Talking Culture - Sustain

Auckland Festival of Photography [whakaahua hākari] is delighted to announce the key presentation at Festival 2025 by Michael Itkoff, USA.

Michael is a publisher, consultant, and former Chief Content Officer at Britelite Immersive. He co-founded the internationally-celebrated art book publishing house, Daylight as well as content experience platform, Fabl. For over twenty years Michael has been a leader in publishing both digital and print media. Along the way, Michael has written for the NYTimes Lens blog, Art Asia Pacific, Nueva Luz, Conscientious blog, and the Forward. Michael’s photographic and video work is in public and private collections in the United States and his work has appeared on the covers of Orion, Katalog, Next City, and Philadelphia Weekly.

Michael was the recipient of the Howard Chapnick Grant for the Advancement of Photojournalism (2006), a Creative Artists Fellowship from the Pennsylvania Arts Council (2007), and a Puffin Foundation Grant (2008). Michael’s monograph Street Portraits was published by Charta Editions in 2009. He will be joining the public programme giving a talk on the 2025 Festival theme, and it's context for the Daylight Magazine 'Sustainability' edition in Fall 2004, which covers this important intersection of art and environment, one which has take on more meaning and resonance in the last 2 decades. We will hear his observations and background to this early publication in the Daylight archive. Joining Michael in conversation will be Chris Corson-Scott, NZ. Discussing the Daylight Books collaboration with Chris Corson-Scott, NZ for the New Zealand launch of Chris's book 'The Afterglow of Industry'. The book collects photographs and texts made during a 10-year project in which the artist repeatedly traveled the length of New Zealand, from its urban centers to its most remote landscapes. Through painstakingly produced large-format film photographs and extended texts, the book explores the aftermath of the industrial era and colonial project in New Zealand, reflecting on what our labor and dreams can mean in an age of late-capitalism and climate change. Chris's work was featured by the Auckland Festival of Photography commissioned articles in China 2015, a 6-part series on New Zealand photographers published in the national publication 'Photo World'.

Thanks to the Gerrard and Marti Friedlander Charitable Trust.

Michael Itkoff