Biography

Harry Culy’s practice is born from a desire to record the world around him. Using a large-format 4x5 field camera, Harry produces enigmatic photographs of vacant interiors, stark portraits, and urban and rural landscapes.

Harry Culy is a contemporary artist and photographer. Born in 1986 he lives in Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Wellington.

Harry uses photography as a means to examine every day contemporary life in both Australia and Aotearoa. He often works on long-term projects that span a number of years, frequently returning to places and communities that he has a personal connection to. Each image Harry takes is a pause amid an intensive, wandering process. Using a large format 4x5 field camera he produces enigmatic photographs found within daily life, often including vacant interiors, stark portraits, and landscapes—each hinting at narratives beyond the picture plane. 

Harry’s work is influenced by the Antipodean Gothic art movement. He says of this movement, “I don’t exactly know why I’m interested in this type of work. I think I am subconsciously drawn to it. It’s difficult to describe, but it draws on Freud’s notion of the uncanny. I have spent a lot of time going down the rabbit hole, researching, reading books, watching films, looking at gothic painting and art, looking at ideas behind the gothic, like post-colonial discourse, and the way it works on a psychological level. I’m drawn to the feeling it gives me. More than anything it’s a feeling of being unsettled, of uneasiness, of anxiety. That feeling seems to echo my relationship to Aotearoa and my own sense of ‘home’.” 

Alongside his photography work, Culy runs a small press photobook company called Bad News Books.

Works
  • Harry Culy Jhana Millers Art Gallery
    Untitled (Bolton Street), 2025
  • Harry Culy Jhana Millers Art Gallery
    Untitled (Bruce Ave II), 2025
  • Harry Culy Jhana Millers Gallery
    Untitled (dandelions), 2025
  • Harry Culy Jhana Millers Art Gallery
    Untitled (Gothic Street), 2025
  • Harry Culy Jhana Millers Art Gallery
    Untitled (McAlister Street), 2025
  • Harry Culy Jhana Millers Art Gallery
    Untitled (Randwick Road), 2025
  • Harry Culy Jhana Millers Art Gallery
    Untitled (Wakefield Street), 2025
  • Harry Culy Jhana Millers Art Gallery
    Untitled (Willis Street), 2025
  • Harry Culy Jhana Millers Gallery
    Untitled (Bridge Street), 2024
  • Harry Culy Jhana Millers Gallery
    Untitled (Bruce Avenue), 2024
  • Harry Culy Jhana Millers Gallery
    Untitled (Budge Street), 2024
  • Harry Culy Jhana Millers Gallery
    Untitled (Crawford Road), 2024
  • Harry Culy Jhana Millers Gallery
    Untitled (Vampire Grove), 2024
  • Harry Culy, Mirror City Photobook, 2023
    Mirror City Photobook, 2023
  • Harry Culy, Untitled (Bri), 2022
    Untitled (Bri), 2022
  • Harry Culy, Untitled (Gate), 2022
    Untitled (Gate), 2022
  • Harry Culy, Untitled (Isla), 2022
    Untitled (Isla), 2022
  • Harry Culy, Untitled (Leg with Tattoo), 2022
    Untitled (Leg with Tattoo), 2022
  • Harry Culy Jhana Millers Art Gallery Wellington
    Untitled (Shelter), Wellington, 2022
  • Harry Culy, Untitled (Tommie), 2022
    Untitled (Tommie), 2022
  • Harry Culy, Untitled (Tree Stump II), 2022
    Untitled (Tree Stump II), 2022
  • Harry Culy, Untitled (Wire), 2022
    Untitled (Wire), 2022
  • Jhana Millers Art Gallery Wellington Harry Culy
    Four Square, Taihape, 2021
  • Harry Culy Jhana Millers Art Gallery Wellington
    Untitled (Home), Wellington, 2021
  • Harry Culy, Untitled (Nigh), 2021
    Untitled (Nigh), 2021
  • Harry Culy
    Untitled (Tangle), Tokaanu, 2021
  • Harry Culy, Untitled (Vines II), 2021
    Untitled (Vines II), 2021
  • Jhana Millers Art Gallery Wellington Harry Culy
    Untitled (Amadeo), Wellington, New Zealand, 2020
  • Jhana Millers Art Gallery Wellington Harry Culy
    Untitled (barbed wire), Wellington, New Zealand, 2020
  • Jhana Millers Art Gallery Wellington Harry Culy
    Untitled (car window), Wellington, New Zealand , 2020
  • Jhana Millers Art Gallery Wellington Harry Culy
    Untitled (Cracked Glass), Wellington, New Zealand, 2020
  • Jhana Millers Art Gallery Wellington Harry Culy
    Untitled (Davo), Wellington, New Zealand, 2020
  • Harry Culy, Untitled (Shoes), 2020
    Untitled (Shoes), 2020
  • Harry Culy, Untitled (Spider Web), 2020
    Untitled (Spider Web), 2020
  • Harry Culy Jhana Millers Gallery
    Untitled (trees and pools), 2020
  • Harry Culy
    Untitled (Vines), Wellington, 2020
  • Jhana Millers Art Gallery Wellington Harry Culy
    Big Mac, Napier, 2019
  • Harry Culy, Car Park, Te Mata Peak, 2019
    Car Park, Te Mata Peak, 2019
  • Jhana Millers Art Gallery Wellington Harry Culy
    Girl with rabbit, Havelock North, 2019
  • Jhana Millers Art Gallery Wellington Harry Culy
    Untitled (Alex and Tommy), Wellington, New Zealand, 2019
  • Jhana Millers Art Gallery Wellington Harry Culy
    Untitled (best friends forever), Wellington, New Zealand, 2019
  • Harry Culy, Untitled (Deme), 2019
    Untitled (Deme), 2019
  • Jhana Millers Art Gallery Wellington Harry Culy
  • Jhana Millers Art Gallery Wellington Harry Culy
    Untitled (door), Wellington, New Zealand, 2019
  • Jhana Millers Art Gallery Wellington Harry Culy
    Untitled (Eilish), Wellington, New Zealand, 2019
  • Harry Culy, Untitled (Flames), 2019
    Untitled (Flames), 2019
  • Jhana Millers Art Gallery Wellington Harry Culy
    Untitled (hood), Wellington, New Zealand, 2019
  • Jhana Millers Art Gallery Wellington Harry Culy
    Untitled (House and car), Wellington, New Zealand, 2019
  • Jhana Millers Art Gallery Wellington Harry Culy
    Untitled (Lamp), Wellington, New Zealand, 2019
  • Harry Culy, Untitled (Laundromat), 2019
    Untitled (Laundromat), 2019
  • Jhana Millers Art Gallery Wellington Harry Culy
  • Harry Culy, Untitled (Nobody believe you, bad luck), 2019
    Untitled (Nobody believe you, bad luck), 2019
  • Jhana Millers Art Gallery Wellington Harry Culy
    Untitled (Reid), Wellington, New Zealand, 2019
  • Jhana Millers Art Gallery Wellington Harry Culy
  • Jhana Millers Art Gallery Wellington Harry Culy
    Untitled (Window display), Wellington, New Zealand, 2019
  • Jhana Millers Art Gallery Wellington Harry Culy
  • Jhana Millers Art Gallery Wellington Harry Culy
    Goldfinch Street, Taihape, New Zealand, 2018
  • Jhana Millers Art Gallery Wellington Harry Culy
  • Jhana Millers Art Gallery Wellington Harry Culy
  • Jhana Millers Art Gallery Wellington Harry Culy
    Tree Stump, Brooklyn, New Zealand, 2018
  • Jhana Millers Art Gallery Wellington Harry Culy
    Apples, Whakatu, 2017
  • Jhana Millers Art Gallery Wellington Harry Culy
    Interior, Putorino Pub, 2017
  • Jhana Millers Art Gallery Wellington Harry Culy
    Quarry, Awatoto, 2017
  • Jhana Millers Art Gallery Wellington Harry Culy
  • Jhana Millers Art Gallery Wellington Harry Culy
  • Jhana Millers Art Gallery Wellington Harry Culy
  • Harry Culy Jhana Millers Gallery
    Will's Bed, 2015
  • Jhana Millers Art Gallery Wellington Harry Culy
Installation shots
Exhibitions
Press
Video