About this ebook
At the time when the photographs were taken, black-and-white documentary photography was coming of age in New Zealand. Cultural institutions in the country, like art galleries, museums were beginning to take the medium and particularly the documentary genre, seriously. Photographers were working on important issues, and photographs were being exhibited and collected. There was an enthusiasm among photographers that their creative endeavors were becoming valued.
While the taking of photographs is now ubiquitous, the technology available to everyone, and the means to publish on social media ridiculous, the art and skill of photography in the 1970s was quite different and rooted in and understanding of physics and chemistry.
Professional 35mm cameras were quite expensive, and skill was required to use them.
As a new bird might leave the nest, Godman was a fledgling photographer, learning and refining his vision and darkroom skills. Although many of the photographs were enlarged at the time, Heroes Villains was a project that allowed him to develop, but he never exhibited the work.
The digitization of the negatives has afforded him to present the work as a full suite for the first time. But with a film development problem he was also perceptive to abstraction and rather than excluding the image 15, he included it in the series.
However, he did not focus on candid portraits for long and was moved to direct his creative energy in different a direction the series was a precursor to Landforms series and the iconic The Last Rivers Song series in 1983 - 4.
About the author
Lloyd Godman was introduced to photography while undertaking an electrical apprenticeship at the Evening Star newspaper in Dunedin in the late 1960s. Although he qualified as an electrician, he fell in love with photography and eventually abandoned his electrical career. He photographed many rock bands including the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, and Joe Cocker.
In 1986, he established and was head of the photographic section at the Dunedin School of Art for 20 year before teaching at RMIT University in Melbourne for a further 9 years. He has had over 40 solo exhibitions and been in over 250 group exhibitions. Lloyd Has an MFA from RMIT.
