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More Images
Brian Brake Artist Page
Now on Exhibition
Hiroshi Yamano's Scene of Japan
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Brian Brake (1927-1988) was New Zealand’s best-known photographer. His career spanned the golden age of photojournalism, and he roamed the globe with his camera.
In 1955 he was invited to join the prestigious photo agency, Magnum, which counted Henri Cartier-Bresson and Ernst Haas among its members. Membership of an agency such as Magnum, which, unlike most agencies, specialized in picture stories, as well as editorial illustrations, and, most importantly, allowed its photographers to cover a story in their own way and enabled Brake to flourish.
One of two of Brake’s most widely recognized photo essays, ‘Picasso at a Bullfight’, was in fact not an official assignment from Magnum, and only came about due to the coincidence that Brake was holidaying with friends in the south of France, when he learned Picasso was attending a bullfight in a town close by. Once Brake arrived at the bullfight, there was a relatively small crowd of no more than 500, and Brake was able to gain close up shots of Picasso and his entourage, with little interference from other photographers or crowds.
As the story is told by Brake, the iconic image of Claude, Picasso’s son, putting his index finger into Picasso’s mouth during a climactic moment in the fight, was the last image taken on his last roll of film. The contact sheets do in fact show this was the last photo taken on his second roll of film, but out of four rolls shot that day, and this image went on to be published in Life, Stern, The Times and Paris Match, the leading magazines of the day.
In 1957 and 1959, Brake travelled through communist China, gaining unprecedented access due to the neutrality of his New Zealand passport. His interest predominantly lay with the everyday lives of people and he travelled with his partner of the time, Nigel Cameron, a writer. Several of these images were later published in Cameron’s book, The Chinese Smile (out of print). Later publications of Brake’s images from these trips included a 30-picture feature, ‘Peking, a pictorial record’, in the August 1960 edition of National Geographic, and Cameron’s Peking: A tale of three cities, 1965 (out of print).
The second of Brake’s most widely recognized photo essays was, ‘Monsoon’. This was an ambitious undertaking and involved traveling across India during the peak monsoon period of June to September in 1960, following time spent in New York at the headquarters of Life magazine in 1958 to better understand magazine design layouts and how his photographs might be tailored to suit.
Eventually the photo essay was published over 20 pages in Life magazine on the 8th of September 1961. Paris Match followed suit and ran 16 photographs on the 23rd of September 1961, The Queen ran 30 photographs with Monsoon girl on the cover, Epoca ran 17 photographs, with an aerial beach scene as the cover.
