Milk of human kindness

New Zealand publisher Geoff Blackwell had an audacious dream: to compile an international collection of photographs celebrating human relationships. CARROLL DU CHATEAU reports.

It seems ironic, fitting even, that Geoff Blackwell's dream - to run an international photography competition recording for all time man's humanity to man - would be launched in the middle of the worst terrorist activity the world has ever known. Precisely two months before the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, his 1000-image exhibition opened in Grand Central Station New York.

Five days before the first missiles were fired into Afghanistan, a reluctant Blackwell left his wife and three children at home in Epsom to launch the second stage of his project with a $2 million exhibition at the Science Museum in London.

Speaking after his arrival in London, Blackwell was excited about the reception his idea received in a Britain subdued by the threat of war. He says that the typically phlegmatic English were so moved by the images of love, family and kinship they actually allowed themselves to show emotion. "There were tears all round - an amazing response," he says.

It is a rare person who would not be moved by the result of Blackwell's effort. His project is called M.I.L.K. which stands for Moments of Intimacy, Laughter and Kinship. His mission: to capture, in photographic form, a snapshot of people's daily moments of living from all over the world, then run them as exhibitions, and a series of photographic books right down to cards, baby record books and calendars.

There is nothing about war in this exhibition - but it says myriads about love, enduring devotion, humour and the human condition. After three years of calling for, then sifting through, photographs from 164 countries, Blackwell and his team have come up with a compilation of the most sincere images of humanity since the Museum of Modern Art put together its Family of Man exhibition, backed by the Magnum group of photographers, in 1955.

A riffle through his first book produced from photographs selected from the competition inevitably produces the same result - silence at first, then the odd gasp, and lastly ripples of laughter as the images, from old men with tiny babies to a couple snogging on a park bench, to a pair of identical twins of probably 60, photographed in Prague, burn into the emotions. Says Blackwell, "We wanted images to remind people to cherish their loved ones and family."

At 36, Blackwell reflects his own project. Nothing is too much trouble. The atmosphere in his Parnell office is like the man himself, friendly, comfortable, super sincere - and drop dead cool.

Every detail is manicured to perfection. The photographs on the walls - chosen from the 40,000 competition entries - are framed in brushed stainless steel. The frosted glass and wood doors leading into his office in the stylish Axis building in Parnell must be almost 3m high. The wood and stainless steel coffee table is on rollers, the laptop on the desk as slim as a sandwich, the carpet thick charcoal. Even the water glasses are beautiful.

But that is just the way Geoff Blackwell is - stylish without being pretentious, successful yet so sincere he was able to convince Hodder Headline publishers to spend $5 million on his big idea - probably the most adventurous and expensive publishing venture in New Zealand history.

"It all started six years ago when I saw the Magnum book," says Blackwell, settling just a little into the cushy black simulated-leather sofa. "It had been put out by the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Edward Steichen had been commissioned to put together a collection of images that portrayed the oneness of humanity with the emphasis on relationships. It was the most popular exhibition of all time.

"And that book changed my life."

For some time Blackwell had been casting around for a publishing venture to pursue. His father, John Blackwell, had sold Moa Beckett, the family company, to British-based Hodder Headline and promptly retired. Blackwell jun wanted his own challenge.

So, after thinking it over, he put together a proposal for his boss, Tim Hely Hutchison, the chief executive of Hodder Headline publishers in London. "We went all the way," he remembers. "We bound the proposal up in raw silk, really tried to create something." And then he made the call: "I want to come and see you for what will be the most important meeting of my life."

"It was scary stuff," he continues. "I wouldn't have done it if I hadn't had money in there. I actually felt like running away and hiding."

Blackwell need not have worried. His request for $5 million - "a lot of money for one project even in the world of UK publishing" - was accepted. "His [Hely Hutchison's] response was amazing. He took me out to the Ivy [a flash London restaurant] for lunch. I can still remember him saying 'you do it'. We decided on a joint venture and I agreed to work for nothing."

Next step was to work out a format for the idea. The more experienced Hely Hutchison rejected Blackwell's plan of commissioning 30 top-flight photographers to go out and find the right images. "He actually thought that was a terrible idea," smiles Blackwell ruefully. "Competitions like that are greeted with a great deal of suspicion by photographers. He also thought that we couldn't hope to get either the spontaneity or geographic spread we were after - we wouldn't get real stories about real-life people."

So the two designed a way to pull together a genuine, international and valid snapshot of life and relationships at the beginning of the third millennium.

"Six people worked for a year researching, approaching both amateur and professional photography groups in every country in the world. The first 100 were a relative piece of cake. Beyond that, as we moved into countries like Mayotte, Sierra Leone and PNG it became more challenging."

Next problem was finding a judge considered credible by the photography profession. "This was key," says Blackwell. "We came up with Elliott Erwitt, one of the original Magnum photographers who was - and still is - a legend among photographers." The prize pool was set at $US750,000 and the search began.

"We expected a deluge of entries," says Blackwell. "We hired a warehouse, the milkshed, set up staff - and nothing happened. I was beside myself. I couldn't sleep ... then three months into it, a trickle started, then we were getting sacks of mail" as photographs from Pulitzer prize-winning professionals to gifted amateurs came flooding in.

Next steps were whittling the 40,000 entries down to 1000, organising the exhibitions, the first in New York, the second in London, then choosing the final 100 images and putting together the books.

Typically, they had to be of finest quality - hard-backed, elegantly produced, the images perfect.

The first book, Family which costs $90, was launched in New York in July, the second, Friendship, in London on October 3. Both immediately moved on to the non-fiction best-seller lists. Family is in its second printing in New Zealand and, says Blackwell, "is going well in the States, on the best-seller list in Australia and sold out in the UK. And they're signing up for licenses all round the world."

Does this mean he's pulled off one of the most audacious ideas in New Zealand publishing history? The grey-blue eyes crinkle round the corners, the wide mouth starts to lift, "Hopefully. I'll let you know when I get back from London."

Later, on a cellphone that keeps cutting out, he tells me the good news. "It [the exhibition] was a huge success. They ran a double page spread in the Times. The Science Museum has extended the exhibition for another month ... " Most unexpected of all, "people cried."