Media release April 2013
Auckland Festival of Photography celebrates in style

The Auckland Festival of Photography celebrates its 10th birthday in style in June, with its 2013 festival programme featuring in more than 75 Auckland venues and boasting the most impressive line-up yet of New Zealand-based and international photographers.

Compared to its inaugural 2004 programme which included ten events and exhibitions, this year’s festival packs more than 90 exhibitions and events into its May 30 to 21 June timeframe. This makes the annual free festival New Zealand’s largest photographic event.

2013’s festival kicks off under its Talking Culture banner, with a two day symposium (June 1 & 2, Auckland Art Gallery Auditorium) exploring photographers’ responses to natural disasters, including the work of Magnum UK’s Chris Steele-Perkins, and featuring presentations from Giles Crook, Kit Wise and Andrew Quilty (Australia), Fofoga Setolga Tuala (Samoa), Michel Varisco (US) Allan McDonald and Richard Mahoney (New Zealand).

Talking Culture also features the festival’s latest innovation, Portfolio Reviews, where budding photographers can have their work appraised by top curators and photographers.

The Auckland Festival of Photography’s reach is evident in the variety of regional locations where photography will be on display throughout June.

Festival spokesperson, Julia Durkin, says: “For the last decade this regional photography festival has blazed a trail, working across Auckland to celebrate the most important art form of our times. We are proud to showcase photographers from within the region, as well as leading national and international photographers, to the communities of Auckland.”

The 2013 Auckland Festival of Photography’s international content, including guest speakers at its Talking Culture Symposium (sponsored by HP), reflects its membership of the Asia-Pacific Forum and the free festival’s growing reputation as an annual photography event.

This year’s Signature programme of 21 exhibitions includes work by photographers from or based in China (Chen Haiwen), Australia (Paul Batt, Patrick Pound), Japan (MikiNobu Kamatsu), the United States of America (Anthony Goicolea and Allan Sekula), and Mexico (Fernando Montiel Klint).

The line-up of New Zealand-based photographers within the Signature exhibitions is equally impressive. As well as the Annual Fine Arts Commission of Jennifer Mason’s work, other exhibitions feature photography by Mark Adams, Edith Amituanai, Fiona Amundsen, Harvey Benge, Sholto Buck, Daniel Crooks, Bruce Connew, Chris Corson-Scott, Gil Hanly, Ngahuia Harrison, Derek Henderson, Andrew Kennedy, Jae Hoon Lee, Ian Macdonald, Ian Macklay, David Mannering, Allan McDonald, Chris McLennan, John Miller, Maurice Munro, Kazu Ngakawa, Fiona Pardington, Neil Pardington, Haruhiko Sameshima, Geoffrey H. Short, Talia Smith and Vito Trupinic.

Throughout its first decade, the Auckland Festival of Photography has helped open up the art of photography to the public, and its role in celebrating Auckland’s diverse cultural identities and communities.

This year’s programme includes 58 Fringe exhibitions throughout Auckland, from Waiheke to Henderson, Grey Lynn to New Lynn, Blockhouse Bay to Mairangi Bay, Onehunga to Henderson, Hunua to Devonport. Fringe offerings can be found within established art spaces and museums but are also on show to the people using libraries, hotels, schools, malls, churches, cafes and community centres.

With those achievements in mind, photography fans already excited by this year’s festival line up will need to diary two familiar favourites: 2013’s Festival Tuesday Circuit (4 June, 6pm-9pm) and Nikon Auckland Photo Day (8 June, 24 hours).

Festival Tuesday Circuit on 4 June allows photography lovers the chance to visit 14 different exhibitions, from 6pm to 9pm, with transport between galleries, provided by Unitec.

Nikon Auckland Photo Day on 8 June gives members of the public 24 hours to capture an image that reflects their Auckland, and enter it in a competition where they could win one of three Nikon camera prizes. In the process, they will also contribute to a regional archive of Auckland images that has been growing now for a decade.

Annual Fine Arts Commission – Tues 4th to 21 June at Silo 7, with Jennifer Mason’s specially commissioned new work - an installation on this landmark at the waterfront.
You are invited to join the Festival team - and obtain your copy of the 2013 festival programme - at joint Festival and Reel Brazil screenings of the documentary Found Memories, on April 20 and 24 at Newmarket’s Rialto cinema.
reelbrazil.co.nz/RBFF_2013/Film_-_Found_Memories.html

See full 2013 programme online at www.photographyfestival.org.nz

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Auckland Festival of Photography 2013
Major funder: ASB Community Trust & Local Government Funder: Auckland Council
Festival Sponsors: Nikon & Hewlett-Packard
International Partners: Asia Pacific Photoforum, PIP, Magnum, Daylight Photo Awards
Community & Cultural Grants: Creative New Zealand, Creative Communities, COGS, The Lion Foundation, Asia NZ. Media supporter: D Photo.

www.photographyfestival.org.nz

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