Victoria Ginn is a photographer and author whose art depicts aspects of self within the intertwined contexts of landscape and culture. Her various works lead one through selected areas of the world and into the colours and rhythms of humanity—emotion, imagination and identity.

Ginn’s photographs have been exhibited at the Museum for the Performing Arts, New York, and are represented in the permanent collections of the George Pompidou Art Museum, Paris and art institutes in New Zealand (Te Papa, Dunedin Art Gallery, Dowse Art Museum).

PUBLICATIONS

THE SPIRITED EARTH: Dance, Myth and Ritual from South Asia to the South Pacific, published by Rizzoli, New York, 1990. This 190-page colour book with 160 photographic images has also been published in French and German editions—Tihei Mauriora (Arthaud) and Geister der Erde (Metamorphoses Verlag) respectively. The Spirited Earth is the culmination of six years work and travel throughout the Pacific and Asia, including research and publication.

FREEDOM’S EDGE: A memoir of a photographer’s journey and imprisonment in Afghanistan—the the the story based on the memory of the photographer’s journey into Afghanistan in 1978 (includes 70 photographic plates). (1992-2000) Hazard Press 2001.

FIGURE IN THE NEW ZEALAND LANDSCAPE - 128 page colour/black and white essay on human/ nature forms and eccentricities. Published by OTS Publishing Ltd 2005, New Zealand.

 

Ginn’s Photographic Art Collections include:

OPENINGS
Spain and Turkey (1996)
The Flamenco, Belly Dance and Superimposition. An exploration of the religious/erotic/emotional potency contained within the dance traditions of the Flamenco and Belly Dance. The essay utilises architecture and superimposition as a subjective means of releasing the interior luminosity inherent within these traditions. Granada, Andalusia. Central Turkey and Istanbul.
Work in Development.

CLOUDS DRIFT
New Zealand (1991-3)
On the nature and relatedness of clouds and driftwood.
To be included at a later date

THE SPIRITED EARTH
(Dance, Myth And Ritual from South Asia to the South Pacific) (1984-90)
A creative/documentary study of performance art of South East Asia and the South Pacific. Photographs include secular and sacred dance, drama, ritual expressions pertaining to tribal, folk and classical traditions of the peoples of Indonesia (Bali, Java, Sumatra), Kalimantan, Thailand, Nepal, India (Himalchal Pradesh, Haryana State, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka), New Zealand, Australia (Bathurst Island, Northern Territories, East Arnhem Land, Queensland), The Solomon Islands (Malaita, Santa Ana, Santa Cruz, Bellona), Vanuatu (Vao and Malekula Islands).

FIGURE IN A NEW ZEALAND LANDSCAPE
New Zealand (1979-81)
A semi-theatrical essay on the juxtaposition of the human form with the landscape—the symbolic, aesthetic, emotional, sexual, sensual, contradictory and humorous interplay between the two. The images include the Elements—rock, fire, water, earth, field, tree, and the Human Form—performance artists, classical and experimental dancers, mime artists, and the naked body. Performers include: Limbs, N.Z. Ballet, Red Mole, amongst others.

FREEDOM’S EDGE
Afghanistan (1978)
A portrait of the photographer’s travels from Peshawar in Pakistan through to areas of pre-war Afganistan—Kabul, Kandahar, Mazar-i Sharif, including a series taken of women prisoners while the photographer was held in custody in a Kabul prison. The series was partially destroyed. A written account—Freedom’s Edge (Afghanistan—a memoir of a journey and imprisonment)—was published in New Zealand in 2001.

THE AWAKENING HEART
Papua New Guinea (1977)
A sojourn among the Stone Age people of the Southern Highlands of Papua New Guinea, including the Huli tribes-people of the Ialuba Valley in the Tari Basin area. The photographs depict a people on the cusp of acculturation into the Western world and include portraits of forest magicians, sorcerers, dandies, bachelor cult leaders, funerary rites, and a way of life and dress now extinct.

INSIDE OUTSIDERS
New Zealand (1960s-70s)
Beginning with the image of an attacking bird, this series covers the formative period of the photographer’s perception and creative development. The series reflects a vision of New Zealand society as seen in the mid 1960s-early 1970s and reveals a portrait of Maori and Pakeha in the post-colonial context of alienation and belonging.

CONTRIBUTOR:
ABRAMS BOOKS
TIME-LIFE BOOKS
SILVER-BURDETT GINN - Educational Books

FEATURE ARTICLES:
NEW ZEALAND LISTENER
NZ HERALD
PACIFIC WAY NZ
SYDNEY MORNING HERALD - Australia
GEO - Australia
HURRIYET - Turkey
AIRONE - Italy
MORNING CALM - Korea
CITY AND COUNTRY HOME - Canada
SAWASDEE - Hong Kong
ANIMAN - Switzerland
THE EARTH - China

FILM STILLS:
UTU - chief stills photographer
MAURI - pre-production concept stills and chief stills on production

CONSULTANT:
Sitges International Dance Festival - Spain.

EDUCATIONAL VIDEOS - Britain

DIRECTOR: SPHINX GALLERY - an experimental exhibition venue for all artistic mediums (1970's Wellington NZ)

DIRECTOR: OTS PUBLISHING LTD