MONGRELISM
“One of the functions of art is to transmit a reality that might be marginalised or missed in the cacophony of glib stimuli vying for our attention. Jono Rotman has carefully, respectfully insinuated himself into the culture of gangs, earning their trust. That trust is embodied in his portraits. His subjects’ faces, tattoos, and insignia signify their alienation and marginalisation from mainstream society. The image of gangs portrayed to the general public is the incarnation of the white man’s worst nightmare, the emergence of a threatening monster from the ashes of the ‘noble savage’ portrayed by Lindauer and Goldie. These portraits challenge us to ask: what are the hidden and untold stories that underlie them?"
2015 / Essay / Dr. Ranginui Walker / Jono Rotman; Mongrel Mob Portraits / A City Gallery Publication
“Rotman works to strip away this generalised, media-generated image of gang identity. He uses the camera not to safely present or titillate normalised society with its criminal other but to set up a direct and confrontational encounter with a specific individual. Rotman goes through this encounter ahead of his audience.....These photographs have claimed and been granted an active role within the community they represent. It’s here that Rotman’s photographs do their work, as well as on the walls of art galleries, and, through this clash, on culture at large.”
2015 / Essay / Aaron Lister / Jono Rotman; Mongrel Mob Portraits / A City Gallery Publication
2015 / Video / Mongrel Mob Portraits Opening Powhiri
2014 / Television / The faces of the Mongrel Mob – still art for art’s sake? & Mongrel Mob photographer refuses grieving father's plea / TVNZ Seven Sharp
“The gravest threat our society faces is from cowardly artists. I realised just how much danger we were in this week while reading about a photographer named Jono Rotman.”
2014 / Opinion / Narelle Henson / Waikato Times
The Mighty Mongrel Mob of Aotearoa New Zealand are mythologised for extreme violence, and they have long been cast as the nation’s monsters. Mongrelism offers a communion with this impenetrable fraternity. Monumental portraits illustrate Mob members’ assertion of membership and pride in their identity. Artifact studies and brutal first person narratives are drawn from the Mob corpus, mirroring the landscape studies that bare the brooding environments where Mob members live. Mongrelism examines how the gang brands itself to itself to uphold its hierarchy and history, and finds core values usually lauded by society: perseverance, resilience, and loyalty.
Email to view catalogue.
Mongrelism Book
2016 / Mongrel Mob Portraits / Gow Langsford Gallery / Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand
2015 / Mongrel Mob Portraits / City Gallery / Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand
2015 / Personalities: Fantasy and Identity in Photography and New Media / Palm Springs Art Museum, Palm Desert, USA
2014 / Mongrel Mob / Gow Langsford Gallery / Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand
“One of the functions of art is to transmit a reality that might be marginalised or missed in the cacophony of glib stimuli vying for our attention. Jono Rotman has carefully, respectfully insinuated himself into the culture of gangs, earning their trust. That trust is embodied in his portraits. His subjects’ faces, tattoos, and insignia signify their alienation and marginalisation from mainstream society. The image of gangs portrayed to the general public is the incarnation of the white man’s worst nightmare, the emergence of a threatening monster from the ashes of the ‘noble savage’ portrayed by Lindauer and Goldie. These portraits challenge us to ask: what are the hidden and untold stories that underlie them?"
2015 / Essay / Dr. Ranginui Walker / Jono Rotman; Mongrel Mob Portraits / A City Gallery Publication
“Rotman works to strip away this generalised, media-generated image of gang identity. He uses the camera not to safely present or titillate normalised society with its criminal other but to set up a direct and confrontational encounter with a specific individual. Rotman goes through this encounter ahead of his audience.....These photographs have claimed and been granted an active role within the community they represent. It’s here that Rotman’s photographs do their work, as well as on the walls of art galleries, and, through this clash, on culture at large.”
2015 / Essay / Aaron Lister / Jono Rotman; Mongrel Mob Portraits / A City Gallery Publication
2015 / Video / Mongrel Mob Portraits Opening Powhiri
2014 / Television / The faces of the Mongrel Mob – still art for art’s sake? & Mongrel Mob photographer refuses grieving father's plea / TVNZ Seven Sharp
“The gravest threat our society faces is from cowardly artists. I realised just how much danger we were in this week while reading about a photographer named Jono Rotman.”
2014 / Opinion / Narelle Henson / Waikato Times
The Mighty Mongrel Mob of Aotearoa New Zealand are mythologised for extreme violence, and they have long been cast as the nation’s monsters. Mongrelism offers a communion with this impenetrable fraternity. Monumental portraits illustrate Mob members’ assertion of membership and pride in their identity. Artifact studies and brutal first person narratives are drawn from the Mob corpus, mirroring the landscape studies that bare the brooding environments where Mob members live. Mongrelism examines how the gang brands itself to itself to uphold its hierarchy and history, and finds core values usually lauded by society: perseverance, resilience, and loyalty.
Email to view catalogue.
Mongrelism Book
Exhibitions
2017 / Prix du Livre Images Vevey / Vevey, Switzerland2016 / Mongrel Mob Portraits / Gow Langsford Gallery / Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand
2015 / Mongrel Mob Portraits / City Gallery / Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand
2015 / Personalities: Fantasy and Identity in Photography and New Media / Palm Springs Art Museum, Palm Desert, USA
2014 / Mongrel Mob / Gow Langsford Gallery / Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand
MONGRELISM BOOK
“Mongrelism is a taonga among photobooks in Aotearoa.”
2019 / 01 Sep / Review / Peter Black / PhotoForum
205 x 260 mm, 380pp
152 photographs
Text: 16 ‘barks’, 2 hakas and 1 waiata
Photography by Jono Rotman
Transcripts by Jono Rotman
Offset lithoprint on coated and uncoated paper
Library buckram cased hardback, with tipped in foiled illustration on library buckram
2 gatefolds, 3 tipped in fold-outs
Co-published by Here Press, London and Images Vevey, Switzerland
Edition of 1500
ISBN: 978–0–9935853–8–8
The publication takes the form of a gang handbook. The order and grouping of images is the result of consultation with members and hews to their geographic, familial, and hierarchical relationships. An unedited Mob voice dominates the written section.
“Mongrelism is a taonga among photobooks in Aotearoa.”
2019 / 01 Sep / Review / Peter Black / PhotoForum
205 x 260 mm, 380pp
152 photographs
Text: 16 ‘barks’, 2 hakas and 1 waiata
Photography by Jono Rotman
Transcripts by Jono Rotman
Offset lithoprint on coated and uncoated paper
Library buckram cased hardback, with tipped in foiled illustration on library buckram
2 gatefolds, 3 tipped in fold-outs
Co-published by Here Press, London and Images Vevey, Switzerland
Edition of 1500
ISBN: 978–0–9935853–8–8
The publication takes the form of a gang handbook. The order and grouping of images is the result of consultation with members and hews to their geographic, familial, and hierarchical relationships. An unedited Mob voice dominates the written section.
ŌMARUNUI
“... to see the complex layers of history; even to consider contemporary geo-political activities wherein monuments are destroyed and dominant narratives are revised and rewritten. It draws us into a dialogue that helps move us past the binary propositions of good and bad, rebel and loyalist.... to squeeze the festering historical pus of a century and a half of grievance and hurt out of the tribal corpus. With decaying matter removed from our wounds - and there clearly are wounds - the living flesh is encouraged to regenerate and reconnect.“
2016 / Narrations and Perspectives / Denis O'Rielly
“...the photographic residue of an event ... that has played its part in creating the ‘natural order’ of our condition in contemporary Aotearoa. ... the remnants of such events are real, and continue to fill our prisons and psychiatric hospitals. It is the natural order of things, unless we have the audacity to change them.“
2016 / The Natural Order of Things / Brett Graham
On October 12th 1866, 200 militiamen and a similar number from local hapū surrounded a party of approximately 100 Pai Mārire followers encamped at Ōmarunui pā, mainly comprised of Ngāti Hineuru. After an ambigous response to an invitation to surrender, the occupied kāinga was besieged. Many Ngāti Hineuru were killed with the balance taken prisoner and exiled to Rēkohu, along with whānau who were taken prisoner at Herepoho near Pētane. Those events and the subsequent outcomes remain contentious; conflicting perspectives endure.
Photography was as an integral part of the colonial machinery. These works examine glass-plate negatives from the national archives. Because of the complex interplay that led to the negatives being made, these tarnished pieces of old glass offer a refracted view of the folding together of Māori and Pākehā.
One image is of a stone obelisk. In 1916, on the day of the 50th anniversary of the events, a memorial was unveiled. The 7ft obelisk was deliberately knocked off its pedestal in the 1990’s. Today, this corroded and prone power symbol holds that violent events are not contained or neutered by the passage of time.
The work was exhibited on the 150th anniversary of the events at Ōmarunui.
Email to view catalogue.
2016 / Essay / Ōmarunui: Artist Statement and He Kupu Whakamihi / Jono Rotman
2016 / Opinion / Matthew Mullany: Looking back to look forward / Hawkes Bay Today
“... to see the complex layers of history; even to consider contemporary geo-political activities wherein monuments are destroyed and dominant narratives are revised and rewritten. It draws us into a dialogue that helps move us past the binary propositions of good and bad, rebel and loyalist.... to squeeze the festering historical pus of a century and a half of grievance and hurt out of the tribal corpus. With decaying matter removed from our wounds - and there clearly are wounds - the living flesh is encouraged to regenerate and reconnect.“
2016 / Narrations and Perspectives / Denis O'Rielly
“...the photographic residue of an event ... that has played its part in creating the ‘natural order’ of our condition in contemporary Aotearoa. ... the remnants of such events are real, and continue to fill our prisons and psychiatric hospitals. It is the natural order of things, unless we have the audacity to change them.“
2016 / The Natural Order of Things / Brett Graham
On October 12th 1866, 200 militiamen and a similar number from local hapū surrounded a party of approximately 100 Pai Mārire followers encamped at Ōmarunui pā, mainly comprised of Ngāti Hineuru. After an ambigous response to an invitation to surrender, the occupied kāinga was besieged. Many Ngāti Hineuru were killed with the balance taken prisoner and exiled to Rēkohu, along with whānau who were taken prisoner at Herepoho near Pētane. Those events and the subsequent outcomes remain contentious; conflicting perspectives endure.
Photography was as an integral part of the colonial machinery. These works examine glass-plate negatives from the national archives. Because of the complex interplay that led to the negatives being made, these tarnished pieces of old glass offer a refracted view of the folding together of Māori and Pākehā.
One image is of a stone obelisk. In 1916, on the day of the 50th anniversary of the events, a memorial was unveiled. The 7ft obelisk was deliberately knocked off its pedestal in the 1990’s. Today, this corroded and prone power symbol holds that violent events are not contained or neutered by the passage of time.
The work was exhibited on the 150th anniversary of the events at Ōmarunui.
Email to view catalogue.
Further selected Media:
2016 / Essay / Ōmarunui: Present Tense / Peter Ireland2016 / Essay / Ōmarunui: Artist Statement and He Kupu Whakamihi / Jono Rotman
2016 / Opinion / Matthew Mullany: Looking back to look forward / Hawkes Bay Today
Exhibitions:
2016 / Ōmarunui / Parlour Projects / Hastings, Aotearoa New Zealand
MATÉRIEL
Out of the nothingness of night they tell
Our need of guns, our servitude to strife.
-Siegfried Sassoon
In the United States, where Rotman lives, weapons are pervasive and polarizing. For some, they represent freedom and hegemony, while for others, they mean damage and fear.
In this work, these efficient and utilitarian tools become vessels for both our aspirations and our fears. The finely detailed photographic studies strip the guns and bombs of rhetoric to expose the inherent tension in their being: that we have produced these things to kill ourselves.
2017 / Radio Interview / Taking a Shot - Guns as Art / Radio New Zealand
Out of the nothingness of night they tell
Our need of guns, our servitude to strife.
-Siegfried Sassoon
In the United States, where Rotman lives, weapons are pervasive and polarizing. For some, they represent freedom and hegemony, while for others, they mean damage and fear.
In this work, these efficient and utilitarian tools become vessels for both our aspirations and our fears. The finely detailed photographic studies strip the guns and bombs of rhetoric to expose the inherent tension in their being: that we have produced these things to kill ourselves.
Selected Media
2019 / Interview / Raw Matériel: in conversation with Jono Rotman / Emil McAvoy / Contemporary Hum2017 / Radio Interview / Taking a Shot - Guns as Art / Radio New Zealand
Exhibitions
2017 / Matériel / Gow Langsford / Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand
CHAMBERS
For the fate of a boobhead is
That men do him bind
And plant him in the digger
Till he goes out of his mind,
- James K. Baxter
Chambers responds to the idea that photography can transmit the psychic climate of an architectural environment.
Prisons and psychiatric hospitals are the acme of architectural control. As physical manifestations of ideology, heirachy and state control, they are among the purest expressions of power. These spaces force a specific set of experiences upon the inhabitants, whose cumulative emotional responses palpably steep the spaces’ atmosphere.
Produced between 2000 and 2005, Chambers is a comprehensive appraisal of the interiors of the prisons and psychiatric hospitals of Aotearoa New Zealand, both active and abandoned to ruin.
(100+ 8X10 colour negative interior studies + detail studies. First-person narratives.)
“The photographs chart an architecture of despair; they force the viewer to feel the psychological weight of spaces where normative behaviour is regulated.“
2001 / 01 Sep / Review / Aaron Lister / Art New Zealand / Issue 100
“Rotman’s rationale is empirical and his scope comprehensive..... Rotman desires the viewer experience what ‘they claim to know but have not seen’, to face our own assumptions and preconceptions regarding the actualities of imprisonment. His personal mission is to implant these ‘empty’ buildings and cells (and perhaps the sense of fear and horror they instill) onto individual consciousness, thereby inserting them into the collective psyche.”
2001 / Essay / Zara Stanhope / Parallel Worlds / Victoria University Press
“Rotman’s empty rooms are compelling for where they lead our imaginations. The spaces are heavy with narrative possibility and with the absence of humans, we attend to every detail of the room..... These photographs might allow us to come close to realising the potential of the institutional space as metaphor, a kind of echoing of the hollowed-out subjectivity that might reside within it.”
2005 / Essay / Kyla Mcfarlane / Still Present / Victoria University Press
“Every dark scratch and slash of light in these images is a mark of what is both absent and present. In 'Dayroom, Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital' rows of empty, picked-at chairs sit awaiting bodies, facing out of the frame while directly in front us the light glints off a large wall painting of a typical sublime New Zealand mountain landscape. It's this contradiction between imprisonment and transcendence that makes these images sing.”
2005 / Review / Mark Amery / The Dominion Post
“Rotman’s illuminated light boxes allowed us to experience the emptiness of banishment.”
2005 / Review / Andrea Bell / Un Magazine
2003 / Interiors. McNamara Gallery, Wanganui, Aotearoa New Zealand
2001 / Parallel Worlds. Adam Art Gallery, Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand & Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne, Australia
2001 / Art Futures. Pataka Gallery, Porirua, Aotearoa New Zealand.
For the fate of a boobhead is
That men do him bind
And plant him in the digger
Till he goes out of his mind,
- James K. Baxter
Chambers responds to the idea that photography can transmit the psychic climate of an architectural environment.
Prisons and psychiatric hospitals are the acme of architectural control. As physical manifestations of ideology, heirachy and state control, they are among the purest expressions of power. These spaces force a specific set of experiences upon the inhabitants, whose cumulative emotional responses palpably steep the spaces’ atmosphere.
Produced between 2000 and 2005, Chambers is a comprehensive appraisal of the interiors of the prisons and psychiatric hospitals of Aotearoa New Zealand, both active and abandoned to ruin.
(100+ 8X10 colour negative interior studies + detail studies. First-person narratives.)
Selected Media:
“The photographs chart an architecture of despair; they force the viewer to feel the psychological weight of spaces where normative behaviour is regulated.“
2001 / 01 Sep / Review / Aaron Lister / Art New Zealand / Issue 100
“Rotman’s rationale is empirical and his scope comprehensive..... Rotman desires the viewer experience what ‘they claim to know but have not seen’, to face our own assumptions and preconceptions regarding the actualities of imprisonment. His personal mission is to implant these ‘empty’ buildings and cells (and perhaps the sense of fear and horror they instill) onto individual consciousness, thereby inserting them into the collective psyche.”
2001 / Essay / Zara Stanhope / Parallel Worlds / Victoria University Press
“Rotman’s empty rooms are compelling for where they lead our imaginations. The spaces are heavy with narrative possibility and with the absence of humans, we attend to every detail of the room..... These photographs might allow us to come close to realising the potential of the institutional space as metaphor, a kind of echoing of the hollowed-out subjectivity that might reside within it.”
2005 / Essay / Kyla Mcfarlane / Still Present / Victoria University Press
“Every dark scratch and slash of light in these images is a mark of what is both absent and present. In 'Dayroom, Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital' rows of empty, picked-at chairs sit awaiting bodies, facing out of the frame while directly in front us the light glints off a large wall painting of a typical sublime New Zealand mountain landscape. It's this contradiction between imprisonment and transcendence that makes these images sing.”
2005 / Review / Mark Amery / The Dominion Post
“Rotman’s illuminated light boxes allowed us to experience the emptiness of banishment.”
2005 / Review / Andrea Bell / Un Magazine
Exhibitions:
2005 / Still Present: Exploring Psychiatric Institutions in Photography. Adam Art Gallery, Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand2003 / Interiors. McNamara Gallery, Wanganui, Aotearoa New Zealand
2001 / Parallel Worlds. Adam Art Gallery, Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand & Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne, Australia
2001 / Art Futures. Pataka Gallery, Porirua, Aotearoa New Zealand.
SORTILEGE
"Issues from the hand of time the simple soul..."
- T. S. Eliot
In the early 2010s I came upon scraps, in the New York Times and on the sidewalk, that seemed to augur the years ahead.
"Issues from the hand of time the simple soul..."
- T. S. Eliot
In the early 2010s I came upon scraps, in the New York Times and on the sidewalk, that seemed to augur the years ahead.
studio@jonorotman.com
Gow Langsford Gallery
26 Lorne St
Auckland, 1010
Aotearoa New Zealand
Ph: +64 9-303 9395
www.gowlangsfordgallery.co.nz
info@gowlangsfordgallery.co.nz
BIO:
Rotman (born 1974, Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand) is an artist working between Aotearoa New Zealand and the USA. He lives in San Francisco. Rotman’s work has been exhibited, and is represented in collections, in the USA, Europe and Australasia.
He is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship (2021), the Prix Du Livre Images Vevey (2018) and The Marti Friedlander Photographic Award (2013).
Rotman’s work is predicated on the idea that civilization is a delicate fiction. His practice focuses on the point at which different power structures meet: during the colonial process or at the collision of civilization and the natural world, for example. This often draws him to subjects on the edges of society. In Aotearoa New Zealand, his work has explored incarceration and gangs, leading to an interrogation of his own place, as a New Zealander of European descent, in the colonial history of the country. In the US, he touches on similar themes, exploring the shifting violent ingredients of the American empire.
CV:
SOLO EXHIBITIONS:
2017 / Matériel / Gow Langsford / Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand
2016 / Ōmarunui / Parlour Projects / Hastings, Aotearoa New Zealand
2016 / Mongrel Mob Portraits / Gow Langsford / Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand
2015 / Mongrel Mob Portraits / City Gallery / Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand
2014 / Mongrel Mob / Gow Langsford / Auckland / Aotearoa New Zealand
2005 / Interiors / McNamara Gallery / Wanganui, Aotearoa New Zealand
GROUP EXHIBITIONS:
2017 / Ōmarunui / MTG / Napier, Aotearoa New Zealand
2015 / Personalities: Fantasy and Identity in Photography and New Media / Palm Springs Art Museum, Palm Desert, USA
2005 / Still Present: Exploring Psychiatric Institutions in Photography / Adam Art Gallery, Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand
2001 / Parallel Worlds / Centre for Contemporary Photography / Melbourne, Australia
2001 / Parallel Worlds / Adam Art Gallery / Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand
2001 / Art Futures / Pataka Gallery / Porirua, Aotearoa New Zealand
PUBLICATIONS:
2018 / Mongrelism / Here Press, London / Images Vevey, Switzerland.
2015 / Jono Rotman; Mongrel Mob Portraits / A City Gallery Publication
2005 / Still Present / Victoria University Press
2001 / Parallel Worlds / Victoria University Press
GRANTS & AWARDS:
2021 / Guggenheim Fellowship
2017 / Prix Du Livre Images Vevey
2016 / Creative New Zealand Quick Response Grant
2013 / The Marti Friedlander Photographic Award
2004 / Creative New Zealand New Work Grant
COLLECTIONS:
2017 / MTG / Napier, Aotearoa New Zealand
2015 / The Waldman Family Trust, USA.
2014 / The Chartwell Collection, Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand 2003 / The Wellington City Council Art Collection, Aotearoa New Zealand
EDUCATION:
1994 / Wellington Polytechnic / Aotearoa New Zealand
1992 / Universidad Nacional de Cuyo / Mendoza, Argentina
2019 / 01 Sep / Review / Peter Black / PhotoForum
2019 / 15 Apr / Review / Olga Yatskevich / Collector Daily
2019 / 01 Mar / Review / Kathryn Webster / ArtNews New Zealand
2018 / 12 Dec / Press / Up close with New Zealand’s most notorious gang / Niall Flynn / Huck Magazine
2018 / 12 Oct / Interview / New Zealand’s Mongrel Mob gang, photographed by Jono Rotman / Allie Haeusslein / British Journal of Photography
2018 / 01 Sep / Essay / Jono Rotman: Our Enduring Image of Strength / Robert Leonard / Art Monthly Australasia
2017 / MATÉRIEL / 26 July - 19 August, Gow Langsford, Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand
2019 / 10 Jul / Interview / Raw Matériel: in conversation with Jono Rotman / Emil McAvoy / Contemporary Hum
2017 / 06 Aug / Radio Interview / Taking a Shot - Guns as Art / Radio New Zealand
2017 / PRIX DU LIVRE IMAGES VEVEY / Vevey, Switzerland
2017 / 30 Apr / Press / Announcement Video / Images Vevey
2017 / 30 Apr / Press / Announcement / Images Vevey
2016 / ŌMARUNUI / Parlour Projects / 05 October - 05 November / Hastings, Aotearoa New Zealand
2017 / 11 Apr / Press / Hawke’s Bay Museums Trusts Acquires Significant Works / MTG
2016 / 01 Nov / Opinion / Matthew Mullany: Looking back to look forward / Hawkes Bay Today
2016 / 05 Oct / Essay / Ōmarunui: Artist Statement and He Kupu Whakamihi / Jono Rotman
2016 / 05 Oct / Essay / Narrations and Perspectives / Denis O'Rielly
2016 / 05 Oct / Essay / The Natural Order of Things / Brett Graham
2016 / 05 Oct / Essay / Ōmarunui: Present Tense / Peter Ireland
2016 / MONGREL MOB PORTRAITS / Gow Langsford / 23 March - 16 April / Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand
2016 / 25 May / Interview / Some/talk : Jono Rotman / Some/things Magazine
2016 / 23 Mar / Press / Mongrel Mob portraits show another side to gang / Newshub
2015 / MONGREL MOB PORTRAITS / City Gallery / 14 March - 14 June / Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand
2016 / 01 May / Essay / Prospects / Robert Leonard
2016 / 19 Jan / Essay / Matariki Williams: Being brown in your gallery / Tusk Culture
2015 / 18 Apr / Opinion / Claire Adele Baker: Is your gallery actually inclusive of brown minorities? / Tusk Culture
2015 / 11 Aug / Press / Kriminelle Straßengang - ganz privat / Süddeutsche Zeitung
2015 / 26 Jun / Interview / Gangster en Aotearoa / JOIA Magazine
2015 / 17 Jun / Press / Stunning Portraits of Members of the Mighty Mongrel Mob / ABC News
2015 / 10 Jun / Press / Evocative Photos Highlight New Zealand's Largest Street Gang / Huffington Post
2015 / 11 Jun / Press / Close-Up: Jono Rotman Inside the Mongrel Mob / American Photography
2015 / 15 Jun / Press / New Zealand's most notorious gang / CNN
2015 / 11 Jun / Press / Staring death in the face: Haunting portraits of Mighty Mongrel Mob / Daily Mail
2015 / 16 Jun / Press / Die Gesichter der berüchtigtsten Gang Neuseelands / Stern
2015 / 17 Jun / Press / Devant L'Objectif: Gueules de Gang / Paris-Match
2015 / 29 May / Interview / These Stunning Photos of New Zealand's Largest Gang Will Give You Sleepless Nights / Vice
2015 / 19 Apr / Review / Mongrel Mob Portraits at City Gallery / Eye Contact
2015 / 14 Mar / Essay & Catalogue / Jono Rotman; Mongrel Mob Portraits / Aaron Lister / A City Gallery Publication
2015 / 09 Mar / Press / Mob Mentality / The Dominion Post
2015 / 28 Feb / Press / Killer's portrait to hang in victim's hometown / The Dominion Post
2014 / MONGREL MOB / Gow Langsford Gallery / 30 April - 24 May / Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand
2014 / 18 May / Press / Art of shock draws a crowd / The New Zealand Herald
2014 / 12 May / Opinion / Controversy and contradictions / Waikato Times
2014 / 12 May / Review / Art • Rotman Exhibition / Craccum Magazine
2014 / 10 May / Review / T.J. McNamara: A sharp emotional response / The New Zealand Herald
2014 / 09 May / Opinion / Reframing gang culture: humanising the inhuman? / The Daily Blog
2014 / 06 May / Opinion / Linda Hall: Why on earth glorify a gang? / Hawke's Bay Today
2014 / 06 May / Press / Gang photos pull in the crowds / The New Zealand Herald
2014 / 06 May / Television / Mongrel Mob photographer refuses grieving father's plea / TVNZ Seven Sharp
2014 / 05 May / Opinion / Mob portraits a partial picture / Waikato Times
2014 / 01 May / Opinion / The Sensible Sentencing Trust and the art of portraiture / A communist at large
2014 / 01 May / Press / Family to meet photographer over portrait / The New Zealand Herald
2014 / 30 Apr / Press / Gallery stands firm over murder accused's image despite criticism / The New Zealand Herald
2014 / 30 Apr / Opinion / I’ll Have My Art Like I Have My Porridge / Arthur Meek
2014 / 30 Apr / Opinion / Paul Moon: Portraits fall back on shock value / The New Zealand Herald
2014 / 29 Apr / Press / Art or insult? Accused killer in show / The New Zealand Herald
2014 / 29 Apr / Television / Mongrel Mob exhibition attracts controversy / TVNZ Te Karere
2014 / 29 Apr / Television / Mongrel mob photo exhibition sparks backlash / TVNZ One News
2014 / 29 Apr / Television / The faces of the Mongrel Mob – still art for art’s sake? / TVNZ Seven Sharp
2014 / 26 Apr / Press / Mongrel Mob framed - in a new exhibition / The New Zealand Herald
2005 / STILL PRESENT / Adam Art Gallery / 13 May - 17 July / Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand
2005 / 01 Jul / Review / Andrea Bell / Un Magazine
2005 / 20 May / Review / Mark Amery / The Dominion Post
2005 / 13 May / Essay / Kyla Mcfarlane / Still Present / Victoria University Press
2001 / PARALLEL WORLDS / Adam Art Gallery / 23 June - 29 July / Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand / CCP / 27 April – 26 May / Melbourne, Australia
2001 / 01 Sep / Review / Aaron Lister / Art New Zealand / Issue 100
2001 / 23 Jun / Essay / Zara Stanhope / Parallel Worlds / Victoria University Press
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