Group show
Still looking: Peter McLeavey and the last photograph
curated by Geoffrey Batchen and Deidra Sullivan
05 October – 20 December 2018
I think there is one more photograph I have to find. The last photograph. I’m still looking for it. It’s out there somewhere. I’m waiting for it to claim me, the last photograph. I don’t know what it is, but when I see it, I’ll know it and I’ll buy it, and it will hang with all the others. And maybe then the life, the story, the quest, will be complete.
This exhibition explored the quest described above by Peter McLeavey. Unbeknownst to many, McLeavey spent almost thirty years collecting photographs, amassing a world-class ensemble of prints by some of the medium’s most significant figures. These include William Henry Fox Talbot, Charles Clifford, Francis Frith, Eugène Atget, Berenice Abbott, Bill Brandt, Dorothea Lange, Robert Frank, and Joel-Peter Witkin. McLeavey also collected related examples of photo-media, such as photogravures by Léon Vidal, James Nasmyth, and Loewy and Puiseaux, and lithographs by Joseph Beuys, Barbara Kruger and Sherrie Levine. In addition, he acquired numerous examples of New Zealand photographs, from ambrotypes and albumen prints to contemporary art.
McLeavey claimed that ‘collections are essentially maps of the self. A diary of the self. They reflect back the lives of the collectors.’ Still looking takes up this proposition, tracing the trajectory of McLeavey’s own collecting and measuring it against his itinerant childhood, his Catholicism, and his various intellectual, emotional and aesthetic interests. Welcoming the opportunity to pursue art works that he wasn’t selling himself, McLeavey tended to collect particular photographers in depth and after considerable research and consideration. Most of his photographs were acquired from leading dealers in the United States and are among the finest prints by these artists that were available. McLeavey also framed each photograph in an individually designed molding, accentuating certain aspects of each image and imposing a personal perspective on the viewing experience.
The exhibition featured an array of photographic images in a variety of media, along with letters and catalogues related to McLeavey’s purchases, providing a unique opportunity to reflect on the nature of collecting and to invite each visitor to ask what their own ‘last photograph’ might be.
An illustrated catalogue accompanied the exhibition, with an essay and annotated list of works by the curators. This was been published with funding from the Ronald Woolf Memorial Endowment, the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Victoria University of Wellington, and the Wellington Institute of Technology.
Geoffrey Batchen is an expert in the general theory and historiography of photography who has helped to pioneer the study of vernacular photography. Batchen has published extensively, in twenty languages to date. His next book is titled Apparitions: Photography and Dissemination (Power Publications, 2018). He has also curated several exhibitions, notably Emanations: The Art of the Cameraless Photograph (Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, 2016) and Apparitions: the photograph and its image (Adam Art Gallery, 2017).
Deidra Sullivan is a graduate of the Art History programme at Victoria University of Wellington. She teaches in the Bachelor of Creativity programme at Te Auaha, Wellington Institute of Technology.
This exhibition was staged concurrently with Solid State: Works from the Victoria University of Wellington Art Collection.
Foreground: Yvonne Todd, Peter, 2014, chromogenic photograph, commissioned from the artist in 2014, Collection of Peter McLeavey. Installation view, Still looking: Peter McLeavey and the last photograph, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi, Victoria University of Wellington, 2018. Photo: Shaun Matthews
Yvonne Todd, Peter, 2014, chromogenic photograph, commissioned from the artist in 2014. Collection of Peter McLeavey
Installation view, Still looking: Peter McLeavey and the last photograph, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi, Victoria University of Wellington, 2018. Photo: Shaun Matthews
Installation view, Still looking: Peter McLeavey and the last photograph, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi, Victoria University of Wellington, 2018. Photo: Shaun Matthews
Installation view, Still looking: Peter McLeavey and the last photograph, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi, Victoria University of Wellington, 2018. Photo: Shaun Matthews
Peter Black, Untitled no 13. From the portfolio 2 Brooklyn Terrace, 1986, gelatin silver photograph, commissioned from the artist in 1986. Collection of Museum of New Zealand, Te Papa Tongarewa
Andrew Ross, First floor landing, 147 Cuba St (with the original sign), 20/10/2001, 2001, gold-toned gelatin silver photograph (contact printed on printing-out paper). Collection of Peter McLeavey
Installation view, Still looking: Peter McLeavey and the last photograph, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi, Victoria University of Wellington, 2018. Photo: Shaun Matthews
Charles Clifford, Sevilla: The Alcazar, 7 May 1862, 1862, albumen photograph from a glass negative. Collection of Peter McLeavey
Installation view, Still looking: Peter McLeavey and the last photograph, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi, Victoria University of Wellington, 2018. Photo: Shaun Matthews
Francis Frith, Pyramids of Dahshoor from the east, 1858, albumen photograph from mammoth-plate glass negative. Collection of Peter McLeavey
Installation view, Still looking: Peter McLeavey and the last photograph, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi, 2018. Photo: Shaun Matthews
Installation view, Still looking: Peter McLeavey and the last photograph, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi, 2018. Photo: Shaun Matthews
Emilio Beauchy, Sevilla, Interior del Dormitorio des los Reyes Moros, Alcazar, circa 1875, albumen photograph. Collection Peter McLeavey. Installation view, Still looking: Peter McLeavey and the last photograph, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi, Victoria University of Wellington. Photo: Shaun Matthews
Installation view, Still looking: Peter McLeavey and the last photograph, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi, Victoria University of Wellington, 2018. Photo: Shaun Matthews
The Man in the Hat (2009), digital video, 6mins (excerpts), director: Luit Bieringa, producer: Jan Bieringa, cinematographer: Leon Narbey, produced by BWX Productions. Installation view, Still looking: Peter McLeavey and the last photograph, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi, Victoria University of Wellington, 2018. Photo: Shaun Matthews
Installation view, Still looking: Peter McLeavey and the last photograph, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi, Victoria University of Wellington, 2018. Photo: Shaun Matthews
Installation view, Still looking: Peter McLeavey and the last photograph, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi, Victoria University of Wellington, 2018. Photo: Shaun Matthews
Installation view, Still looking: Peter McLeavey and the last photograph, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi, Victoria University of Wellington, 2018. Photo: Shaun Matthews
Installation view, Still looking: Peter McLeavey and the last photograph, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi, Victoria University of Wellington, 2018. Photo: Shaun Matthews
Barbara Kruger, Untitled (We will no longer be seen and not heard), 1985, nine individual framed photolithographs, Collection of Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. Installation view, Still looking: Peter McLeavey and the last photograph, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi, Victoria University of Wellington, 2018. Photo: Shaun Matthews
Installation view, Still looking: Peter McLeavey and the last photograph, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi, Victoria University of Wellington, 2018. Photo: Shaun Matthews
Laurence Aberhart, Taranaki (The heavens declare the glory of God), New Plymouth, May 14, 1986, 1986, gelatin silver photograph; Christ-child-king. Hato Hohera Catholic Mission, Waitaruke, Northland, May 24, 1982, 1982, gelatin silver photograph; Lodge Concord #39, Papanui, Christchurch, December 1981, 1981, gelatin silver photograph; Untitled (Files at the old Cosmopolitan Club, Wanganui), 1986, gelatin silver photograph. All works collection of Peter McLeavey. Installation view, Still looking: Peter McLeavey and the last photograph, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi, Victoria University of Wellington, 2018. Photo: Shaun Matthews