Iconic New Zealand photographer dies

Marti Friedlander, who was one of New Zealand’s most renowned photographers, has died, aged 88.

Born Martha Gordon in the East End of London to Russian Jewish immigrants in 1928, she grew up in Norwood orphanage and after attending Camberwell School of Art, worked as an assistant to Gordon Crocker, the leading fashion photographer of the time.

She married Gerrard Friedlander, a New Zealander, in 1957 before immigrating with him to the country where she assisted him as a nurse before turning to photography.

Spending more than 40 years photographing the changing nature of post-war New Zealand, her work documented the country’s people, places and events, with shots ranging from portraits of artists and children, to shots of rows of state houses and flocks of sheep on country roads.

Acclaimed for her work, she was appointed a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to photography in the 1999 New Year Honours. In 2007, the Arts Foundation of New Zealand launched the Marti Friedlander Photographic Award, while she was awarded an honorary doctorate of Literature by the University of Auckland in 2016.