THE KEZIA LIBRARY
A collection of photographs taken over a lifetime by Kezia Barnett.
Resonates with Fluxus, Jonas Mekas, Agnes Varda, Vivian Maier, Cindy Sherman.
Resonates with Fluxus, Jonas Mekas, Agnes Varda, Vivian Maier, Cindy Sherman.
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THE KEZIA ARCADE
Always carry a camera.
Spontaneous and documentary in nature, The Kezia Arcade is a collection of photographs of people, places and details captured by Kezia Barnett, parallel to her Daily Photo project. The finished images are stylised and cinematic.
Spontaneous and documentary in nature, The Kezia Arcade is a collection of photographs of people, places and details captured by Kezia Barnett, parallel to her Daily Photo project. The finished images are stylised and cinematic.
Portfolio
'Kezia Barnett looks at the world and sees beauty in the mundane, simplicity in the wreckage. Daily life becomes a cinematic unraveling'
– Nat Tozer (Lot23 Curator)
– Nat Tozer (Lot23 Curator)
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Daily Photos
Kezia Barnett has been in a photo every day for over twenty three years.
Before digital cameras, before Instagram, Facebook, social media or widespread use of emails, the internet or cellphones, Kezia began taking daily photos of where she is, who she is with, what she is doing. Proto-selfies if you will. As @helendean_art commented @thekezialibrary, ‘You’re like Instagram before Instagram’.
Kezia started the project in 1997 in her last year of Elam Art School, in an analogue age, and has been the subject of a daily photo, and sometimes more than one, ever since.
The project documents: the evolving zeitgeist and fashions, the ever-developing technologies and changing ideas of self-portrait. The first ten years of photographs were taken on 35 mm film, subsequently they have been digital.
Daily Photos evolved into being about many things: creative Auckland growing up, friends that went to Elam in the 90s, colleagues in the film, art, photographic and music worlds.
This project has longevity: as far as we know this is the longest project of daily self-portrait photographs in the world – in a world now inundated with ‘selfies’. You could call it endurance art.
Kezia is currently excavating this sizeable collection.
The project documents: the evolving zeitgeist and fashions, the ever-developing technologies and changing ideas of self-portrait. The first ten years of photographs were taken on 35 mm film, subsequently they have been digital.
Portfolio
"You are the only one who can never see yourself except as an image; you never see your eyes unless they are dulled by the gaze they rest upon the mirror or the lens (I am interested in seeing my eyes only when they look at you): even and especially for your own body, you are condemned to the repertoire of its images"
‑ Roland Barthes
‑ Roland Barthes
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