John Anthony Mercer (born 12 December 1949) is a New Zealand photojournalist.

Personal life

Mercer was born in

New Plymouth New Plymouth ( mi, Ngāmotu) is the major city of the Taranaki region on the west coast of the North Island of New Zealand. It is named after the English city of Plymouth, Devon from where the first English settlers to New Plymouth migrated. ...

, New Zealand on 12 December 1949. He lives in Adelaide, Australia.

Career

Mercer was active as a photojournalist in New Zealand from 1980 to 1986, during which time he became involved in and photographed a number of activist events. He photographs predominantly in a

documentary style A mockumentary (a blend of ''mock'' and ''documentary''), fake documentary or docu-comedy is a type of film or television show depicting fictional events but presented as a documentary. These productions are often used to analyze or comment on c ...

Springbok Tour protests

Mercer participated in and photographed the protests against the

1981 Springbok Tour The 1981 South African rugby tour (known in New Zealand as the Springbok Tour, and in Republic of South Africa, South Africa as the Rebel Tour) polarised opinions and inspired widespread protests across New Zealand. The controversy also extende ...

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

. He took photographs at three of the rugby venues around the North Island —

Hamilton Hamilton may refer to: People * Hamilton (name), a common British surname and occasional given name, usually of Scottish origin, including a list of persons with the surname ** The Duke of Hamilton, the premier peer of Scotland ** Lord Hamilt ...

Rotorua Rotorua () is a city in the Bay of Plenty region of New Zealand's North Island. The city lies on the southern shores of Lake Rotorua, from which it takes its name. It is the seat of the Rotorua Lakes District, a territorial authority encompass ...

and

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

. On 25 July 1981, anti-Springbok Tour protests stopped the game in Hamilton. Mercer photographed the ensuing action of protestors, police, rugby fans, and bystanders. Before moving to Adelaide at the end of 1985, he left a selection of photographic prints with the Waikato Art Museum. In 2006, these images were exhibited in "Revisiting the 1981 Springbok Rugby Tour 25 years on—through the eyes of three photographers", and were exhibited again in 2021, in the exhibition "1981", to mark the fortieth anniversary of the Tour. A collection of Mercer's work from this time is also held by

Auckland War Memorial Museum The Auckland War Memorial Museum Tāmaki Paenga Hira (or simply the Auckland Museum) is one of New Zealand's most important museums and war memorials. Its collections concentrate on New Zealand history (and especially the history of the Aucklan ...

, including photographs of the third test at

Eden Park Eden Park is New Zealand's largest sports stadium, with a capacity of 50,000. Located in central Auckland, New Zealand's largest city, it is three kilometres southwest of the CBD, on the boundary between the suburbs of Mount Eden and King ...

on September 12, 1981. These were some of the most violent confrontations between police and protestors throughout the tour. Mercer was director and a founding member of The Photographer's Workshop, a collective of

Waikato Waikato () is a Regions of New Zealand, local government region of the upper North Island of New Zealand. It covers the Waikato District, Waipa District, Matamata-Piako District, South Waikato District and Hamilton, New Zealand, Hamilton City ...

photographers who taught photography, held exhibitions, and provided studios and darkrooms for hire. With his partner, Deborah Taylor, he also founded Cameraworks, a business offering custom commercial photography and a black-and-white

film processing Photographic processing or photographic development is the chemical means by which photographic film or paper is treated after photographic exposure to produce a negative or positive image. Photographic processing transforms the latent image into ...

and

printing Printing is a process for mass reproducing text and images using a master form or template. The earliest non-paper products involving printing include cylinder seals and objects such as the Cyrus Cylinder and the Cylinders of Nabonidus. The ea ...

service.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mercer, John photojournalist 1949 births 20th-century New Zealand photographers Living people New Zealand photojournalists People from New Plymouth