Civilisation, Photography, Now

Tightly packed crowds, busy streets and skies filled with planes feature among the more than 200 photographs from around the world taken for an exhibition that was launched before the Covid-19 era of social distancing. In fact the opening of Civilisation, Photography, Now at Auckland Art Gallery had to be postponed because of lockdown. But now we're at Level One we finally get a chance to see the exhibition. But in fact, the exhibition has gained a new meaning. Many of the images are very pre-Covid-19. We've seen what that world looks like when it starts to fall apart - when the systems of modern civilisation presented a huge risk to us Curator William A Ewing had planned to be here for the opening, before that option was closed to him. Instead, Lynn Freeman talks to him in Switzerland.