Author(s): Gregory O'Brien

Photography | NZ - Reference | Children - Reference

Photography was invented the year before the Treaty of Waitangi was signed. 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 the camera - the New Zealand that it captured, and the artists who wielded it. 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. It 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.

A brilliant collection of mostly New Zealand photographs, each illustrating different ideas and techniques. Both children and adults will find the images interesting and the text illuminating. All of the photos have a story to tell and an idea to explore. - Sarah

Gregory O’Brien has produced an excellent book for the young and the curious about New Zealand photography, See What I Can See. This sits alongside the excellent (now sadly out of print) Welcome to the South Seas and Back and Beyond – both titles exploring New Zealand art history. The photography book has a wonderful array of images, some of which I was familiar with and others I hadn’t come across. The book is split into thematic chapters with intriguing chapter headings drawing you into ways of looking at photography, historic and modern, afresh. O’Brien’s text is excellent - straightforward yet still retaining complex ideas and plenty to think about and appreciate. - Stella