Harry Culy
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.
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Untitled (Shelter), Wellington, 2022
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Four Square, Taihape, 2021
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Untitled (Home), Wellington, 2021
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Untitled (Tangle), Tokaanu, 2021
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Untitled (Amadeo), Wellington, New Zealand, 2020
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Untitled (barbed wire), Wellington, New Zealand, 2020
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Untitled (car window), Wellington, New Zealand , 2020
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Untitled (Cracked Glass), Wellington, New Zealand, 2020
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Untitled (Davo), Wellington, New Zealand, 2020
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Untitled (Heart), Wellington, New Zealand, 2020
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Untitled (Vines), Wellington, 2020
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Big Mac, Napier, 2019
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Car Park, Te Mata Peak, 2019
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Girl with rabbit, Havelock North, 2019
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Untitled (Alex and Tommy), Wellington, New Zealand, 2019
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Untitled (best friends forever), Wellington, New Zealand, 2019
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Untitled (Devyn), Wellington, New Zealand, 2019
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Untitled (door), Wellington, New Zealand, 2019
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Untitled (Eilish), Wellington, New Zealand, 2019
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Untitled (Flames), Wellington, New Zealand, 2019
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Untitled (hood), Wellington, New Zealand, 2019
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Untitled (House and car), Wellington, New Zealand, 2019
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Untitled (Lamp), Wellington, New Zealand, 2019
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Untitled (Mibar building foyer), Wellington, New Zealand, 2019
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Untitled (Nobody believe you, bad luck), 2019
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Untitled (Reid), Wellington, New Zealand, 2019
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Untitled (screen protector), Wellington, New Zealand, 2019
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Untitled (Window display), Wellington, New Zealand, 2019
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Untitled (window), Wellington, New Zealand, 2019
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Goldfinch Street, Taihape, New Zealand, 2018
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Seascape #10 (yellow dawn), The Gap, Vaucluse, Sydney, Australia., 2018
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Seascape #115 (misty grey), The Gap, Vaucluse, Sydney, Australia, 2018
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Seascape #135 (white mist) Vaucluse, Sydney, Australia, 2018
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Seascape #22 (orange dawn), Vaucluse, Sydney, Australia, 2018
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Tree Stump, Brooklyn, New Zealand, 2018
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Apples, Whakatu, 2017
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Hall, Maraekakaho, 2017
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Interior, Putorino Pub, 2017
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Quarry, Awatoto, 2017
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Tearooms, Onga Onga, 2017
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Hydrangea, Ohope, New Zealand, 2016
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Interior with towel, Marlborough Sounds, New Zealand, 2016
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Seascape #3 (blue midday), The Gap, Vaucluse, Sydney, Australia, 2014
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Summer Selection
25 Jan - 11 Feb 2023Jhana Millers reopens for 2023 with a selection of works by gallery artists.Read more -
Screaming Waterfall — Ayesha Green, Harry Culy, Tyne Gordon, Lily McRae, Georgia Arnold
13 - 29 Oct 2022Jhana Millers presents a group exhibition with new work to the gallery by five artistsRead more -
Auckland Art Fair, The Right Place?
24 - 28 Feb 2021Auckland Art Fair, The Right Place?. Exhibition at Jhana Millers Gallery, Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Wellington, Aotearoa New ZealandRead more -
Harry Culy, Mirror City
13 Aug - 5 Sep 2020Harry Culy, Mirror city. Exhibition at Jhana Millers Gallery, Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand.Read more -
Harry Culy, Nobody believe you (bad luck)
10 May - 1 Jun 2019Harry Culy, Nobody believe you (bad luck). Exhibition at Jhana Millers Gallery, Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Wellington, Aotearoa New ZealandRead more -
Lucy O’Doherty and Harry Culy, Blue Room
13 - 27 Oct 2018Lucy O'Doherty and Harry Culy, Blue Room. Exhibition at Jhana Millers Gallery, Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand.Read more
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Palmstudios, Feature
Palm Studio -
Meet the Culys
Ashleigh Taupaki - Ngati Hako, Hauraki, Index -
Time, being and Harry Culy
David Herkt, Art News New Zealand -
Harry Culy on Antipodean Gothic
This on That -
Story 79: Harry Culy
Nowhere Diary, May 6, 2021 -
Family Practice
Rachel Helyer Donaldson, ArtZone, February 17, 2021 -
Harry Culy, Mirror City
Moya Lawson, Exhibition Essay, August 13, 2020 -
News from the sun
Art News New Zealand, March 1, 2020 -
News from the Sun: Reviewed
Deidra Sullivan, PhotoForum, February 6, 2020 -
News from the Sun, exhibition catalogue
City Gallery Wellington , November 16, 2019 -
Under the black hood
ArtZone, June 12, 2019 -
Take me back
Art Zone, October 10, 2018 -
Bad News Books, an interview
PhotoForum, August 1, 2018 -
Harry Culy and Sam Stephenson, Evidence
The Heavy Collective, October 4, 2017