New Zealand artist Heather Straka applies her distinctive theatrical imagination and seductive, lush photographic style to her new photographic series, Age of Discovery. Her painter’s sensibility creates a scene that wouldn’t be out of place in an old 1930s film or mystery novel: an elegant and dramatic world inhabited by a cast of sophisticated strangers.

Straka’s images give the striking impression of a richly costumed play or a series of elaborate, eerie film stills. Age of Discovery celebrates identity and ambiguity, while exploring themes of social concern and political subtext. Each character has a detailed backstory to guess at, but their secrets remain just out of reach.