This is the first episode in a series of talks recorded alongside the exhibition A Different Light: First Photographs of Aotearoa. The series was titled ‘Through a Contemporary Lens: Artists in Response’ and featured local artists who were invited to share their response to particular photographs in the exhibition.

In this episode, artist and educator Caroline McQuarrie, who helped develop the talk series, looks at Robina Nichol’s portrait of Amy Kirk yawning and considers what it might have meant to be an amateur female photographer in the late 19th century.

In the 21st century we have understanding of the gendered gaze in photography, and with this in mind McQuarrie explores what we can ask of these images, and of this photographer and how do we might locate her photographic practice now.

Recorded at Te Pātaka Toi Adam Art Gallery, on 13 March 2025.