Artwork Information

Steve Rumsey was a pioneering New Zealand photographer who introduced a modernist spirit to a field previously dominated by Pictorialist photographic traditions. Active from the late 1940s through the 1960s, Rumsey used photography to explore ideas rather than simply document the visible world. Drawing on his early art training at the Elam School of Art, scientific study, and exposure to Bauhaus thinking, he developed an approach grounded in abstraction and the dynamic use of light and shadow. Whether arranging geometric forms in the studio, creating camera-less photograms, or photographing everyday scenes from unexpected angles, Rumsey pushed the medium in a more conceptual and contemporary direction. His portraits of artists, including potter Barry Brickell, alongside his inventive studies of structure and pattern, reveal a sharp eye for design and a willingness to challenge photographic conventions. His series of photographs showing Brickell at work –throwing pots on the wheel or coiling them by hand – provide a remarkable record of one of New Zealand’s most celebrated ceramicists. Each frame reveals Brickell’s harmony with clay and his grounded approach to pottery, from firing the kiln to preparing his pots for sale on the wharves of Auckland.