Focal advocate
A hot summer’s night in Auckland, 1972. Drag queens stalk bars on Karangahape Road, all vertiginous platforms and backcombed wigs. Gay and transgender people also stare out from mostly black and white images, some grinning, others talking animatedly.
These images are the work of iconic photographer Fiona Clark, who has spent her career recording particular places and times in Aotearoa’s history.
In the 1980s, for example, Fiona’s camera gazed upon the lives – and tragic deaths – of people with HIV and Aids. Later, she switched her lens to New Zealand’s burgeoning bodybuilding subculture.
What her subjects have in common, says 67-year-old Fiona, is that they are the socially marginalised, the “freaks” and those to whom society isn’t particularly kind.
Her remarkable body of work is captured by the new documentary , which premieres at this year’s New Zealand International Film Festival (NZIFF). In it, Fiona
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