Each year the College of Creative Arts brings an internationally significant photographic historian, theorist or artist to Wellington to deliver the annual Peter Turner Memorial Lecture.
The lecture has been established in the memory of the late Peter Turner—photographic historian, curator, author, editor, publisher and teacher. Associated with the memorial lecture is a Masters scholarship in Peter Turner’s name in documentary photography at Whiti o Rehua School of Art, Massey University.
The scholarship and memorial lecture series were launched in 2008 and are supported by a funds appeal. Donations to the fund may be made to the Massey University Foundation.
Massey University’s Whiti o Rehua School of Art, in partnership with Te Papa Tongarewa is delighted to announce the 2021 Peter Turner Memorial Lecture.
Yvonne Todd (b. 1973, Tāmaki Makaurau) uses large format film cameras to create photographs that combine aspiration and perversity. These constantly push the viewer to question the hidden narratives simmering just beneath the surface.
“Photography has always appealed to me because it allows for such interesting convergences of the artificial and real. Familiar photographic tropes are embedded in my work, but nothing is definitive.”
Exhibiting since 1997, Todd has work in the collections of all major Australasian public art galleries and has been included in numerous major public-gallery exhibitions. The breadth of her work was showcased in a major survey exhibition, Creamy Psychology, at City Gallery Wellington in 2015. It was the first time City Gallery gave the entire gallery space to one artist.
Recent and current exhibitions include Garden Variety: Photography, Politics and the Picturesque, a commission by the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne as part of the PHOTO 2021 International Festival of Photography, Act Natural at McLeavey Gallery Wellington and Choose Happiness at MAMA Albury, NSW.
In 2002, Todd won the inaugural Walters Prize, New Zealand’s most prestigious art award. In 2019, she received an Arts Foundation of New Zealand Te Tumi Toi Laureate Award.
Yvonne Todd has a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Auckland and lives and works in Tāmaki Makaurau.
Yvonne Todd, Bracchia, 2021
Rosanna Raymond presented the Massey University Peter Turner Memorial Lecture in 2017, in association with Te Papa Tongarewa.
Guest lecturers
- 2019—Dr Yasufumi Nakamori
- 2018—Jem Southam
- 2017—Rosanna Raymond
- 2016—Susan Bright
- 2015—Paul Seawright
- 2014—Robin Hammond (alumnus)
- 2013—Geoffrey Batchen
- 2012—William Yang
- 2011—Cathie Opie
- 2010—Thomas Ruff
- 2009—Anne Marsh
- 2008—Helen Ennis
In 2012 and 2013 an accompanying day symposium was held with international and New Zealand speakers.