In advance of the US publication of a substantial monograph on his work, The Afterglow of Industry: New Zealand Photographs 2012-2022, we are delighted to present a survey exhibition of Chris Corson-Scott’s photographs, comprising several earlier photographs from this body of work alongside new works not seen before. Chris Corson-Scott produces haunting images that sit within a global conceptual discourse focussed on the international structures that facilitate wealth extraction from individual countries’ natural resources, the ways in which these give rise to cycles of development and decay, and how the quest for sustainable development in this century will collide with these structures.
The photographs ask us to pay attention to the future of human occupation of our planet; and consider how the quest for sustainable development in this century will collide with these structures. Reminding us of our collective dependence upon the natural world, his images are hard-won. Unsettling juxtapositions of historic industry within the reclaiming natural world are uncovered by diligent research and multi-day hikes lugging an 8 x 10 camera, capturing the past before it disappears entirely.
Chris Corson-Scott speaks to the essence of photography as a medium bound to the attempt to arrest the fleeting moment, remaining resolutely insistent on the use of analogue film and ‘old-fashioned’ 8×10 view-camera as critical to the aesthetic of his work. Exhibited widely, his work has been included in numerous museum exhibitions, and photographic exhibitions in Switzerland and China; Laurence Simmons and Christina Barton have written important essays on his work; he has curated and published collaboratively, notably with art historian Edward Hanfling and Chris Holdaway’s Compound Press; and is developing a feature documentary film in New Zealand.
Exhibitions include Tēnei Ao Tūroa – This Enduring World: Mark Adams, Natalie Robertson, Chris Corson-Scott (2022) at Te Pātaka Toi Adam Art Gallery; The Devil’s Blind Spot (2016-17) at Christchurch Art Gallery; Kinder’s Presence (2013-14) at Auckland Art Gallery Toi O Tamaki; History in the Taking: 40 Years of PhotoForum (2014) at The University of Auckland’s Gus Fisher Gallery; Photo 14, Maag Halle, Zurich, Switzerland; My Place (2013) Pingyao International Photography Festival, China; Recent Auckland Photography (2013) at North Art; and solo exhibitions at Photospace Gallery, Wellington; the artist-run space Snake Pit, New Photographs (2012); and Photographs (2011) at Wallace Art Centre. With art historian Edward Hanfling he is the co-author of Pictures They Want to Make: Recent Auckland Photography (Photoforum, Auckland: 2013).
Public Collections include Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki, Auckland; Chartwell Collection at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki, Auckland; Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna O Waiwhetu; Wallace Arts Trust, Auckland; NZ Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
Corson-Scott lives and works in Auckland, New Zealand.
