Adrienne Martyn

Martyn grew up in Invercargill.^[1] In the 1960s she moved to Dunedin and worked in a photographic studio darkroom, before moving to Sydney, where she worked as a freelance photographer and a darkroom technician for the Sydney Morning Herald.^[1] Returning to Dunedin in the 1970s, she worked as a photograph processor at the Otago Daily Times, and took a course at the Dunedin School of Art. Her first solo show was held at Bosshard Gallery on Princes Street.^[1]

Martyn is an acclaimed New Zealand photographer.^[2] She is known for her black-and-white portraiture of other New Zealand artists, with her best-known works including portraits of artist Joanna Paul. Her works have been collected by the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa,^[3] Auckland Art Gallery,^[4] and Dunedin Public Art Gallery.^[5][6] Her portraiture work was the focus of an exhibition by the Dunedin Public Art Gallery in 1988.^[7]

In 1999 Martyn was the inaugural recipient of the Samuel Marsden Collegiate School artist in residence programme and was the artist in residence at the Waikato Museum in 2000.^[8][9] In 2007 Martyn held a solo exhibit at the City Gallery Wellington.^[9]

Martyn's recent work has shifted to concentrate on studies of interiors of empty buildings, as exemplified by her 2018 series "The Times" and "Bank".^[10] In March 2018 she held a solo exhibition at the Invercargill Public Art Gallery entitled "Shift" in which she exhibited photographs taken of the interior of Anderson House.^[2][11][12]