MOTAT is asking the public for information on photographs featured in their new exhibition
MOTAT’s new photography exhibition Snapped! Summer Holidays in Aotearoa opens this week to showcase up to 100 summer holiday photographs taken in New Zealand from the roaring 20s right
through to the swinging 60s.
But who is featured in these photographs? Here is where MOTAT is hoping the public can help.
The photographs featured in Snapped! Summer Holidays in Aotearoa have been recently digitised from a selection of donated photo albums, glass plates and lantern slides. While a few
handwritten notes hint at the collection’s origins, MOTAT is hoping visitors to the exhibition will recognise a familiar
face and help identify the people pictured in the images.
MOTAT Library and Archives Manager, Simon Wetherill, has been leading the digitisation process, “The photographs show us
how the traditional Kiwi summer holiday experience evolved throughout the decades.
From beaches to baches, sausage sizzles and backyard cricket, a lot has remained the same, while aspects of transport
and technology have changed to be almost unrecognisable to a younger generation”.
Snapped! Summer Holidays in Aotearoa is curated under three themes: Where We Went; What We Did; and How We Got There. Along with the collection of photographs on display, the exhibition will feature an immersive Kiwi soundscape and fun
digital interactives for visitors of all ages to enjoy.
MOTAT Senior Exhibitions Curator, Simon Gould, is hoping the engaging elements of exhibition will help draw in an
intergenerational audience, he says “grandparents will be able to recount stories of their holidays, while children can
engage with the images by using augmented reality to bring the photos to life”.
Snapped! Summer Holidays in Aotearoa is open daily to the public from 10am to 4pm from 5 December until May 2021. Entry to the exhibition is included as
part of general admission ticketing.
New at MOTAT: Also opening 5 December is the new Parapara Ingenious exhibition ‘Lime - He whananga auaha i te kawenga tāone - A revolution in urban transport’ showcasing the evolution of micro-transport in the Auckland region.