KAZ - The Photography of Frank Kazukaitis 1942 - 1999

12 November 1999 - 28 January 2000

For more than sixty years Kaz (Frank Kazukaitus) has taken photographs documenting his experience of places and events where-ever he has lived or travelled throughout the world.

Born in St Louis Missouri in 1927 to Lithuanian immigrant parents Kaz developed an interest in photography at an early age. His first real camera was a prize in a competition for you listeners of a Bob Hope Show.

The earliest image in this exhibition is of a street scene in St Louis in 1942 the year the US entered WWII. Objects including an old car destined for recycling for the war effort is the main focus in the foreground. Kaz was just 15 and still at High School.

In 1945 he joined the navy and as a stevedore was shipped out to Guam. The following year when a vacancy came available on the Navy News for a photo-lithographer Kaz felt that it was just right for him. At first his application was not taken seriously but persistence won through and he was appointed.

At this his photography involved long hours not only documenting the activities of the navy on Guam both at work and play but also the aftermath of the second world war and the trying of Japanese war criminals.

Kaz was based at Guam until 1947 which he spent the next two years on roving photographic assignments in the Pacific then in January 1950 he joined the crew on USS Burton Island with operation Micro X in the Arctic. It was on this mission that he secured some remarkable images of sea ad ice not without considerable risk to his life.

This term of duty was followed by a posting to United Nations Command Headquarters based at Kaesong Korea to cover the war that had broken out on 25 June 1950.

Between 1950 and 1953 as Chief naval photographer Kaz witnessed and photographed many aspects of the Korean conflict and its effect not only on American marine forces but also the civilian population of North and South Korea.

In 1952 and 1953 he documented prisoner exchanges and later the United Nations peace negotiations and when only one US navy photographer was permitted by the North Koreans to be present at the signing ceremony of the armistice agreement between the US and North Korea Kaz was selected by a large number of other media photographers, such was their regard for his work.

In 1951 Kaz had three photographs included in an exhibition of Official navy photographs held at the Museum of Modern Arts New York the photograph Interpreter and Rear Admiral CC Hartman and his Chief of Staff aboard USS Helena 1950 was acquired by the museum for its collection. It was an image admired by the famed US photographer Edward Steichen.

After the peace and naval withdrawal Kaz remained on in Korea for some time photographing the effects of the war. During 1956-57 he was assigned to Detachment Bravo of VAP-61 stationed in Thailand taking aerial photographs for mapping purposes. He also toured the countryside around Bangkok taking photographs.

In 1958 Kaz volunteered for Operation Deep Freeze and Joined the VX-6 Squadron for the 1958-59 season wintering over at McMurdo Sound. He arrived in Christchurch in October 1958 before going South for the next 17 months. In March 1960 he returned to Christchurch but during 1961 1962 1963 went back to Antarctica to do summer support work on the staff of Commander US Navy Support Force. As a result of his activity on the ice Kaz had a mountain in Antarctica named after him.

Kaz returned to the United States in 1963 and from 1964 to 1968 was based at the US Photographic Centre Washington DC. In 1965 he was seconded to the White House for several months as official photographer to President Johnson"s wife Ladybird. It was during that time that he was offered a permanent White House position but declined and soon after returned to the US photographic Centre as Chief Photographer. In 1968 he retired from the US Navy and decided to come back to Christchurch to live. He joined the team of Television New Zealand"s Canterbury regional television unit as a cameraman and remained until its demise in the late 1980s when he retired.

Since the 1970s Kaz has travelled overseas regularly photographing in China, India, Egypt, Turkey, Greece, Latvia, United States, South America and the Pacific. He has also captured during that time some unique imagery in Canterbury and Westland.

In September 1995 Kaz held the first major exhibition of his work titled "Visions of the Ice" as part of the US Navy"s 40th anniversary celebrations of "Operation Deep Freeze". Three years later Operation Deep Freeze closed, Kaz was at the closing ceremony and unofficially took photographs one of which is in this exhibition.

A total of 153 photographs comprise this exhibition taken by Kaz from 1942 to 1998 of these 46 are concerned with the Korean War which has its 50th anniversary approaching in June of 2000. Although many photographs were taken during that conflict by Kaz and his fellow photographers many images in this exhibition are only extant of events and individual both Korean and American that survived.

Neil Roberts

This exhibition was held at the Robert McDougall Art Gallery in the Botanic Gardens.