Stuff Digital Edition

For the record: Flash, bang

From the Vietnam War to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, New Zealanders have taken to the streets to protest – and for all those 55 years John Miller has been there capturing the anger and heartbreak. He talks to Sapeer Mayron.

Half a century of protests in New Zealand has left photographer John Miller with the distinct impression that Kiwis care – a lot. Nearly every time society has fractured over war, politics or the environment, Miller (Ngaitewake-ki-Uta hapu of Ngapuhi) has been there on the fault lines, carefully capturing the anger and heartbreak at the centre of protest.

He was there the first time New Zealand erupted over the war in Vietnam in the late 1960s and early 70s.

Protesters rallied in numbers to beg leaders to end the war that had been raging since late 1955, and stop sending New Zealand troops to fight there.

Since then, he has covered protests on apartheid in South Africa, the Springbok Tour in 1981, nuclear war protests, war in Afghanistan and Iraq, land wars, the Bastion Point occupation, Treaty of Waitangi issues and many more.

It’s a common idea in Aotearoa that Kiwis can be apathetic, but Miller disagrees.

‘‘We did have a fairly vigorous protest in Wellington against the vaccine mandates and various measures against Covid. That involved people driving miles in convoys and camping at Parliament,’’ he said, speaking from his Karangahape Rd studio in Auckland, nestled amongst his archives. Things seem to go in cycles, sometimes there is a slow period where nothing much happens, then activism re-emerges.’’

Since his teenage years, Miller has seen the world through a lens. From his first box camera when he was at school, to a more sophisticated one when he left Northland to study at Victoria University of Wellington in 1970, Miller made sure to record scenes of protest in the cities he lived in.

That first camera was a clunky, cumbersome box with an immensely slow shutter speed that made it useless for anything other than a sat down group photo.

But Miller took it around his school anyway, trying his hand no matter how blurry the photos came out. Then his mother bought him a Russian twin-lens reflex, his first fully controllable camera, which he brought out for events such as sports days.

Miller grew up north of Whanga¯ rei in a town that didn’t get television until 10 years after Auckland. When moving pictures finally did make it up north, he and the other neighbourhood kids would cram into the lounges of the sole household that bought a TV set to watch black and white kids’ shows after school.

Miller isn’t particularly romantic about how he got into photography as a kid. As he puts it, ‘‘it was just an interesting thing to do’’.

‘‘I don’t know why, I seem to have developed a fairly competent sense of picture composition.’’

But he agrees it is important someone is there to document protests, especially the ones that became unexpectedly rough. Of the 1981 protests against the Springboks’ visit to New Zealand, Miller said it was horrifying just how traumatic they turned out to be.

‘‘You got inured to the violence after a while because it went on for 56 days,’’ he said.

‘‘The Hamilton match got disrupted and stopped and quite a few protesters got injured by the rugby fans throwing things at them. The marchers outside parliament were hit by the police and the Christchurch protesters were being battoned by police, which led to the Wellington protesters coming up with shields for protection.

‘‘It escalated and got bigger and bigger. It was really horrifying how you got used to the violence.’’

Once, he was at the bottom of Rintoul St in Wellington when he saw the red squad – a unit set up to escort the Springbok teams through the country – plow into a group of protesters who were just walking through the street. Though out of film, Miller caught the entire thing on tape.

Unlike in Wellington earlier this year, photographers like Miller were not harassed or manhandled by police nor protesters. He thinks photographers were regarded as neutral parties.

He said it was unnerving to watch reporters and photographers, including friends of his, being hassled by some of the Parliament protesters.

‘‘They do seem to have a particular antagonism towards the media, which seems to be an importation of attitudes from abroad and the influence of social media. I really don’t know how you get on relating to those folks if they are so set in holding those attitudes against people they deem may not be sympathetic to their causes.’’

Miller captured a protest for the very first time almost by accident. In 1967, he was visiting family in Auckland, and had with him a 35mm Kodak Retina IIIc that someone lent him.

Luckily it was with him when he ended up at the bottom of Lower Albert St where people were gathering to protest the Vietnam War.

‘‘That was January 1967, the first anti-war protest I ever photographed. I remember at the beginning of last March, being in Aotea Square and photographing the Ukrainian rally and I thought, gosh. I’ve been doing this for 55 years.

‘‘It escalated and got bigger and bigger. It was really horrifying how you got used to the violence.’’ John Miller

‘‘The state of the world is still so conflicted that I am still photographing anti-war protests.’’

He said sooner or later, another anti-nuclear movement is sure to rise up.

‘‘This situation does remind me of the Cuban Missile Crisis, where we were very worried about the confrontation with the Americans and Russians. We are at potentially similar levels of threat, and I am a bit surprised we don’t have an anti-nuclear war movement that was very prevalent in the 1980s. I’m just wondering when that will resurface,’’ he said.

Miller did have a few forays out of protest photography over the years. The biggest was in the 1970s when he helped his uncle with the Ngatihine Forest Dispute over how a 5500-hectare forest south of Kawakawa should be used.

Another time, he took eight days to stay on Ka¯ piti Island off the coast of Wellington filming kiwi in their natural habitat, and at some stage he worked for TVNZ as a camera assistant filming CrimeWatch episodes.

Miller was also one of only two photographers permitted to photograph inside the marae at the tangi of the Ma¯ ori Queen Te Arikinui Dame Te Atairangikaahu in 2006.

Miller has meticulous archives in his office, though at first glance that isn’t obvious. But in a neatly labled shelving unit with sliding trays are each and every event he has been to, which he dives into from time to time.

Out of a tray he pulls out his records from the Queen’s tangi, including the photo spread featured in Mana Magazine at the time, and the digital proof sheets of some 26 rolls of film.

‘‘Oh, another Helen Clark photo,’’ he points out. ‘‘I’ve been photographing her since 1975... she’s quite used to me.’’

Focus

en-nz

2022-05-22T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-05-22T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://fairfaxmedia.pressreader.com/article/281870122051219

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