Auckland Festival of Photography

20/08/2026

Auckland Live presents Image Auckland by Auckland Festival of Photography!

Auckland Live will present the commissioned photography exhibition “Image Auckland” a series of curated lightbox images from this year’s Auckland Photo Day at Bledisloe Lane, off Wellesley Street from 22 August to 8 October, daily outdoors.

The exhibition is part of the wider “First Look” event held by CRL for the newly finished station at Te Waihorotiu, by the Aotea Centre - City Rail Link.
https://crl.iticket.co.nz/events/2026/aug/crl-first-look-te-waihorotiu

Auckland Photo Day is a community engagement project initiated in 2004 by the Festival as way to build democratic visual cultural currency and build an inclusive and equitable arts and cultural environment.

It invites anyone, anywhere in Auckland during a 24 hour shoot to share their perspectives of our region. It creates new on the day photos that offer democratic visual conversations about the place we live, work and play.

Go along to see the new station and this great exhibition, free to the community.
Supported by Auckland Live and Auckland Council Events.

Photographers on display -
Lilly Schliebs - Beach Walking The Dog, North Shore
U25 Best Entry -Xinuye Xu – Speed, Karanga Plaza
Sandra Huish – “Blue hour in the city, loved it” - Wynyard Quarter
Anish Jadhav - Misty morning at the Auckland Town Hall, City
Ann Jones – Another bid over here, Rural Auction, Rodney
Tango Tao - Captains Feet, North Shore
Uwe Duesing - Watching The City, People’s Choice winner 2026.
Thyra Rachel Nelson; Cold wet and beautiful row from Okahu to Hobson Bay, Te Taenga - the arrival
Jordan Potae – Bombay Lights, South Auckland
Zee Shake Lee – The Way Home, Winter Light Cathedral, Aotea Square
Sophie Ward - Parnell by Night, Central suburbs
Goina Thedinga - Ginkgo Gold, Devonport
Lee Kwon - Between rush and refection, City
Sharon Souproanuck – Half Time shower, North Shore
Nathan Smith - Alfa Romeo, Smales Farm car meet up, North Shore
Lambert Laluz - Grocery Run, Elliott Street, 1st Place winner
Stefan Schliebs - Running Reflections, Wynyard Quarter, 2nd place winner
Alan Gaskin – Auckland Port Gates, City

17/08/2026

The Festival Trust is delighted to announce Blake Armstrong, as the Festival's nomination of young photographer invited for the upcoming 2026 Anhui International Photography Programme in Hefei City, China, 18 - 25 August.

Blake was a key speaker at the Brand Ambassador Day held during the Festival with our naming sponsors, Harvey Norman

Read Blake’s story here - www.armstrongphotos.co.nz/p/about

Its a full week of themed shoots and networking for our "Kiwi representative", Blake is a wonderful candidate to go on this professional development opportunity.

Blake says “I’m excited as its my first international photography invitation to an event in Asia, and the shooting opportunity with the 2026 Anhui International Photography Programme in Hefei City, China is a chance to explore and network with other
photographers”.

Thanks to the China Cultural Centre, Auckland, with the support of the Department of Culture and Tourism of Anhui Province and the International Federation of Photographic Art (Luxembourg) Jinan Office. www.fiap.net/en

Images: Goblin Forest in Taranaki & Highlanders v Moana Pasifika, 'top down punch up' winner 'Rugby Photographer of the Year" last month in UK - Blake Armstrong.

fans Sony New Zealand

14/08/2026

Put your photography proposals in for 2027. Deadline 4 Sept.

Have a creative idea for Māngere-Ōtāhuhu? This could be the support that helps make it happen.

The 2026 Māngere-Ōtāhuhu Arts funding round is now open for creative projects made in, with and for the local community.

Dance, music, film, kapa haka, visual arts, craft, spoken word, digital art, exhibitions, events and more. If you have something you’d like to create, we’d love to hear about it.

Applications close Friday 4 September at 5pm.

Details and apply via the website or complete the form below:
https://wkf.ms/3RRqHLp

https://www.mangereotahuhuarts.org.nz/
Funded by the Māngere-Ōtāhuhu Local Board.

12/08/2026

This month is the 11th annual Higashikawa Youth Photo Festival, held in Hokkaido, Japan.

The Festival hosts 16 country’s youth and teachers for a week of shoots, talks and events aimed at building cultural exchange amongst young photographers.

Selected youth teams from Korea - Taiwan – Thailand - Vietnam – Uzbekistan – Indonesia - Australia – Canada - Finland – Mongolia – Laos – Colombia – Ireland – Japan will take part.

Background

In 2015, Higashikawa Town in Hokkaido, known as the "Town of Photography," held this festival with the aim of creating a balanced and appropriately sized town for the future. As a centre of photographic culture, it connected photographic culture with people around the world, fostered conversations among high school students who will lead the next generation, expanded the circle of
friendship, and contributed to lasting world peace.

Auckland Festival of Photography partners with the Festival through the Asia Pacific Photoforum network.

Festival founder and APP co-founder, Julia Durkin, MNZM has been invited to attend this year’s edition as one of two international judges for the Awards programme, she is delighted to see all the new images created during the Festival and support the network.

https://higashikawa-youth-fest.jp/judges.html

12/08/2026

Our Kōwhai Residency 2026 artist, Fiona Amundsen has sent us an update on her research and new work planning since the start of the placement late last month.

She says "The weather, as predicted, is particularly grueling. The heat has made it very difficult to be out from around 11am - 4pm, so I took the opportunity to go to as many galleries as possible. The highlight was the Hiroshi Sugimoto exhibition at the National Museum of Modern Art.

As predicted, my project has developed and I have become very interested in exploring the role of architecture (specifically Kenzō Tange's work) as linked to the development of a national identity post WWII. Part of this identity, is of course linked, to the implementation of nuclear power within Japan, which was connected to the American occupation and the propaganda campaign 'Atoms for Peace'.

Part of the residency will be my trip to Mito/Tokai to look at what is left of the first nuclear power plant built in Japan (it's been under decommission since 1998), I'll also be visiting a few towns (Futaba, Hirono, and Namie) to look at the regeneration process. There is a link to be made to how these small towns are being reconstructed post Fukushima. In other words, ideas linked to memory, archive, trace, post disaster reconstruction, and national identity. I'm interested in ragweed as it thrives in Fukushima. It was one of the first plants to regenerate and take over the 'exclusion zones'."

Images by Fiona Amundsen, photographing at both the Yoyogi National Stadium 1st Gymnasium and the Komazawa Olympic Tower. And Ragweed growing at Yoyogi National Stadium and the Komazawa Olympic Tower.

Thanks to Tokyo Institute of Photography.

T3 Photo Festival Tokyo

05/08/2026

Our friends at Daylight Books have announced their 2026 Daylight Award winner.

Sam Gulliver, USA gets top prize.

23/07/2026

Our Annual Commission artist 2020, Raymond Sagapolutele, since has built a new body of works, done his Masters, and is now developing his academic career as a Pacific visual arts leader, tutor and mentor.

Last weekend to see his work in the group show below. At Te Uru, Titirangi.

Last Weekend to View
𝘏𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦
Sione Faletau, Kauri Hawkins, Raymond Sagapolutele
16 MAY – 26 JUN 2026

𝘏𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦: a Panel Discussion�THIS SAT 25 JUL, 11AM

𝘏𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦
(verb) to tie up, bind, shackle, restrain.
(noun) a captive, a prisoner, the accused.

Colonial occupation in the 1840s violently disrupted existing Māori systems of authority, land tenure, and kinship. Through land confiscation, legislation, and the steady erosion of tino rangatiratanga, mana whenua were displaced from ancestral lands and waterways, which were reshaped to serve a settler city. Urbanisation in the mid-twentieth century (framed as opportunity) was a strategy of forced assimilation, drawing Māori into industrial labour while severing intergenerational relationships to whenua. The promise of participation in modern city life came with conditions: to adapt, to relocate, to conform.

Pacific immigration in the 1960s and 70s was similarly structured by labour demand and state control. Due to labour shortages, Pacific peoples were enticed to uproot their families and move to Tāmaki Makaurau to fill industrial roles. They were Then later targeted and blamed when the economy faltered. The Dawn Raids of the 1970s exposed how quickly “welcome” could turn to criminalisation — homes entered before sunrise, brown bodies rendered suspect and policed. Here, binding took on its most literal sense: detention, accusation, deportation. The state decided who could be here, at what time, and on what terms.

22/07/2026

Photobook artists, this is an opportunity for international prize with LensCulture. More below!

18/07/2026

Early bird submissions for Sydney's Head On Photo Festival 2026 close on Monday. More details on their website.

Enter your best work in the Head On Photo Awards 2026. Our early bird entries close this Monday, so you've got the weekend to submit your photo and save!

Open to photographers around the world across Portrait, Landscape and Exposure.

For more details and to enter, go to our website: https://headon.org.au

15/07/2026

Congrats to Fujifilm Photos NZ for 40th year of this analog camera! 🎶📸

Fujifilm's single-use film camera QuickSnap celebrated its 40th anniversary this month while buoyed by renewed interest in analog photography among younger consumers.