A photoshoot at the Katherine Mansfield Birthplace Museum
Katherine Mansfield was one of my earliest introductions to New Zealand – we read some of her short stories (The Garden Party and At the Bay) in high school, and that, combined with learning poi dancing in primary school, was all I really knew or thought of New Zealand as a child or teen. So when I moved to NZ, of course I was interested to visit the museum that has been made from the house she was born in. For the last year I’ve been privileged to be involved with the museum – giving a talk about fashion and Mansfield last year, and lending items for exhibitions. Last weekend I got to do a photoshoot at the Katherine Mansfield House & Garden museum: dressing two models up as characters from her life & writings, and posing scenes in the house. We imagined the shoot as Mansfield remembering her childhood and thinking up stories and writing up little sketches – a mix of reality and fantasy, memories and plots. There was, of course, an official …
