Box of Light is made possible thanks to these visionaries:
The New Zealand Geographic Photographer of the Year awards are an unrivalled celebration of editorial photography here in New Zealand. It's a huge thing so to have an image as a finalist in the portrait category is quite special. My mate and fellow surf photographer Oscar Hetherington had two images make the final. Every year I look at the collection of finalists with amazement. The quality of work produced by the talented collection of photographers is outstanding and many of them are not even professional photographers.
The exhibition takes over a whole block of Britomart with all the finalists' images displayed in large scale inside and outside under the canopy of lights. They also appear on billboards throughout Auckland.
It's a great reset and inspiration for me. It was nice to share that feeling with Oscar and the rest of the 140 or so photographers and their families who attended the awards evening in Auckland this past Thursday. It was also nice to see some young photographers coming through with Louis Macalister winning Sony Young Photographer of the Year with a full set of amazing images making the finalist stage – and each one shot on film.
The big gong – Nikon Photographer of the Year was won by Canterbury photographer Joe Harrison. He had an incredible shot of giant pink marshmallows sitting in a Canterbury field among a selection of understated, yet powerful images showing our unfiltered New Zealand life. And he is quite a character.
To check out all the finalists, and to give yourself a dose of inspiration, get down to your local bookstore and find the November/December issue of New Zealand Geographic – it is the one with the very angry-looking scaup (diving duck) on the cover. That's a shot by Simon Runting – one of the greats.
This week I have some images from my adventures around Auckland and a couple of cranking waves from when I got back home.
See you at the beach ... Derek
PS We are shipping our books and tea towels all over the country. If you buy New Zealand's Best Gourmet Pies book and the special road trip tea towel, you'll automatically get the Pie Lover's Combo and save $4. Get those Christmas gifts sorted.
Box of Light is made possible thanks to these visionaries: