Jane Ussher

Philippa Jane Ussher (born 1953) is a New Zealand documentary and portrait photographer. She joined the New Zealand Listener in 1977 and was chief photographer for 29 years, leaving to take up a career as a freelance photographer and author.

Exhibitions and publications Jane Ussher was born in Dunedin in 1953. She studied photography at Wellington Polytechnic from 1975–76, and was the first student to be offered a second-year scholarship. The first camera she owned was a Hasselblad, using 24-image 120 film, purchased off a fellow student.

Ussher joined the staff of the Listener in 1977 as chief photographer, and over nearly 30 years documented New Zealand culture. This success led to a prolific career mainly focusing on portrait photography, some collected in the book Jane Ussher Portraits, launched in 2004 to coincide with the Listener'''s 65th anniversary. The book includes many acclaimed portraits from the Listener of major New Zealand figures, ranging from sport stars (Jonah Lomu, Edmund Hillary), to prime ministers (Helen Clark, David Lange, Robert Muldoon) to actors such as Russell Crowe, Sam Neill. She continued to shoot on film while at the Listener'', despite the cost, and was a relatively late adopter of digital photography. The book was launched by then New Zealand Prime Minister John Key October 2010. In 2017 she was invited to speak on her Antarctic photography at TEDxScottBase, an event broadcast worldwide.

Ussher uses a Hasselblad medium-format digital camera, on a tripod with long exposures, preferring to shoot outside in natural light.

Books

(Finalist in the 2011 New Zealand Post Book Awards: Illustrated Non-Fiction)

(Winner in the 2014 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards: Illustrated Non-Fiction)

(Longlisted for the 2017 New Zealand Post Book Awards) (Longlisted for the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards)

(Shortlisted for 2021 Ockham New Zealand book awards)

(Longlisted for 2021 Ockham New Zealand book awards)

(Shortlisted for 2024 ReadingRoom literary awards)

Personal life Ussher is married to publisher Grant Gallagher and has a son; she lives in Auckland. In the 2009 Queen's Birthday Honours, Ussher was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to photography Inducted in 2009 into the Massey University hall of fame