‘Are We There Yet?’

I love this story.

There was this exhibition called ‘Are We There Yet?’ that celebrated the 125th anniversary of women’s suffrage in Aotearoa and which asked ‘but how far has New Zealand really come since women gained the vote?’

I was asked if it was OK to include me and I said yes imagining it was some tin pot gallery with ten photos desperate for anyone who’d agree to take part. ‘Who’d want me’ imposter syndrome stuff. I cobbled together some bio and got Cushla to take a photo and sent it in.

We were overseas for the launch, so it wasn’t until I got back that I learnt it was a bit bigger than I’d imagined. My good mate Rachel Cleary took me to see it at the Auckland War Memorial Museum and it was huge, an important exhibition and I hadn’t realized.

This pic is emblematic of our marriage – Cushla ignoring all the stuff about her famous wife but instead pointing out the credit acknowledging that she took the photo – how good is that? I don’t mean she’s ignoring me or anything I’ve achieved – she’s my greatest fan – but it’s the way she keeps me grounded without intending to. She has very little overt ego and she manages it so well whereas mine manages me. She’s so very, very cool. I also love this photo of hers, so I use it a lot.

She’s very talented with a camera and has taken some amazing pics of our family doing important (to us) sports stuff all around the world whereas my photos are uniformly bad. I happily label myself ‘the worst photographer on the planet’ and have yet to have anyone leap to disagree. She is so fucking wonderful – and reposting this is me acknowledging her special place during Lesbian Visibility Week. Love her to absolutely delicious bits!