''Late Entry'', an exhibition of his work since 2004, when he changed from film to digital, opens at the Brett McDowell Gallery in Dowling St tomorrow. Whether he's snapping a shot from the car window or catching his grandson running at preschool, someone in a shop, the logo on someone's uniform or people in the street, park or cafe, it's the chancy character of the image that makes it intriguingly photographic, he says.
Writing in Art New Zealand a few years ago, David Eggleton described Blackman's photographs as well organised, with everything in its place.
''But I'm not deciding where that place should be. I have to recognise it and take the photograph. There are lots of accidents, but I'm looking and if something begins to attract me, I'll circle round,'' Blackman says.
He describes this exhibition as a punctuation mark in his photography as, at 83, he is less mobile than he has been and not able to go out as much. However, he is still experimenting, although some people might think he's getting a bit past it, he says wryly.
''I don't believe photographers should retire. At a fairly late stage in my career, I've still got an open eye for what the camera can show me.''
Some of his photographs might be rejected by others but it is things such as visual echoes of shapes and patterns rather than a particular focus, as in Cafe Wellington, or the varying degrees of focus along with reflections in Rakaia Bridge, that attract him, he says.
''I give very prosaic titles, mainly for identification. I think it's a great mistake to be too explicit about your titles or try to suggest something because it immediately takes away from the ability to enjoy a photograph for its own sake.
''I could imagine somebody coming to the exhibition being attracted to one or two pictures and they might even say, what's the point of that. I don't care. You don't have to be able to make the point in words. It's a matter of recognising there's something interesting going on.''
Blackman, who was formerly a scientist and associate professor of pharmacology at the University of Otago, has been photographing and exhibiting his work for nearly 70 years. His work includes documentary photographs, portraits and architectural photography, and has been published in books and collected by art galleries, including the DPAG.
Back in the 1950s and '60s, photography was not generally regarded as art, although he always included his photographic interest in his interest in art. Although pictorialist works by photographers such as George Chance were shown in galleries in the 1920s and '30s, it was only in the 1970s and '80s that photography came to be considered art and collected by public galleries, he says.
See it
''Late Entry: 17 photographs 2004-2012'', by Gary Blackman, opens at the Brett McDowell Gallery in Lower Dowling St tomorrow.
