Heavyweight division

Mark Broatch checks out the year's best coffee table books.

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NEW ZEALAND PHOTOGRAPHY COLLECTED: 175 Years of Photography in Aotearoa

by Athol McCredie (Te Papa Press)

This is a fully revised version of a bestselling book from 2015, and of the more than 400 images in it, nearly half are new. There has been a 50% increase in digital scans of the 388,000 post-1850 photographs in Te Papa's collection since the last book, and 25,000 new catalogued items. Images from the likes of Ans Westra, Brian Brake, the Burton Brothers studio and many other photographers, known and unknown, offer insight in delightful moments staged and candid, into the way we have lived and loved, worked and celebrated.

WHENUA edited by Chloe Cull et al (Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū)

This impressive 400-page survey arose out of the He Kapuka Oneone – A Handful of Soil exhibition at Christchurch Art Gallery in 2024. It explores the role of the land in the identity of the country and its peoples. Through the work of more than 100 artists – the likes of William Fox, Rita Angus, Doris Lusk, Robyn Kahukiwa and Colin McCahon – and the insights of writers and art historians, it explores the topic from many angles: colonisation, belonging, activism, migration, guardianship, environmentalism, the use of land and our unique and universal relationships with it.