British artist John Stezaker and the art of collage

He's a great example of an artist hanging in there, waiting for their big break. For British artist John Stezaker the break came in 2011 when he held a retrospective of work he's been producing since the 1970s. John cuts out images from the past - actor head-shots, film stills and vintage postcards - then creates collages that are often disturbing and genre-bending. His first exhibition in New Zealand, Lost World, is showing at the City Gallery Wellington, before traveling to the Govett Brewster in New Plymouth and the Christchurch Art Gallery. He tells Lynn Freeman that even after all these year of cutting up photographs, it still sometimes feels like he's cutting through flesh: