Philippa Jane Ussher is one of New Zealand's foremost documentary and portrait photographers. She joined the New Zealand Listener in 1977 and was chief photographer for 29 years, leaving to take up a career as a freelance photographer and author.
Exhibitions and publications
Jane Ussher was born in Dunedin in 1953. She describes herself as leaving school unsure of what to do, and taking a photography course at Wellington Polytechnic, which "felt exactly right. It suited every aspect of my temperament. I couldn't have found anything better." She studied photography at Wellington Polytechnic from 1975–76, and was the first student to be offered a second-year scholarship. The first camera she owned was a Hasselblad, using 24-image 120 film, purchased off a fellow student. Ussher joined the staff of the Listener in 1977 as chief photographer, and over nearly 30 years documented New Zealand politics and culture. She first gained acclaim for her 1984 exhibition of New Zealand sporting personality portraits, The Olympians. This success led to a prolific career mainly focusing on portrait photography, some collected in the book Jane Ussher Portraits, launched in 2004 to coincide with the Listener's 65th anniversary. The book includes many acclaimed portraits from the Listener of major New Zealand figures, ranging from sport stars, prime ministers, and actors. She continued to shoot on film while at the Listener, despite the cost, and was a relatively late adopter of digital photography. In 2008 Ussher left the Listener to become a freelancer, and accepted an invitation from Prime MinisterHelen Clark to travel to Antarctica with the Antarctica New ZealandMedia Programme. She spent four weeks over the summer of 2008–2009 photographing the three historic huts that served as bases for Scott and Shackleton's pioneering expeditions. A series of photographs from this trip were published as Still Life: Inside the Antarctic Huts of Scott and Shackleton. The book was launched by then New Zealand Prime MinisterJohn Key October 2010. In 2017 she was invited to speak on her Antarctic photography at TEDxScottBase, an event broadcast worldwide. Ussher uses a Hasselblad medium-format digital camera, on a tripod with long exposures, preferring to shoot outside in natural light. Her work has been displayed many times at leading museums such as Te Papa in Wellington and Auckland Museum. These exhibitions have showcased both her photography and more recently audiovisual experiences. She is considered New Zealand's foremost portrait photographer.
