Adrienne Martyn 1992 Photography by Elizabeth Goodall
A D R I E N N E M A R T Y N
I am an art photographer based in Wellington, New Zealand. My photography covers portrait, architecture, landscape and still-life themes. Currently planning is underway to present 'everything to see here', a major survey exhibition and publication covering my photographic art practice over fifty years, at the Hocken Library Gallery opening September 2026. The following describes my photographic career trajectory from 1969:
At the age of eighteen I moved to Dunedin, from Invercargill where I was brought up, to learn photographic and darkroom skills at a commercial photography studio. In 1970, returning to Invercargill, I was a photographer's assistant for portrait photographers. That year I bought a Speed Graphic 4x5 press camera enjoying its large-format clarity. The following year I changed to a small format camera (Pentax S1a) for ease of use encouraged by Euan Sarginson while I freelanced as a darkroom technician for him in Christchurch. In Auckland, 1972, I briefly worked as a camera assistant and darkroom technician for Cyril Taft's Illustrative Photography then moved to Sydney in 1972 where I was employed as a darkroom technician and studio photographer at the Sydney Morning Herald. From 1972 - 1974 I was involved with the Sydney Women’s Film Group, contributed photographs to the movie 'Home', feminist newspapers, magazines and books including feminist poet Kate Jennings seminal work ‘Mother I’m Rooted'. In 1974 I photographed recipients of grants for the Australia Council and I received a grant from the Experimental Film & Television Fund, Australian Film Institute, to create my 16mm film 'The Object'.
Back in NZ I briefly attended Otago Polytechnic School of Art in 1977 where I was inspired to explore abstract themes in my photography creating a series of photographs that were exhibited in my first solo show at Bosshard Galleries Dunedin in 1978. In 1979, with my recently acquired medium format camera (Rolled SL66), I enrolled at the Australian Centre for Photography workshops in Paddington and began seriously exploring portrait photography.
In 1980 I set up a portrait studio in Dunedin photographing friends, artists and commissions. I also used the interior of the old Hotel Excelsior as a setting for portraits. In 1981 I created ‘Surfaces’, a series of abstract photographs exploring the play of light on stucco textures - this body of work was exhibited at Dunedin Public Art Gallery and Peter Webb Galleries, Auckland 1982. Portrait and 'Surfaces' prints were acquired by Te Papa Museum of New Zealand Auckland Art Gallery Dunedin Public Art Gallery and The Dowse Museum. My portraits were exhibited at Australian Centre for Photography Gallery in 1983 and later included in Powerhouse Museum collection. In 1985 I moved to Auckland and set up a studio creating a series of double portraits. The following year NAG/Te Papa commissioned the series ‘Artist Portraits’ for its collection. Two years later the Dunedin Public Art Gallery mounted and toured a survey exhibition of my portrait work created during 1979 - 1987. A fully illustrated catalogue accompanied the touring exhibition.
I continued creating portraits at the empty Hotel Excelsior focussing on the austere kauri staircase lit by its stairwell cupola. On a visit to Sydney in 1989, I viewed Bill Henson's large scale portrait/museum triptychs which inspired me to combine my portraits with images of the kauri staircase. 'Absence: Presence' was shown at Jonathan Jensen Gallery, Christchurch in 1989. The following year, using a hand-held medium format camera, I photographed paintings and sculptures at the Louvre presenting the images at Robert McDougall Art Annex end of that year.
Between 1995 - 1998 I lived in Melbourne where I learned colour printing processes. On returning to New Zealand, 1998, I resumed my photographic practice photographing the Otatara Pa Historic Reserve, Hawkes Bay with support of DOC and local iwi. ‘Ōtatara’ was shown at Hawkes Bay Museum 1999. In that same year, using digital technology, I created 'River' a large scale composite grid comprising sixty-five A3 prints of the Tutaekuri River. 'River' was purchased by Hawke's Bay Museum for its collection. That year I became the inaugural Artist in Residence at Marsden Collegiate and in 2000 I was Artist in Residence at Waikato Museum where I investigated Lake Taupo's volcanic origins – a selection of images from this residency were shown and collected by Waikato Museum.
I gained my MFA (First Class Hons.) from Elam School of Art, University of Auckland in 2006, where I created a series of digitally manipulated images of the Louvre and Auckland Art Gallery exhibition displays. 'Looking for the Subject' investigated absence inspired by the theft of the Mona Lisa and how the empty space it occupied attracted comparatively more attention than the painting itself. For my project I blacked out the canvases of classical and modernist artworks drawing attention to the power of the frame and Maleviche's 'Black Square'. The project was exhibited at City Gallery Wellington in 2007. Five images from this project were presented in 'In Absentia' at Nadene Milne Gallery, Arrowtown April 2024.
Since 2017 I have continued investigating absence in emptied heritage sites, galleries and museums, that were closed to the public due to seismic vulnerabilities or undergoing structural change. Some of these spaces contained object collections that were removed at my instruction. For this work I used a high resolution Nikon D850 camera and available light.
I ventured into different slightly territory in 2019 photographing cluttered and decayed hotel rooms at Bluff's Club Hotel. Eight large prints from this series were exhibited in collaboration with poet Cilla McQueen in our exhibition 'Gossamer' presented at Miharo Gallery, 2020. August 2024 I continued this theme photographing the rubbish filled rooms at the former Victoria Hospital, Invercargill. This series of work 'Victoria' will be exhibited at He Waka Tuia 2026.
In 2021 I photographed objects and artworks in the home of printmaker Marilynn Webb not long before she died. The suite of prints 'as she left' was presented at Olga Gallery, Dunedin in 2022. That same year I became Artist in Residence at Dunedin School of Art where I produced 'Snow Line' - a landscape series of images depicting the Rock & Pillar Range at Strath Taieri, Otago. The work was presented as an abstract composite comprising nineteen A2 prints at Dunedin School of Art Gallery. Later that year I began an ongoing project photographing Turnbull House, Wellington as it undergoes seismic strengthening and restoration.
I returned to portrait photography in 2023 when I was commissioned by Southland Museum & Art Gallery to photograph Southland's queer community for SMAG's permanent collection. All forty-one formal studio portraits were presented in the exhibition 'Seen/Scene' presented at He Waka Tuia during Southland Pride week that year.
Recent projects include St Gerard's Monastery, Wellington, Cranbrook homestead, Sydney and, while Artist in Residence at The Church Rawene, photographed Kāuri in The Far North, New Zealand. My film 'The Object' had its first public screening at Adam Art Gallery in 2025 in the exhibition 'Things are, they do not happen' curated by Jess Clifford.
In 2026 I'm undertaking a self initiated portrait project inspired by the Charles Brasch play 'The Quest' about an individual's place in the world. For this project senior students and recent graduates, from University of Otago's School of Performing Arts Drama Department, will be photographed on the empty stage at Allen Hall accompanied and lit by a single stage lamp.
RESIDENCIES & GRANTS
Artist in Residence, The Church, Rāwene, 2025.
Artist in Residence, Dunedin School of Art, Otago Polytechnic, 2022.
Artist in Residence, Waikato Museum of Art & History, 2000
Artist in Residence, Visual Art & Design Department, EIT, 1998-99
Inaugural Artist in Residence, Samuel Marsden Collegiate, 1999
Creative Communities grant ‘Golder Cottage’ exhibition Whirinaki Whare Taonga, 2022
QEII Arts Council grant ‘Artist Portraits’ exhibition Brooker Gallery, 1988
Buddle Findlay grant ‘Portrait of Law’ exhibition City Gallery Wellington, 1987
American Express grant ‘Artist Portraits’ project, National Art Gallery, 1986
Experimental Film & Television Fund grant, Australian Film Institute, 1974
COLLECTIONS
Powerhouse Museum, Sydney
Te Papa Museum of New Zealand
Auckland Art Gallery
Christchurch Art Gallery
Dunedin Public Art Gallery
Hocken Library University of Otago
The Dowse
Sarjeant Gallery
Waikato Museum
University of Canterbury
Southland Museum
Hawke’s Bay Museum
Invercargill Public Art Gallery
Eastern Southland Gallery
Radio interview with Darren Ludlow for Radio Southland August 2022