NEWS RELEASE

Monday, March 3, 2008

Photographers light up the night

Auckland Festival of Photography 2008 is delighted to announce an advance highlight in this year’s festival - Manukau Light Night – the regional launch of its 5th ‘milestone’ season on 30 May 2008. The Festival runs from 30 May to 22 June 2008.

The first such event in New Zealand, Manukau Light Night will project work by ten of New Zealand’s foremost contemporary photographers onto Manukau City’s Civic Centre and Kotuku House viewable from Manukau Square.

Christopher Johnstone, “Manukau Light Night” curator and producer, says each of the photographers is delighted to participate in Manukau Light Night because of its uniqueness.

“Projecting work to such an extreme size shows it to a dramatically vivid and powerful effect, giving each photographer a unique opportunity to provide a series of images rising to that challenge.”

“Manukau Light Night” will be a combined programme with images of Manukau taken by photographers from the region, including Manukau School of Visual Arts students, as well as a preview of photography in the Festival 2008 exhibitions.

Manukau Light Night will begin at 7pm on Friday 30 May and run until 9.30pm with the event’s projection programme shown during the evening.

Auckland Festival of Photography organiser Julia Durkin says the Festival’s regional expansion into Manukau is made possible by Manukau City Council, a key sponsor of the 2008 Festival and COGS Manukau.

“It’s a wonderful initiative which gives the local community a creative outlet to express how they see their area - its visual landscape, diverse peoples, sports, parks, streets - everything that makes up their neighborhoods.”

Photographers can submit their images on the Festival’s Auckland Photo Blog site (www.photographyfestival.org.nz/photo-blog) during the month of March to be considered for inclusion in Manukau Light Night. Submissions open on 1st March.

Auckland Photo Blog is an online visual journal with a monthly theme and a Photo Of The Month is selected - open to professional and amateur photographers in and out of Auckland - with the March Blog themed as Manukau.

The artists in “Manukau Light Night” are Edith Amituanai, Amber de Boer, Bruce Connew, Derek Henderson, Glenn Jowitt, Anne Noble, Fiona Pardington, Patrick Reynolds, Harvey Benge, and Wayne Wilson Wong.

Christopher Johnstone says the Festival’s themes of Culture, Identity, Participation and Art resonate with the selected photographers, much of whose work has tended to investigate these concepts.

Creative Exposure Festival 2008 is supported by key sponsors:

Manukau City Council, Waitakere City Council, North Shore City Council, Gravity "Official Coffee Sponsor", Heart of the City, Metro, Olympus, NZ Internet Services, NZ Post, Triangle TV and Westfield Manukau.

With funding support from NZCT, NZJEP, Creative Communities North Shore, Creative Communities Waitakere, Creative Communities Auckland City, Auckland City Council, COGS and significant support from the ASB Community Trust.

ENDS

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