Artists

Nicola Thorne is a fine art documentary photographer living and working in Charteris Bay, Lyttelton Harbour. 

She earned her BFA (Hons) at the Ilam School of Fine Arts, University of Canterbury Christchurch in 2018. Nicola was the recipient of the Grant Lingard Scholarship in 2017.

It was during her University studies that she developed a strong passion in researching and documenting contemporary New Zealand women. 

Photographing with intention and building relationships with people, Nicola documents the historical, cultural and social dynamics of the everyday New Zealander.

Growing up in the North Canterbury town of Rangiora, Nicola’s experiences as a farmer, wife and mother for 35 years in rural mid and central Canterbury stood in her the perfect position to document the lives of New Zealand rural working women, and so her body of work, Not Just Tea and Scones, was made. 

This work fed her soul. She could whole-heartedly relate to the women she interviewed and photographed over the many visits spent with them and this relationship shows in her photographs. She prefers to work with black and white photographs as she feels this strengthens and intensifies the importance of the subject.

Her previous documentary projects include: 

Edgewise, a visual research project of retirement in Diamond Harbour, 2016

Not Just Tea and Scones, a study of New Zealand working rural women, 2017

International Arrivals, an insight into the lives of five recent immigrants to post-earthquake Christchurch, 2018. 

Nicola had her first solo exhibition, Peninsula Women, at Stoddart Cottage in Diamond Harbour in May 2022. She continues to interview and photograph for her current documentary photography project with the working title Extra Ordinary Women.