images form the basis of her first book, Larks in a Paradise (with text by James McNeish). Marti is fascinated by people in the landscape and by gender (‘macho men’).

9 Marti is also fascinated by ‘the quirkiness of relationships’. And she takes a photograph of a flock of sheep on a country road that will become one of her most famous imag-es. (She uses it here to discuss the process of developing and enlarging photographs.)

10 The Dalmatian community. Working for Wine Review, Marti documents the creation of a local wine industry. Dick Scott, then editor of Wine Review, describes how Marti ob-tained a famous photograph of Walter Nash at a vineyard (by her method of ‘Karsh-ing’).

11 The Connoisseurs’ Club - Marti takes some lively photographs of New Zealanders trying to become more sophisticated.

12 Marti begins taking photographs of kuia (elderly Maori women) with moko (facial tattoos), first at Parihaka on a trip with Dick Scott. Then she starts working with Michael King on the book Moko.

13 Marti completes her work on Moko. After a comment on Maori ‘cultural identity’, she explains that her own sense of identity is based on Jewish culture. In Auckland, she and Gerrard attend Seder, a service at home for the festival of Passover, which commem-orates the exodus of the Jews from Egypt. This very ancient ritual, combined with an evening meal, is observed once a year.

14 Marti and Gerrard make a ‘personal odys-sey’ to Israel.

15 When they return to New Zealand, they find it changing. Marti photographs various protest movements – the debate over New Zealand’s rugby links with South Africa; the Vietnam war; and the hippie ‘counter-cul-ture’.

16 Marti also documents the women’s move-ment, and a counter-protest by a religious

RIGHT: SHEARERS, BALCLUTHA (1969).

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group.17 Photographs of New Zealand artists and

writers – Don Binney, Rita Angus, Michael Smither, etc. A book project about New Zealand painters with Jim and Mary Barr.

18 Other artists: Gretchen Albrecht, Phillip Clairmont, Tony Fomison, Alan Maddox, and Ralph Hotere.

19 Barry Brickell talks about the experience of being photographed by Marti.

20 Daniel Brown discusses Marti’s ‘holding hands’ photographs. And Patrick Reynolds quotes Roland Barthes’ comment on pho-tography as ‘theatre’.

21 Marti has taken self-portraits all through her life.

22 Her portraits of Gerrard. Marti comments on their lifelong partnership.

23 Marti’s life today. Meeting friends at a café. Two recent photographic shoots: a cam-paign for breast cancer awareness, and photos of Neil and Tim Finn for their new CD.

24 Final section: the ‘last venue’ for Marti’s exhibition. She gives a talk at the open-ing (‘It is now 40 years since I started what I call the odyssey of photographing New Zealand’). As the ‘end titles’ (or ‘tail credits’) start to appear, there are final glimpses of Marti taking a photograph for a member of the audience and signing a catalogue for a new migrant.

Versions

The version of the documentary screened in film festivals and available for purchase is 73 minutes long. The version screened on TV ONE is 70 minutes long – slightly shortened to fit neatly into 90 minutes of television time.

It is useful for Media Studies students, and indeed all viewers, to understand how television works in terms of programme formats. So far as possible, television likes to operate in one-hour or half-hour units of time. In New Zealand, approximately 13 or 14 minutes per hour are reserved for advertisements or ‘promos’ for forthcoming programmes. This reflects the fact that television in New Zealand is largely funded by advertising revenue, unlike advertising-free channels in larger countries that are funded directly by the government or through a general broadcasting licence. There is, however, some government funding for television in New Zea-land; and in the case of documentaries such as Marti, a large part of the funding comes from NZ On Air. Some documentaries are also made possible by Charter funding that the govern-

ment gives to TVNZ. Such additional support (via Charter funding or NZ On Air) enables more ‘local content’ to be produced for New Zealand television, and makes possible a more diverse range of programmes.

For the television version of Marti, the six ad-vertising ‘breaks’ occur at these points:

(a) at the end of section 2;(b) at the end of 5;(c) at the end of 8;(d) at the end of 12;(e) at the end of 15; (f) at the end of 18.

The six breaks divide the documentary into seven sections. Each section is approximately ten minutes long.

Discussion-starters - some other quotes by Marti from the documentary:

- ‘It was the very ordinariness of it [New Zealand life] that to me was extraordinary.’

- ‘I felt that New Zealanders lacked a strong sense of identity.’

- ‘New Zealanders were pretty compacent, there was this attitude of “God’s Own Coun-try”.’

- ‘[At 14] I had no idea that photography was a kind of profession.’

- ‘I couldn’t bear the sort of normal conven-tional photographs in those days.’

- ‘I always call my photographs idiosyncratic. It’s not what you see really, it’s underneath what you’re looking at.’

- ‘I love old faces, I always have.’- ‘I say often to young people who are aspir-

ing to become photographers, it’s not the equipment that you use, it’s your eye that matters.’

- ‘I couldn’t believe when I came to New Zea-land how little publicity artists or creative people were getting.’

Resources

Marti Friedlander exhibition catalogue: Ron Brownson, Marti Friedlander: Photographs (Auckland, Random House New Zealand Ltd in association with the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki, 2001)

Study guides

Other guides in the same TVNZ series as this one include related exercises and lists of resources. See, for example, Long Lost Sons,

Sheilas, and The Anika Moa Story.

Videos

Visible Evidence, a 1996 documentary by Leon Narbey, explores the work of eight New Zealand photographers involved in social documenta-tion (Kapil Arn, Fiona Clark, Bruce Connew, Marti Friedlander, Gil Hanly, Tom Hutchins, John Miller and Ans Westra).

Other documentaries about New Zealand photographers include:

- A Sense of Place: Robin Morrison, Photog-rapher (directed by John Bates, 1993)

- Peter Peryer (Greg Stitt, 1994)- Pleasures and Dangers: Artists of the ‘90s

(Shirley Horrocks, 1991) – includes Christine Webster, and several multi-media artists who use photography

- Mercury Lane: Photographers (Greenstone Pictures, 2004) – on Marti Friedlander and Fiona Pardington

Books that feature Marti’s photography include:

- James McNeish and Marti Friedlander, Larks in a Paradise (Auckland, Collins, 1974)

- Michael King, Moko (Auckland, D. Bateman, 1992)

- Jim and Mary Barr, Contemporary New Zea-land Painters, Vol.1 (Martinborough, Alister Taylor, 1980)

- Dick Scott, Pioneers of New Zealand Wine (Auckland, Reed/Southern Cross, 2002)

Books about New Zealand photography include:

- William Main and John Turner, New Zealand Photography from the 1840s to the Present (Auckland, PhotoForum, 1993)

- A number of books about the painters doc-umented by Marti are available, for example Damian Skinner’s Don Binney (Auckland, Auckland University Press, 2003)

Books about New Zealand in the 1950s include:

- James Belich, Paradise Reforged: A History of the New Zealanders from the 1880s to the year 2000 (Auckland, Allen Lane / Pen-guin Press, 2001)

- Michael King, The Penguin History of New Zealand (Auckland, Penguin Books, 2003)

- Bill Pearson, Fretful Sleepers and other essays (Auckland, Heinemann Education Books, 1974) - the title essay is a classic

- Bill Pearson, Coal Flat (Auckland, Paul’s

Book Arcade, 1963) – classic novel- Gordon McLauchlan, The Passionless Peo-

ple (Auckland, Cassell, 1976)- Redmer Yska, All Shook Up: The Flash

Bodgie and the Rise of the New Zealand Teenager in the Fifties (Auckland, Penguin, 1993)

- Stephen Barnett, ed., Those Were The Days: A Nostalgic Look at the 1950s from the Pages of The Weekly News (Auckland, Moa, 1987)

- Maurice Gee, The Plumb Trilogy: Plumb, Meg, Survivor (Auckland, Penguin, 1995) – a trilogy of novels that follow the course of New Zealand history.

Credits

This documentary was made for TV ONE with funding from NZ on Air and was produced by Point of View Productions, PO Box 78084, Auckland

Special thanks to Marti Friedlander for the use of her photographs.

VHS copies of Marti are available from Road-show Entertainment, phone (09) 820 8875.

Writer: Roger Horrocks. Roger Horrocks has been a pioneer of film education in New Zealand, author of school textbooks such as On Film, and founder of the Department of Film, Television and Media Studies at the University of Auckland

This study guide was produced by ATOM. For more information about ATOM study guides, The Education Shop, The Speakers’ Bureau or Screen Hub (the daily online film and television newsletter) visit our web site: www.metromaga-zine.com.au or email: damned@netspace.net.au

Notice: An educational institution may make copies of all or part of this Study Guide, pro-vided that it only makes and uses copies as reasonably required for its own educational, non-commercial, classroom purposes and does not sell or lend such copies.

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