Duncan Winder: Interior Photography As Self-portrait

The life of architect-turned-photographer Duncan Winder remains largely a mystery despite his serious contribution to our local architectural culture and history. In this talk architectural historian Peter Wood, shares insights he has gleaned from his research into the photography of Duncan Winder. With no known photographs existing of Winder himself, of interest to Wood, is Winder’s determination to remain behind the lens only ever appearing in frame as shadows and, on occasion, a blurred reflection. By exploring Winder’s interior photography, Wood considers the potential to explore the biography of the photographer. Through his approach to Winder’s House interior, study – on view in Duncan Winder: architectural photographs – as a knowing self-portrait by the photographer, Wood draws us into an interrogation of the visual scene for evidence of Winder's inner world.


Peter Wood is Senior Lecturer in Architecture (History & Theory) at Te Kura Waihanga Wellington School of Architecture at Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington. Wood’s current research is concerned with geometric principles active in the design methodologies of the early modernist architects. Also a photographer, Wood is regular contributor to ArchitectureNow and Architectural History Aotearoa, where his paper Study of the Photographer as a Study: Looking Inside Duncan Winder's Home (sometime between c1962 and 1965) was published in 2022.

Free, all welcome, no booking required.

Image: Duncan Winder, House Interior, study, c. 1962-1970, framed archival pigment print. Ref: DW-5162-F, Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand.