A Different Light: First Photographs of Aotearoa
20 September 2025–7 February 2026

Coinciding with the European colonisation of Aotearoa, the invention of photography created an unprecedented prism through which to imagine and make sense of the world at a time of turbulent social change. The camera’s ability to capture detailed likenesses of people, places and events provoked both wonder and suspicion, and brought new commercial opportunities and advancements in mass entertainment, advertising, surveying and scientific research.

A Different Light presents a selection of some of the earliest photographs produced in Aotearoa. These images, dating from the 1850s to 1900, are drawn from the collections of three major research libraries: Tāmaki Paenga Hira Auckland War Memorial Museum, the Alexander Turnbull Library and Uare Taoka o Hākena Hocken Collections. The exhibition traces photography’s rapid development from the unique daguerreotypes made in the late 1840s to the widely shared cartes-de-visite of the 1860s and the emergence of amateur photography in the 1880s. By examining the production and reception of photographs of mana whenua and settlers, as well as their environments, A Different Light prompts questions about how early photography in Aotearoa shaped how we view ourselves and our place in the world.

The exhibition is curated by Shaun Higgins, Natalie Marshall and Anna Petersen – a collaboration between Tāmaki Paenga Hira Auckland War Memorial Museum, the Alexander Turnbull Library and Hocken Collections Uare Taoka o Hākena.

A Different Light: First Photographs of Aotearoa is accompanied by an illustrated book published by Auckland University Press, and edited by Catherine Hammond and Shaun Higgins, with contributions by Angela Wanhalla, Shaun Higgins, Paul Diamond, Anna Petersen and Natalie Marshall.

Opening hours
The Hocken Collections and Gallery are open to all researchers and exhibition visitors:

Tuesday–Saturday, 10am–5pm
Sunday–Monday, Closed

Image: William Meluish, Octagon, decorated in honour of the marriage of the Prince of Wales and Princess Alexandra, July 1863, Box-167-007, Hocken Collections Uare Taoka o Hākena, University of Otago.