Peter Stichbury

item details

NamePeter Stichbury

ProductionSteve Rumsey; photographer; 1972; Auckland

Classificationportraits, black-and-white prints, gelatin silver prints, black-and-white photographs, works of art

Materialsphotographic gelatin, silver, photographic paper

Materials Summaryblack and white photograph, gelatin silver print

Techniquesblack-and-white photography

DimensionsImage: 253mm (height), 381mm (length)

Registration NumberO.027680

Credit linePurchased 1998

Overview

This black and white photograph was taken by Steve Rumsey in 1972. It depicts potter Peter Stichbury carrying a tray of fired pots from his kiln shed near his house and studio in Manurewa, Auckland. This particular photograph was not posed or directed by Rumsey, who unobtrusively followed Stichbury around during his daily routine in order to capture suitable images like this one.

Images of the arts
Unlike many of Rumsey's photographs of potters and artists, Peter Stichbury was not commissioned or taken for any specific purpose. It belongs as part of Rumsey's long-running documentation of Auckland potters, an outstanding archive of images that was created in both a professional and personal capacity. While Rumsey did not have any particular purpose in mind when he took this photograph, he would keep an eye out for images that might be of interest to the New Zealand Potter magazine, and his photographs regularly illustrate the cover and pages of that periodical.

Photographs of a period
Peter Stichbury is, like many of Rumsey's photographs, an excellent documentary of the way artists and craftspeople lived in the 1960s and 1970s. Not only does the photograph capture Stichbury's creative environment, but it suggests the way in which pottery in the 1960s and 1970s had a close connection to nature and was an alternative lifestyle for many individuals.