ANZAC: Photographs by Laurence Aberhart

Russell Museum is privileged to present works by internationally recognised New Zealand photographer, Laurence Aberhart. A selection from his ANZAC series of World War One memorials that include a single figure will be showing in his home town during the month of July.

Of the memorials, Jock Phillips says "They stare aimlessly into the distance, ignored, slightly sad, timeless, peculiarly inactive - Laurence Aberhart's Anzac diggers seem a long way from the energetic 'mates' that they were once erected to represent...the overwhelming sense is of figures who have been forgotten, left to weather and fade from memory, unable to fend off the encroaching environment. It is the contrast of surrounds with marble statue that is the enduring impression of Aberhart's powerful images".

Russell Museum is situated in the historic village once known as Kororāreka, just back from the anchorage that sheltered whaling ships in the 1800s and still welcomes Tall Ships every January. What better place to pay a peaceful wintertime visit in this commemorative year, to pause, to reflect, and to consider quietly those lonely soldiers from our past, captured in Aberhart's similarly enduring images.

The book ANZAC: Photographs by Laurence Aberhart, published to coincide with the Dunedin Public Art Gallery major exhibition, is also available to view in Russell Museum's Marie King Gallery.

The exhibition runs till August 1st 2014.
Enquiries phone (09) 403 7701 or curator@russellmuseum.org.nz