Welcome to Festival Zone Special Edition for 'Resistance' Programme.

The Auckland Festival of Photography is pleased to share our new programme for this year's 20th anniversary edition.

 Ans Westra at Auckland Festival of Photography 2023

Auckland Festival of Photography is delighted to present, in association with {Suite} Gallery, a tribute exhibition from the late great New Zealand artist, Ans Westra. 

Ans Westra CNZM (1936 – 2023) was a pioneer of documentary photography and one of the first women to work in this area in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Born in Leiden, the Netherlands, Ans immigrated to New Zealand in 1957 at the age of 21, eventually basing herself in Wellington as a full time freelance photographer. Self-taught, Ans was an expert at capturing what she called "ordinary life": the immediate and unselfconscious interactions of ordinary people and places.

For over 60 years Ans was a fixture up and down the country at community events, hui, dances, hikoi, woolsheds and streets;  a tall, unassuming woman, quietly taking photographs, looking down through the viewfinder of her trusty Rolleiflex, and more recently digital devices.  She also photographed around the world including Tonga, Fiji, the Netherlands, the Philippines and New York. More details here.

 Today we announce 2023's Festival programme. Outdoor, online and in venue exhibitions that explore the theme of Resistance [ātete] are at the heart of this year’s Auckland Festival of Photography, which runs 31 May -11 June. Full programme announced. Image by Ans Westra; Protest 1975, courtesy of {Suite} Gallery.

Festival 2023 earlybird highlights

Dancing in The Streets - Arts House Trust, Pah Homestead, Hillsborough

In the summer of 1984, Wellington photographer Peter Black toured the North Island with writer Mark Scott, photographing kids dancing on the streets of Auckland, Hamilton, Rotorua, and Wellington, to produce a photo essay for Scott’s book Street Action Aotearoa. Shot on a 35mm camera with a wide-angle lens, Black's black-and-white photos captured the Break Dancing craze of the period. Opens 20th April. More here.

Peter Black; Megazoids - Onehunga, Auckland

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Staring Into The Sun - Luke Foley-Martin; Skar Lab, Kingsland

Luke Foley-Martin’s exhibition combines real photographs of the sun with hand-made abstract simulations of celestial bodies created in the darkroom. Influenced by heliography and selected works by Hiroshi Sugimoto, Nicolai Howalt and Hiroshi Yamazaki, in ‘Staring into the Sun’ Foley-Martin risks his own eyesight to explore spaces between the real and imagined, vision and blindness. Opens 28th April at 6pm. (Note: Please dont try looking directly at the sun without protective eyewear, sunglasses)

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Opens 1 May - Online - The Print Lab Podcast

An international collection of exquisite and in-depth interviews with print based artists, as part of Contact Photography Festival Toronto, Canada and Auckland Festival of Photography, New Zealand.

Presented and produced by Australian photographer, video and installation artist Martha Ackroyd Curtis.

Aotearoa Music Photo Award 2023

1st prize winner 2021 - Veronica McLaughlin, Delaney Davidson

Image Auckland is delighted to announce the 2023 Music Photography Award | Whakaahua Puoro Toa. 
Award call opens: 1 - 20 May
Prize winners announced: 26 May

1st prize - $1250 cash

2nd prize - $500 cash

Participation in the future exhibitions in 2024 plus other digital/projections/promotion of your winning image.

Plus benefits to all entrants -