A Beautiful Hesitation

Fiona Pardington considers each of her photographs to be ‘a sovereign world’, offering the viewer an uneasy, dreamlike experience. She uses the phrase ‘a beautiful hesitation’ to describe photography’s power to arrest time and to alter our relationship with what a photograph both places under our gaze and withholds from it. Throughout her career, she has brought forth some of the most haunting, affecting and challenging photographs made in – and, often, about – our country. Fiona Pardington: A Beautiful Hesitation showcases the work of one of Aotearoa New Zealand’s most important and celebrated photographers. Covering thirty years, it is the most comprehensive publication of her work to date. Fiona Pardington: A Beautiful Hesitation includes newly commissioned essays, a substantial interview and an archive section including earlier significant texts.