Podocarp forest - predominantly kahikatea; Hope Arm, Lake Manapouri, Fiordland National Park, 1970.
John Johns, Artist
This is one of the
photographs
in our collection.
It was made in 1970. The place where it was made is unknown.
Measurements
Image 217 x 166mm
Media
silver gelatin photograph
Description
John Johns grew up on a Devonshire farm in England which instilled in him a lifelong concern for the management and conservation of natural resources .He demonstrated, through his photographs, that pine plantations are worthy introductions [subjects], taking pressure off remaining stands of indigenous timber. He said, in 1994, “my job was to make forestry – long-term sustainable forestry – digestible to the public”
His book, Westland’s Wealth,1959, is evidence of his concern. It was commissioned by the Minister of Forests, the Honourable Sir Eruera Tirikatene, and documents the ravages of clear-felling native trees and the urgent need for forest management. “Dare we look the next generation in the eye as we hand to them the heritage that we have made, and are making for them – a ravaged countryside? ”
Info from Paul McNamara March 2012
"John Johns saw himself as a passionate amateur who took photographs for a living, but his works demonstrate a distinctive formal sensibility that distinguishes them from other images of the same subject taken by foresters for the official record. What fascinates is the seamless blending of purpose: the combination of images that convey a wealth of visual information reinforced by often detailed captions, and the careful attention to framing, composition and fine printing. This exemplifies both the scientific gaze of the specialist who sees nature as an object for rational study and the eye of the artist seeking aesthetic order and finding it in the linear and textured patterns of his subject. Utility and beauty are here given equal weight.
It might be argued that Johns was able to indulge his artistic ambitions, even though he was employed to more prosaic ends, because the organisation he worked for saw its role as a holistic one; that is, in terms not only of forestry's economic but also its environmental, social and cultural benefits. The New Zealand Forest Service (established in 1949) gave Johns both the structure to scrupulously document every aspect of its operation, and the freedom to hone his craft and follow his creative impulses (even if at times it found him an irritant). Stories are rife about the seriousness with which the artist undertook his task: waiting hours for a cloud to move, or requiring workers to rearrange themselves for the camera.
The Service was charged with managing the Crown's timber production from both indigenous and exotic forests, balancing the requirements of industry with the needs for conservation, as well as providing the social infrastructure to support its large workforce and maintain forests as outdoor amenities for
use by the New Zealand public. Johns' photographs not only canvas these wide-ranging roles but also manifest the ethics that underpin the Service's operations. The disestablishment of the Service (in 1985) and the splitting of its operations into more clearly demarcated production
and conservation components, has meant the demise of a coordinated approach to forest administration. There are many consequences to this move, but the one that might be noted here is the end of a phase of cultural nationalism which saw a fascinating conjunction between industrial and artistic production. Here, the creation and management of modern forests is well-captured by an exemplary modernist photographer.
Despite Johns' self-professed amateur status, the photographer has been acknowledged by art historians for the quality of his vision.
His work has been included in significant surveys of New Zealand art -Pacific Parallels, an exhibition that toured the USA between 1991 and 1993, which canvassed the history of landscape art in New Zealand as a model of colonial art history comparable to American representational traditions; and Roger Blackley's Two Centuries of New Zealand Landscape Art (Auckland, 1990) in particular - and is now collected by galleries and museums. While it is clear that his photographs perform within a larger history of landscape representation, his special contribution is to offer a thoroughly modernist approach to his subject that refuses any romantic return to primeval nature, just as it inserts something intensely personal into the managed manipulation of our natural world."
Christina Barton, Curator, Primary Products, Adam Art Gallery, Victoria University, Wellington
His book, Westland’s Wealth,1959, is evidence of his concern. It was commissioned by the Minister of Forests, the Honourable Sir Eruera Tirikatene, and documents the ravages of clear-felling native trees and the urgent need for forest management. “Dare we look the next generation in the eye as we hand to them the heritage that we have made, and are making for them – a ravaged countryside? ”
Info from Paul McNamara March 2012
"John Johns saw himself as a passionate amateur who took photographs for a living, but his works demonstrate a distinctive formal sensibility that distinguishes them from other images of the same subject taken by foresters for the official record. What fascinates is the seamless blending of purpose: the combination of images that convey a wealth of visual information reinforced by often detailed captions, and the careful attention to framing, composition and fine printing. This exemplifies both the scientific gaze of the specialist who sees nature as an object for rational study and the eye of the artist seeking aesthetic order and finding it in the linear and textured patterns of his subject. Utility and beauty are here given equal weight.
It might be argued that Johns was able to indulge his artistic ambitions, even though he was employed to more prosaic ends, because the organisation he worked for saw its role as a holistic one; that is, in terms not only of forestry's economic but also its environmental, social and cultural benefits. The New Zealand Forest Service (established in 1949) gave Johns both the structure to scrupulously document every aspect of its operation, and the freedom to hone his craft and follow his creative impulses (even if at times it found him an irritant). Stories are rife about the seriousness with which the artist undertook his task: waiting hours for a cloud to move, or requiring workers to rearrange themselves for the camera.
The Service was charged with managing the Crown's timber production from both indigenous and exotic forests, balancing the requirements of industry with the needs for conservation, as well as providing the social infrastructure to support its large workforce and maintain forests as outdoor amenities for
use by the New Zealand public. Johns' photographs not only canvas these wide-ranging roles but also manifest the ethics that underpin the Service's operations. The disestablishment of the Service (in 1985) and the splitting of its operations into more clearly demarcated production
and conservation components, has meant the demise of a coordinated approach to forest administration. There are many consequences to this move, but the one that might be noted here is the end of a phase of cultural nationalism which saw a fascinating conjunction between industrial and artistic production. Here, the creation and management of modern forests is well-captured by an exemplary modernist photographer.
Despite Johns' self-professed amateur status, the photographer has been acknowledged by art historians for the quality of his vision.
His work has been included in significant surveys of New Zealand art -Pacific Parallels, an exhibition that toured the USA between 1991 and 1993, which canvassed the history of landscape art in New Zealand as a model of colonial art history comparable to American representational traditions; and Roger Blackley's Two Centuries of New Zealand Landscape Art (Auckland, 1990) in particular - and is now collected by galleries and museums. While it is clear that his photographs perform within a larger history of landscape representation, his special contribution is to offer a thoroughly modernist approach to his subject that refuses any romantic return to primeval nature, just as it inserts something intensely personal into the managed manipulation of our natural world."
Christina Barton, Curator, Primary Products, Adam Art Gallery, Victoria University, Wellington
Credit Line
Collection of the Sarjeant Gallery Te Whare o Rehua Whanganui. Purchased, 2003
Collection Type
Permanent collection
Acquisition Date
20 Sep 2003