From the Sidelines celebrated Bay rugby through the lens of award winning local photographer Mark McKeown (MNZIPP) and selected objects from the Tauranga Heritage Collection.
McKeown, a previous winner of the New Zealand Sports Photographer of the Year award and recipient the NZIPP Master of Photography, focused his camera on the fans and supporters of local rugby. “Working as a photographer for the Bay of Plenty Times it’s about capturing the exciting moments on the field. For this exhibition the challenge was to point my camera beyond the try line and record moments in the crowd that are far less rehearsed.”
As part of the exhibition a recreated rugby club room featured historical photographs and other club memorabilia. Also on display was the only known surviving Tauranga Rugby Union Cap, of its age, which was owned by well known Tauranga resident Charlie Haua. Charlie was the first captain of the Cadet Old Boy’s Rugby Football Club and represented the Bay of Plenty in 1929.
A special dimension of the collaboration between Mark and the Tauranga Heritage Collection was the creation of a photographic archive. “It’s such a significant year for New Zealand rugby and I hope that in years to come these photographs will be of interest to people who wonder what was happening with rugby in the Bay in 2011’.
