Brian Brake's dairy farmers

Brian Brake, Untitled (dairy farmers), 1960.

Brian Brake is one of New Zealand’s most internationally recognised photographers, thanks largely to his membership of the Magnum Photo Agency and the images he created for Life and National Geographic magazines. Though he was based in London, his work took him around the globe and he regularly returned to New Zealand.

This photo of a group of farmers appeared in his seminal 1963 book New Zealand, gift of the sea, the text of which was written by the novelist Maurice Shadbolt. Brake regularly shot in both traditional documentary and landscape styles. Gift of the sea combined the two approaches, and in so doing changed the way future photographers approached capturing our country on film.

This shot of a group of farmers is really made by the strong characters in the image, quintessential blokes you might say.