Picnic group

This extract originally appeared in New Zealand Photography Collected: 175 Years of Photography in Aotearoa (Te Papa Press, 2025).

This group of friends look as if they have dressed for a party as much as for a picnic. They have brought along a wind-up record player and bottled drinks in their sporty cars and, it is clear, a camera too —all the ingredients for a good time. Close examination of the picnic photograph shows that it is the same occasion as the one of the woman, known as Curl, standing in front of the car. In the group photo she has discarded her dress shoes for something more practical. They can just be seen under the wheel of the car behind her.