Photography was invented in France in 1839 - the year before the Treaty of Waitangi was signed in New Zealand. Within a few years, cameras were charting the life and times of people at this end of the planet. See What I Can See is a celebration of that remarkable, well-travelled, ever-changing invention - the camera - the New Zealand that it captured, and the artists who wielded it.

See What I Can See is a book about darkness and light, about careful planning and doing things on the spur of the moment, about the quickness of digital photography and the slowness of old technology. It's a woman driving a tractor and a kid in a Colgate tube, a rock at Ngauruhoe and a Wahine survivor on a cart, it's surfies and selfies and cabbages the size of kings. The book also presents a picture of a country - Aotearoa New Zealand - living its life, dreaming its dreams and taking care of its day-to-day business.

See What I Can See is an introduction to New Zealand photography that will appeal to young and curious photographers, students of New Zealand art history, or anyone who wants to sample the extraordinary range of images made in this country by our photographers.

 

This book was recognised in the Best Educational Book category by the Panz Book Design Award. It was recognised in the Nonfiction - YA category by the New Zealand Book Award for Children and Young Adults.

There are 112 pages in this book. This book was published 2015 by Auckland University Press .

Gregory O'Brien is an independent writer, teacher, painter, anthologist, literary critic and art curator. He has written many books of poetry, fiction, essays and commentary, among them two multi-award-winning introductions to art for the young and curious: Welcome to the South Seas (2004) and Back and Beyond (2008), which both won the Non-Fiction Prize at the New Zealand Post Book Awards for Children and Young People.