Laurence Aberhart

Laurence Geoffrey Aberhart (born 1949) is a New Zealand photographer.

Aberhart was born in Nelson in 1949, along with three siblings, and was educated at Nelson College from 1963 to 1966. He moved to Lyttelton in the late 1960s, before finally moving to Russell where he still lives and works today. Aberhart travels often and has produced many collections of photographs taken around the world. Although he photographs numerous subjects, Aberhart is best known for his photography of buildings from around the world. His subject matter includes Masonic lodges, war memorials, houses and the occasional landscape. However, when he was typecast as a building photographer, Aberhart took a series of human portraits to debunk the stereotype.

Aberhart trained to become a primary teacher and it was around that time when he first became interested in photography by reading the photographic books on display and seeing a friend working in the darkroom. Aberhart taught himself photography. After finishing his teaching course, he was posted in Northland. This was his only posting as a teacher and soon after he took up photography seriously. Aberhart has three children, who were the subject of a series of photographs in the 1980s, but is unmarried.

Aberhart's work is prominent in New Zealand and he is often seen as one of the forefathers of New Zealand's contemporary photographic history. He has been featured in many photographic exhibitions since 1978; his work has been shown in museums across the globe, including Australia, the U.S. and France. In addition to numerous photographic exhibitions across New Zealand, Aberhart was Artist In Residence at the Tylee Cottage Residency, Wanganui in 1986 and the Dunedin Public Art Gallery in the late 1990s.

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