Jane Ussher - Ockhams 2021 Finalist, talks to Millie Blackwell

MB: You've been a winner in 2014 and you've been nominated a few other times as well.

JU: Making the shortlist is always special, because we're doing some great illustrated books in New Zealand, and so it's extremely competitive. You always think the work you've done is good, but whether it resonates enough for people to want to short list? I'm always surprised.

MB: Tell me about the photography process for the book.

JU: I spent half a day with each conservator of each department and that's when we picked a list of the things that we thought would be applicable, interesting and exciting for me to photograph. Then I came back and spent at least two days with each conservator, photographing the things that we had chosen. You're actually pulling out trays from cupboards, so you were very reliant on the fact that the conservators are showing you what they think you might be interested in. We listed the potential 30 objects from each department. Then when I came back, that's when I had to be extremely agile in terms of the way I was thinking about photographing each setting, because that was the first time I was able to get the conservator to remove a single object or to remove a collection of objects and place them down. That's when I started thinking about the composition, because up until then, I'd just seen trays of objects and had lots of numbers.

Once you're working with any of the museums, you're reliant on the conservators who are wearing gloves; they're your hands. I was shooting what they call tethered, so when I took a photo, it would come up on the screen, so the conservators could see what I was seeing through the lens and then they could move it around to the place that I wanted to, but I wasn't allowed to touch anything.

MB: Was there anything that you've shot that has been left out of the book, or did everything make it into the final book?

JU: The initial list expanded, because once the conservators started seeing what I was achieving. They really got excited and started bringing in more and more things that they thought would photograph beautifully. There were no images that were left out. I may have shot some things one or two ways, but every object that was placed in front of me ended up in the book.

MB: How did you decide on the scale, the size and format of the book?

JU: We wanted this book to be modest and intimate. It was never going to be a thick, lavish, coffee table volume. It was always going to be something that people could hold in their hands and read easily. That was in my head when I was photographing and the minute we handed it over to Arch MacDonnell at Inhouse Design, he was even thinking it could have been smaller in size than it is. We all ended up thinking that the size that you're seeing in front of you, was appropriate.

Nicola Leggat, who's the publisher of Te Papa Press, was with me when I first saw the specimens in the basement; it was with her encouragement and help that we got Te Papa to come on board with the project.

The conservators, once they saw what we were achieving, could not have been more helpful.

Then it was taken to Inhouse Design, Arch MacDonnell and his team treated it as if it was their own project, with the way that they did the colour wheel. One of their designers actually created a typeface and the endpapers.

I think if it had been any bigger, people may not have gone to the back to read what the conservators had written about each image. These small essays add so much to the whole. I'm really delighted, because I always think bigger is better, and in this case I think smaller is better.

MB: Speaking of the endpapers, is the image in the end papers a marbling effect, or is it an abstract from one of your photos?

JU: It's a marbling effect . This book was being designed when we were on Level 4 lockdown. One of the designers had the time and the interest to start looking at colours and papers and so he created this endpaper.

MB: In the review that I did of your book, I suggested this could be for adults and children because I could have imagined myself as a kid making sketches of these animals.

JU: This is a book for books lovers, people that are interested in natural history,  in good design and have a curious mind.

I think people that only look at the photos are missing out on a huge amount of knowledge. The curators are probably better known for quite scientific descriptions of the images. In this book they've been far more conversational so people need to look at the images and then go back and read what the conservator has written about them. It's a really multi-layered book. A lot of illustrated books, once you've looked at the images and read the captions and maybe read the preface, that's the book as a whole. With this book, the essays at the back add so much depth and colour.

When you're talking about young readers, I can imagine a parent or a grandparent showing a child one of the images and then reading these little essays to them. Because of the way they're written, the kids will be entranced.

MB: I have a lot of pencils in my shop  and wood pencils are generally an area of interest for me, so I do like to ask artists if pencils feature in any part of your work or your process.

JU: I love wooden pencils. We've got eight hens and when they occasionally lay us an egg, we write the date on it in pencil. 

MB: That's the most original answer I've had to that question, thank you Jane.

JU: Okay, well, this is even better. Out of the eight hens we've got, we're lucky if we get one egg every two days.

MB: You don't have to sharpen that pencil very often!

JU: Not at all, so there's your pencil answer.

MB: When you're working do you listen to music? If you do, what kind of music do you like to work to?

JU: I often don't listen to music, because I'm very, very fussy about what I listen to. I listen to a lot of opera, so I know that it's divisive. If I'm left to my devices and I had a choice to put music on, it would be classical, choral or opera.

MB: What is your favourite illustrated non-fiction book?

JU: Well, I'm going to say this one. At the moment I think Nature - Stilled is the perfect book for this time when there's so much uncertainty. The reason it struck a chord with other people, but certainly with me, is it's a quiet place to be.

—

See Millie’s video review for a look inside the pages of Nature - Stilled.