This month, one of the fashion industry’s most recognisable faces debuts her first solo photographic exhibition dedicated to the natural beauty of Aotearoa and the power of solo exploration.
There’s a photograph taken by one of Aotearoa’s leading models and agents, Ngahuia Williams (Ngāpuhi), documented as part of an
At first glance, it’s a sprawling snapshot of serenity.
A bubbling brook, framed by the delicate fronds of a fern. A kawakawa plant arched over black, glossy rocks, the haze of a misty dawn filters a bush painted several shades of kākāriki.
Gaze longer, and the image begins to shout.
The kawakawa plant arches around the ferns in struggle. The fury of water races downstream. Nature’s full force is displayed in all its naked glory, a metaphor of survival amongst life’s chaos and harmony.
But is it really that deep?
“Being alone in nature, you get to experience deep places in the forest,” says Ngahuia when we catch up at her inner-city Auckland apartment, which she shares with her husband, Huffer founder Steve Dunstan. Steve has also taken a step back from the business in an ambassadorial role while pursuing other endeavours outside fashion – like being the creative director of the Auckland FC. The couple have long fostered and mentored creatives across a spectrum that spans everyone from models to designers.
For Ngahuia, it’s about shifting gears from modelling towards a creative pursuit that feels much more down to earth.
“In the last few years, I’ve had some profound moments in my personal life where being connected to nature has played a significant role in my life; you can be in nature totally not aware of your surroundings, or you can be really in it and really feel everything.”
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The exhibition, In the Ngahere, is Ngahuia’s love letter to our landscapes and will feature a dozen photographic digital and film works framed in black, taken over two years of solo travelling and hiking across Aotearoa.
“I think about this particular project and cruising around in a van by myself, from the moment it gets light to the moment it gets dark. The initial sighting of something that takes your breath away is pretty magical.
If you go hiking into nature, you’re surrounded by all this energy from trees, birds, active water, the sun heating – everything requires all this energy. It makes you feel some type of way inside.”
For over two decades, Ngahuia’s face has graced the covers of countless magazines (15 for Viva), fronted local and international campaigns, and appeared in everything from runway shows to music videos. In 2012, she subsequently became one of the country’s leading mentors and agents with her modelling and talent agency N Model Management.
Last year, after finding new representation for her models with other local agencies, Ngahuia has gradually been working at shifting her focus from being in front of the camera to being behind it. Along the way, she’s learned the ropes on the job and in her own time; from the technicalities of camera equipment to understanding the nuance of lighting. She acknowledges the significant differences between shooting something of artifice and shooting something curated by Mother Nature’s guiding hand.
“When you’re on a fashion shoot, there’s always a big team, and we’re all working to create something for someone else, which I think is different from actually going deep and trying to test your own taste and standards of what you find profound, interesting, beautiful, serene and important.”
New Zealand landscapes are a photographic subject matter documented in old books, but in recent years, it has become a scarcity, mostly due to the amount of time and patience it requires to capture nature in its most glorious light.
”I like to get up where before the light comes up, and I’ll wait for the light. To me, the light before the sun comes up before anyone’s awake is pretty special.”
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Advertise with NZME.But it goes beyond landscapes. The exhibition delves into a deeply personal place for Ngahuia, as explained in part of her artist statement.
“Time in the ngahere has always been a way for me to reconnect with myself, my tūpuna, my parents, and all energies. It is a deeply personal journey. When I am alone in nature, I am in a humbling space, surrounded by the endless flow of energy. Nothing makes me feel that more than the towering presence of maunga and tall rākau. Hineahuone was the first wahine on earth, sculpted from clay by Tãne Mahuta. We come from the whenua, and we return to the whenua. It is only natural that we find connection in its presence. It’s always there to bring us back to the beginning.”
Throughout the process of putting this exhibition together, her relationship with photography has also evolved.
“I remember the first phase of when taking images was important to me,” says Ngahuia. “That was when I started to go home to Te Ngaere Bay, where my father now rests. It’s where he grew up.
“That was when I first started exploring photography, the kind of photography that truly meant something to me – which is interesting, considering my background in modelling for so many years.”
It’s the sort of career pivot many are considering right now, prioritising creative fulfillment over closing deals or the soulless churn of corporate life.
“It was uncomfortable to know that I was changing and that something had to change. The industry that I was in was changing. The pandemic gave us all a lot of time to think, watch and be present to the shifts that were happening. It was all really uncomfortable for me to know that things were changing, my values were shifting and I started thinking more about how I wanted to exist in society.”
Sharing the emotional aspects of her journey as an artist and photographer has been a healing process for Ngahuia, who, much like that photograph of a landscape in survival mode, is working to find peace among the chaos of modern life.
When it takes hours to craft a single photograph, Ngahuia says that process has taught her about her inner peace of mind.
“Silence, especially in today’s world, is uncomfortable for many people,” she explains.
“Being alone in the bush for hours or days where there’s no one around, is not always comfortable. So, overcoming that fear to then capture something and not feeling like I have to share it with anyone is such an incredible feeling, especially in today’s age, where you are sharing everything instantly.
So how does it feel, then, to be sharing that so publicly now?
“Terrifying.”
“But these photographs are a reminder of that process; that when you’re alone in this world, you can handle things and regulate yourself. You can overcome fear, you can answer your own questions. You can release your own energy. Things that may have been coming up for you or you’ve been holding on to.
When you are feeling at your most vulnerable, you can release.
It all happens in the bush.”
In the Ngahere by Ngahuia Williams is on display now at the Allpress Studio, 8 Drake St, Tāmaki Makaurau, until April 30.
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