Marti Friedlander on:  
[Wikipedia]  
[Google]  
[Amazon]
Martha Friedlander (; 19 February 1928 – 14 November 2016) was a British-New Zealand
photographer
A photographer (the Greek φῶς (''phos''), meaning "light", and γραφή (''graphê''), meaning "drawing, writing", together meaning "drawing with light") is a person who makes photographs.
Duties and types of photographers
As in other ...
. She emigrated to New Zealand in 1958, where she was known for photographing and documenting New Zealand's people, places and events, and was considered one of the country's best photographers.
Early life
Friedlander was born on 19 February 1928
in the
East End of
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
to Jewish immigrants from Kyiv, Ukraine.
From the age of three she grew up in a Jewish orphanage in London with her sister Anne.
[''Self Portrait'' by Marti Friedlander, ]Auckland University Press
Auckland University Press is a New Zealand publisher that produces creative and scholarly work for a general audience. Founded in 1966 and formally recognised as Auckland University Press in 1972, it is an independent publisher based within The ...
, 2013, She won a scholarship at the age of 14 and attended
Camberwell School of Art
Camberwell College of Arts is a public tertiary art school in Camberwell, in London, England. It is one of the six constituent colleges of the University of the Arts London. It offers further and higher education programmes, including postgrad ...
, where she studied photography.
From 1946 to 1957 she worked as an assistant to fashion photographers Douglas Glass, an expatriate New Zealander, and Gordon Crocker.
She married Gerrard Friedlander, a New Zealander of
German Jewish
The history of the Jews in Germany goes back at least to the year 321, and continued through the Early Middle Ages (5th to 10th centuries CE) and High Middle Ages (''circa'' 1000–1299 CE) when Jewish immigrants founded the Ashkenazi Jewish ...
origin, in 1957 and emigrated to New Zealand with him in 1958.
She became a
naturalised New Zealander in 1977.
Career
Friedlander's first impressions of New Zealand were of a strange country with different land, people and social customs from her previous experience. She felt constrained by what she saw as New Zealand's conservatism compared to the lifestyle she had enjoyed in London, and she began taking photographs to document and understand the country and people around her.
She was particularly interested in people and social movements, especially protests and activism – one of the first photographs she took in New Zealand was in Auckland in 1960, of people protesting the
New Zealand rugby team's tour of South Africa. The photograph was later purchased by the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
and used in a television series on rugby.
Initially, the couple lived in
Te Atatū South, and Friedlander worked as a dental assistant in her husband's dental practice.
[Duddong, A.,]
Marti Friedlander: 'At this time of your life, everything is courage'
, ''stuff.co.nz'', 22 October 2016. Retrieved 26 October 2016. She joined the Titirangi Camera Club, and was encouraged by photographers
Olaf Petersen, Steve Rumsey and Des Dubbelt, editor of the magazine ''Playdate'', to pursue photography as a career,
which she began to do in 1964. In 1972 her work became well known through her collaboration with social historian
Michael King, photographing
Maori women and their traditional
moko
In the mythology of Mangaia in the Cook Islands, Moko is a wily character and grandfather of the heroic Ngaru.
Moko is a ruler or king of the lizard
Lizards are a widespread group of squamate reptiles, with over 7,000 species, ranging acro ...
tattoos. Friedlander considered this project the highlight of her career, and in 2010 she donated the series of 47 portraits to the national museum,
Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.
Friedlander's photography career lasted over 40 years, during which time she photographed a diverse range of subjects, including famous and ordinary people, and rural and urban landscapes. Her work was published in books, magazines and newspapers such as ''Wine Review'', ''
New Zealand Listener'' and the ''
British Journal of Photography
The ''British Journal of Photography'' (BJP) is a magazine about photography, published by 1854 Media. It includes in-depth articles, profiles of photographers, analyses, and technological reviews.
History
The magazine was established in Liver ...
.''
She held exhibitions at a number of galleries, including the
Photographers' Gallery
The Photographers' Gallery was founded in London by Sue Davies opening on 14 January 1971, as the first public gallery in the United Kingdom devoted solely to photography.
It is also home to the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize, established i ...
in London, the Wynyard Tavern in Auckland (1966) and the
Waikato Art Museum (1975). In 2001, a retrospective exhibition of 150 of her photographs from 1957 to 1986 was held at the
Auckland Art Gallery, followed by a tour of New Zealand galleries the following year.
In 2006, Friedlander's work was included in an exhibition of contemporary New Zealand photography for the , which was subsequently also shown at the Pingyao International Photography Festival in China.
Publications
Friedlander's work was featured in the books ''Moko: Maori Tattooing in the 20th Century'' (1972) with Michael King; ''Larks in a Paradise (''1974) with
James McNeish
Sir James Henry Peter McNeish (23 October 1931 – 11 November 2016) was a New Zealand novelist, playwright and biographer.
Biography
McNeish attended Auckland Grammar School and graduated from Auckland University College with a degree in lan ...
; ''Contemporary New Zealand Painters A–M'' (1980) with Jim and Mary Barr; ''Pioneers of New Zealand Wine'' (2002) with Dick Scott; ''Marti Friedlander: Photographs'' (2001) with Ron Brownson and ''Marti Friedlander'' with Prof. Leonard Bell (2009).
The book ''Marti Friedlander: Photographs'' was shortlisted at the 2001
Montana Book Awards.
In 2013 Friedlander published an autobiography, ''Self-Portrait'', written with oral historian Hugo Manson.
Honours and recognition
![Arts Foundation Icons 2011](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2b/Arts_Foundation_Icons_2011.jpg)
In the
1999 New Year Honours
The New Year Honours 1999 for various Commonwealth realms were announced on 30 December 1998, to celebrate the year passed and mark the beginning of 1999. The ''Honours list'' is a list of people who have been awarded one of the various orders, d ...
, she was appointed a
Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit
The New Zealand Order of Merit is an order of merit in the New Zealand royal honours system. It was established by royal warrant on 30 May 1996 by Elizabeth II, Queen of New Zealand, "for those persons who in any field of endeavour, have ren ...
, for services to photography, and in 2004 she was the subject of a documentary by
Shirley Horrocks entitled ''Marti: the Passionate Eye''. In 2007 the
Arts Foundation of New Zealand
'The Arts Foundation of New Zealand Te Tumu Toi is a New Zealand arts organisation that supports artistic excellence and facilitates private philanthropy through raising funds for the arts and allocating it to New Zealand artists.
The concept ...
launched the Marti Friedlander Photographic Award, presented every two years to an experienced photographer. In 2011 she received an
Arts Foundation of New Zealand Icon Award.
She was awarded an
honorary Doctorate
An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hon ...
of Literature by the
University of Auckland
, mottoeng = By natural ability and hard work
, established = 1883; years ago
, endowment = NZD $293 million (31 December 2021)
, budget = NZD $1.281 billion (31 December 2021)
, chancellor = Cecilia Tarrant
, vice_chancellor = Dawn F ...
in 2016.
Personal life
In October 2016, Friedlander revealed that she was suffering from late-stage
breast cancer
Breast cancer is cancer that develops from breast tissue. Signs of breast cancer may include a lump in the breast, a change in breast shape, dimpling of the skin, milk rejection, fluid coming from the nipple, a newly inverted nipple, or a r ...
.
She died at her home in Auckland on 14 November 2016 aged 88. She was a member of the
New Zealand Labour Party and photographed Prime Minister
Norman Kirk
Norman Eric Kirk (6 January 1923 – 31 August 1974) was a New Zealand politician who served as the 29th prime minister of New Zealand from 1972 until his sudden death in 1974.
Born into poverty in Southern Canterbury, Kirk left school at a ...
in 1969.
References
External links
*
Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki: works by FriedlanderFriedlanderin the collection of the
Museum of New Zealand Te Papa TongarewaAn index of sale results and essays about Friedlander's work
{{DEFAULTSORT:Friedlander, Marti
1928 births
2016 deaths
English emigrants to New Zealand
English Jews
New Zealand Jews
New Zealand people of Russian-Jewish descent
New Zealand photographers
New Zealand women photographers
Naturalised citizens of New Zealand
Companions of the New Zealand Order of Merit
New Zealand autobiographers
Deaths from breast cancer
Deaths from cancer in New Zealand
Women autobiographers