Adidas Japan
Peter Bush
Coinciding with the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan, the exhibition in collaboration with Adidas Japan surveyed the All Blacks, New Zealand’s male rugby union team and the most successful international sporting team of all time, maintaining a 77% win rate since their formation in 1903. Established in 1999, the All Blacks and Adidas relationship is one of the longest standing international sporting sponsorships of all time.
To commemorate this auspicious moment in sporting history AG Global and Adidas Japan produced a custom exhibition featuring images of the All Blacks from the 1950s - 2000s, a video broadcast of the All Blacks’ legendary “haka,” as well as an artist interview with Peter Bush regaling stories from on and off the field.
Exhibition Background
MANA
In Māori culture, mana is honor. For the All Blacks and many New Zealanders, to have mana is to have one of the highest honors bestowed upon a person.
Drawing upon the Māori concept of mana, the exhibition surveys the All Blacks, New Zealand’s male rugby union team and the most successful international sporting team of all time, maintaining a 77% win rate since their formation in 1903.
Peter Bush photographed his first rugby union test match in 1949 for the New Zealand Herald. Over the course of six decades, Bush photographed hundreds of matches both in New Zealand and overseas. No other photographer has had such privileged access to the All Blacks, matching their strides on and off the field. In the days before digital content was available to the world at large, Bush’s images were some of the first photographs seen by local fans of far off matches.
Bush’s iconic photographs include those of All Blacks legends: Sir Colin Meads, Ian Kirkpatrick, Graham Mourie, Jonah Lomu and Dan Carter. His work also charts historic time periods and farcical weather conditions, from Apartheid South Africa and 1970s Northern Ireland, to the highly controversial 1981 Springboks tour of New Zealand and the infamous “Mud Men” match.
Bush captures the All Blacks’ tenacity, team dynamic and sheer athleticism that has led to their unprecedented dominance on the international field. He vividly demonstrates why the All Blacks are regarded as men of mana. And as the man who has spent a career photographing them, this is a mantle Bush too deserves.
