Art New Zealand – August 2019

93

theoftenidealisednotionof‘relationship’;thenhis
later2014/15series,D,P, O.portrayingunflinchingly
and co-operativelyhis father’sfinal five monthsof
livingwithcancer.^9 It wouldbehardtogetmore
personalthansuchprojects,buttheyhavebeen
pursuedinthefullknowledgeofworkingwithina
longanddistinguishedtraditionattheheartofthe
photographicmedium.
InhistoricalNewZealandterms,Turner’s
Johnsonvilleseriesis absolutelypivotaltoallthis.
Whileearlierdocumentaryphotographersheresuch
asJohnPascoe,LesClevelandandGaryBlackman
wereawareofAmericancounterpartslikeWalker
Evans,noneofthemhadworkedsoconsciously
anddiligentlyinsucha serial,focusedway,orin
such a specificurban setting.Ans Westra may be the
exception,butherfocuswasonMaoriata crucialtime
intheurbandiaspora,and,formally,herworkwas
lessAmerican-influenced.
Turnerwrites:‘I photographedJohnsonville,where
I lived,in1966,usinglargeandmedium-format
cameras.There is a WalkerEvans-ykind of influence
inthatwork.I didcottonontoEvans.A lotofpeople
didn’t.Soyouseemephotographingadvertising
signsandvernacularbuildingfacades.I wasvery
anti-advertising,veryawarethatit’scorruptingcrap
that fills our eyes a lot of the time.’^10 Here,Turner’s

dedication to recording the plain facts overcomes

his personal views, an attitude rarely encountered

in conventional art-making, but one characteristic of

documentary practice at that time, and expressing a

difference which adds strength to the medium’s value

retrospectively.

Art often, and unconsciously, conveys in hindsight

the directing values of a society. The 1960s was an

unusually significant decade here socially, and Denis

Glover’s playful prediction in 1936 of what ‘may yet

be seen’ has found memorable and instructive form in

John B. Turner’s suburban Johnsonville.

1. Athol McCredie, The New Photography: New Zealand’s first-
   generation contemporary photographers, Te Papa Press, Wellington


2. It covers work by eight photographers, including Turner.


3. The New Photography illustrates just one, the image titled Symonds
   Building, Johnsonville 24 December 1966, and then only 68 x 86 mm.
   on page 37. This image has been published several times before.


4. Ibid., p. 11.


5. Ibid. The italicisings in this quotation are added by the author of
   this essay.


6. Ben Luke, ‘Reportage storms the citadel: documentary
   photography joins the canon of British art’, The Art Newspaper,
   4 February 2019, http://www.theartnewspaper.com/feature/
   reportage-storms-the-citadel, accessed 3 July 2019.


7. Peter Ireland, ‘Awesome: Photography’s Serious Kind of Beauty’,
   Art New Zealand 133, Autumn 2010, pp. 46–51.


8. Contemporary art practice in the last decade is running counter
   to this, with concerns about homelessness and climate change, for
   instance. There is no acknowledgement of the debt this owes to a
   century of photographic practice.


9. Peter Ireland, ‘Tim J. Veling: Pre-Marital Bliss’, Art New Zealand
   136, Summer 2010–11, pp. 57–63. This portfolio illustrated seven
   images from the 50-part series.


10. Peter Ireland, ‘Fate of our Fathers’, EyeContact, 5 September 2016,
    http://eyecontactsite.com/2016/09/fate-of-our-fathers site, accessed
    3 July 2019.


11. McCredie, op. cit., p. 37.

(opposite above) JOHN B. TURNER
Cutting, Main Road looking east, Johnsonville. 1967 1967
Black-and-white photograph
(opposite below left) JOHN B. TURNER
Three boys Main Road, Johnsonville, 1967 1967
Black-and-white photograph
(opposite below right) JOHN B. TURNER
Panorama of West Johnsonville 1967
Black-and-white photograph
(above) JOHN B. TURNER
Land agent ex hotel, Main Road, Johnsonville, 1967 1967
Black-and-white photograph