Auckland Festival of Photography

10/10/2026

On next month, from 6 to 27 November, Sydney's annual Head On Photo Festival. Congratulations to everyone involved 📸

Julia SH wants us to look at bodies differently.

In 𝐵𝑜𝑑𝑦 𝑜𝑓 𝑊𝑜𝑟𝑘, the Swedish-born, Los Angeles-based photographer presents fat and underrepresented bodies with the presence of classical sculpture, shifting attention away from conventional ideals of desirability towards form, texture and individuality.

The result challenges the automatic judgements we bring to the human body and asks what we might see without them.

See this exhibition at Paddington Reservoir Gardens during Head On Photo Festival, 7–29 November 2026. Our new blog piece takes a brief look at this and two other exhibitions exploring women’s lives: https://headon.org.au/magazine/womens-lives-in-focus

Image credit: Julia SH

06/10/2026

Auckland Festival of Photography + WONDER network is delighted to announce their 2nd partnership project in Japan, after a successful 2026 Festival attendance in June by Naoko OHTA, curator and publisher, KLEE Inc, Paris and Tokyo.

As part of our long-term support of NZ photography through our extensive networks, it’s a great milestone for NZ photojournalist, Sara Tautuku Orme and her long-term project focusing on the whenua, people and whanau. Sara was a nominee for the 2026 Leica Oskar Barnack Award, by AFP Trust. Sara’s work and practice are well recognised in the sector here and she has an established exhibition credit list. Her work is held in collection at Waikato Museum and The Arts House Trust.

Her new book, Land People Memory, is available on Amazon Kindle. More details to come.

The Japan Times RNZ

30/09/2026

Tokyo Music Photography Residency 2026 announced!

Launched in 2022, the Abbey Road Music Photography Awards was rapidly embraced by the photography community and the awards now form the leading element of the Abbey Road Music Photography Accelerator, which encompasses events, exhibitions, workshops, learning resources and much more; all designed to champion and empower photography talent.

The Abbey Road Music Photography Accelerator continues to grow internationally into the Asia Pacific, partnering with Auckland Festival of Photography and T3 International Photo Festival Tokyo on the 2026 Tokyo Music Photography Residency. The Kōwhai Residency, founded by the two festivals, is now in its fourth year and will focus on music photography for the first time. This recognises the value of personal projects and the importance of giving photographers the time and space to pursue an idea in depth.

This November, the recipient of the Residency will have a month to immerse themselves in Japanese culture and Tokyo’s creative community, build relationships and develop an idea into a new body of work.

The 2026 recipient is New York-based documentary photographer Destiny Mata. For the past decade, Destiny has documented New York City’s punks of colour and underground music communities, photographing musicians, and the people who have built and shaped these scenes. Her work is grounded in community and the preservation of histories that are often overlooked or lost. Destiny’s project will explore Tokyo’s underground and DIY music communities, with a particular focus on punk and independent music, using documentary photography and oral history to trace the connections between organisers, musicians, artists and audiences. Drawing on her experience in New York, her project will create a visual conversation between the two cities.



T3 Photo Festival Tokyo
Abbey Road Music Photography Accelerator nzherald.co.nz

25/09/2026

Auckland Festival of Photography is delighted to announce a new international partnership, with Abbey Road Music Photography Accelerator, London and T3 Photo Festival, Tokyo.

Our friends in London and Tokyo have joined us in developing and offering a historic new Tokyo Music Photography Residency starting in November 2026.

We're so excited to share this awesome news!

nzherald.co.nz T3 Photo Festival Tokyo The Japan Times fans Asia New Zealand Foundation

Last night we revealed the winners of the Abbey Road Music Photography Awards 2026 during a grand ceremony in Studios One and Two. We also announced Ethan Parker as our new Photographer in Residence and the Abbey Road Music Photography Accelerator Tokyo Residency recipient.

19/09/2026

Are you are documentary photographer, photojournalist with a series, long term or body of work that needs international support?

Then check out these prestigious W Eugene Smith grants.

Details below.

OPEN CALL

Applications are now open for the 2026 W. Eugene Smith Fund grants. This year, $67,500 will be awarded in multiple grants to photographers and an institution whose work demonstrates a commitment to humanistic photography and documentary practice.

Deadline: October 12, 2026 at 11:59 p.m. EDT.

Learn more and apply at smithfund.org or visit the link in our bio.

Photograph by Mumin Gul, 2025 W. Eugene Smith Student Grant Recipient.

14/09/2026

Te Wiki o te Reo Māori | Māori Language Week 2026 begins today!

Check out Te Reo Towns to see what is happening in your part of Aotearoa.
https://www.reomaori.co.nz/te-reo-towns-map

Kia kaha te reo Māori!

13/09/2026

Started as part of the City Rail Link 'First Look' event last month, and on now, Image Auckland lightboxes, near to Te Waihorotiu station which is now open to public.

At Bledisloe Lane, everyday 24/7 curated selection of Auckland Photo Day 2026.

Until 8th October. Free.

Thanks to Auckland Live and Auckland Council Events.

10/09/2026

Documentary and fine art photographer Abhi Chinniah whose self-taught practice explores identity, migration, community, and human connection through collaborative, narrative-driven portraiture. Growing up across Christchurch and Malaysia, she uses photography’s power to reveal truth, evoke empathy, and foster dialogue—exploring journeys of belonging through the lens of diaspora.

Following on her earlier exhibitions and projects, her new body of work documenting Sri Lankan Tamils, Nirantharam (நிரந்தரம்), has been featured in the Newsweek Japan, as a result of the Festival’s international Talking Culture series, with Newsweek Japan Picture Editor, Hideko Kataoka at the late May weekend.

Newsweek Japan online feature of Abhi's new work accompanies the printed publication, a 6-page feature, please use translate on your browser for English: link in our latest email newsletter: www.photographyfestival.org.nz/news/enews.cfm

AFP has championed NZ photographers internationally since 2010 when we founded the Asia Pacific Photoforum, a network of photography Festivals across the Pacific up to Indo Asia.

06/09/2026

Auckland Festival of Photography + WONDER network is delighted to announce their 1st partnership project in Japan, after a successful 2026 Festival attendance in June by Naoko OHTA, curator and publisher, KLEE Inc, Paris and Tokyo.

As part of our long-term support of NZ photography through our extensive networks, it’s a great milestone for NZ artist, Cathy Carter and her long-term project focusing on the ocean and the environment. Cathy was an invited exhibitor for the 2026 Festival with her stunning work, Zones of Immanence presented by AFP Trust. Cathy’s work and practice are well recognised in the sector here and she has an established exhibition credit list.

She says “Creating Water Cradle with Japanese curator Naoko Ohta has been a pleasure. I met Naoko at a portfolio review at the Auckland Festival of Photography in 2026, and we connected through our love of nature and our belief that it should be illuminated, valued and protected. It has been a beautiful experience to encounter my work through Naoko-san’s eyes and her poetic cultural lens. Her sensitive understanding revealed connections between photographs that I had felt intuitively but had not expressed in words. Through her curatorial vision, the book found its rhythm, moving between beauty and unease, intimacy and distance, wonder and fear. She understood that I do not seek to communicate through forceful persuasion, but through images that enter the imagination and continue to resonate.

The process gave me an opportunity to bring together years of photographing water and to reflect on why it remains central to my practice. Water is never simply a subject for me. It is a living presence connecting our bodies to the oceans, our emotions to the environment, and our lives to something ancient and universal.
Seeing these photographs gathered within Water Cradle has allowed me to understand my work anew. I hope the book encourages people to pause and reconsider their own relationship with water."

fans The Japan Times Cathy Carter Naoko Ohta

05/09/2026

Enjoying the weekend spring weather?

Head into the city for the 5th annual exhibition with NZ Herald photographers, curated in response to the Festival theme this year, Movement [Kori]. On at Queens Wharf Fence since 27 May. Take a stroll along to view.

NZ Herald photographers and New Zealand Media and Entertainment (NZME) photographers are always tasked with obtaining an image that reflects and illustrates the key visual of a story, to unlock interest and engage the viewer.

Thanks to the Auckland Urban Development Office and NZME.

Image: AFP exhibition archive.

fans Newspix - NZ Herald Photography Queens Wharf

www.photographyfestival.org.nz/programme/outdoor.cfm