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For the fourth consecutive year the Advertising & Illustrative Photographers Association will be holding their highly anticipated Image Nation Professional Photography Conference at Unitec in Auckland.

This exceptional event gives New Zealand photographers, assistants, and students an invaluable opportunity to hear entertaining and insightful presentations from some of the world’s most renowned professional photographers. In addition, attendees will also gain an immense amount of useful and relevant information about the advertising and editorial industries – knowledge that can be used to achieve future success in the photographic arena.

The 2012 Image Nation Photography Conference will take place at the Unitec Mount Albert campus on Saturday, June 23 and Sunday, June 24 from 10am until approximately 7pm on both days (lunch and afternoon tea will be provided).

Confirmed speakers this year include:
Urs Buhlman – Advertising – www.ursbuhlman.com
Jez Smith – Fashion & Beauty – www.jezsmithphotography.com
Frank Schwere – Fine Art – www.schwere.com
Nick Rains – Landscape & Travel – www.nickrains.com
Colleen Tunnicliff - Industrial, People, Food & Wine – www.tunni.net
Fraser Harding – Advertising – www.fraserharding.com
Grant Sheehan – Landscape, Architecture & Self-Publishing – www.grantsheehan.com

To learn more about this outstanding line-up please visit the Speakers page.

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

This event would not be possible without the generous support of our sponsors:
Canon – www.canon.co.nz
Sony – www.sony.co.nz
Nikon – www.nikon.co.nz
Sandisk – www.sandisk.com
CR Kennedy – www.crkennedy.co.nz
Manfrotto – www.manfrotto.com
Lowepro – www.lowepro.com
Leica – www.leica-camera.com

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The immensely popular shadow tracings were a cheap quick method of recording a person’s profile”
Bill Jay on Photography, From Magic to Mimesis

These portraits are a new way of seeing ourselves, but being reminiscent of the 18^th century silhouette they are anchored in the past. More than a simple record of a human profile, they are subtle and complex; layered, textured, flawed and beautiful.

This series of images was directly inspired by Len Lye’s photograms. It’s a re-discovery of the craft of photography revelling in the mysteries of a seemingly archaic darkroom, combining technique with observation, and pairing artistic intent with uncertainty of outcome.

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© Jocelyn Carlin | www.carlin.co.nz

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This series explores the points of contact through which a blind person would ‘see’. It follows the journey of a blind man navigating his way around a city in order to meet up with a friend. On a deeper level it examines the idea of the blind seeing without sight by utilising other senses – such as hearing, touch, and other points of contact.

I have portrayed this concept visually by creating images that attempt to convey touch, sound, and contact through the cane – focusing on each specific experience by using vignettes cropped around, or shaped by, the points of contact. To emphasise the sensation of contact each photo has been shot from the level where the contact occurs. The series is shot in black and white to reinforce the notion that this is not true visual experience, but rather perceived visual experience. The level of focus within each image shows either the familiarity of the object or definite physical contact.

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© Matthew Bangs

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The house shelters daydreaming, the house protects the dreamer… the places where we experience daydreaming reconstitute themselves in a new daydream, and it is because our memories of former dwelling places are relived as daydreams that these dwelling places of the past remain in us for all of time.”
Gaston Bachelard,The Poetics of Space

With inspiration from Gaston Bachelard’s philosophies I visited the former childhood homes of a select group of people. In each house the former dweller would recount to me strong and engrained memories associated with the house. The resulting images depict a each of these memories; the area in focus indicates the exact site or object associated with the memory.

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© Michaela Challis | www.michaelachallis.info

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This series The Salvationists came about through my interest in a particular community, and a desire to clarify elements of their cultural and personal identities through the genre of portraiture. I decided to photograph both individuals and couples who are affiliated with The Salvation Army. Their uniform is a link to the organisation they are a part of, but the context they’re shown in is their home which contains indicators of their personal identity.

The images appear to be documentary in nature, however a shift in truth is evident in knowing that the role of the uniform is reserved for times when an individual is participating in the activities of the organisation. We then become aware that the photograph must have been set up and there must have been some process of establishing a relationship. It becomes clear that an element of their private life is on display. We then see that the individuals are not only a part of an organisation, there is more to it than that.

Through the act of portraiture the project explores where one locates one’s identity, and how that identity is perceived. In the case of those who are members of The Salvation Army, we are more likely to think of those in uniform as helping someone in need before we think of them as individuals. The Salvationists explores what more can be told about a person when photographed within a certain context. The nature of a photograph often tricks us into believing that it truthfully reflects the world, or that a portrait can reflect the truth of a person’s character. However, as Richard Avedon once said, “A portrait is not a likeness. The moment an emotion or fact is transformed into a photograph it is no longer a fact but an opinion. There is no such thing as inaccuracy in a photograph. All photographs are accurate. None of them is the truth.”

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© Luke Tearle

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Having worked as fashion photographer for over a decade I have noticed first-hand that the age of models entering the industry keeps getting lower and lower. As a result I believe the average age of models appearing in fashion editorials, advertising campaigns and runway shows is also a lot younger than it was 10 or even 5 years ago. It is not unusual now for models as young as 15 and 16 to be put forward for a casting where the target audience for the resulting imagery is women in their 20s and 30s. I have even had a couple of 13 year olds and a 12 year old visit my studio recently on ‘go-sees’ (and I don’t have any children’s wear clients).

Fashion imagery itself is often highly provocative and sexually charged. Therefore it is standard practice for these high-school age girls to be transformed through the use of make-up, styling, photography and Photoshop so that they appear to be mature, sexually assertive women in the final images. I believe that the portrayal of very young models in this manner needs to be brought to people’s attention.

The aim of this particular series of images is simply to reveal the deception. By showing mock ‘school portraits’ of young models alongside highly stylized fashion images of the same subject I hope to better educate the viewer about this particular aspect of the fashion industry.

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© Aaron K | www.aaronkphotography.com

Styling: Rebecca Flavell | Make-up: Emma Peters @ Splinter | Hair: Shontal Healey & Matt Benns @ Stephen Marr
Models: Hannah Morgan @ 62, Emily Smith @ Clyne, Victoria Cooper-Smith @ Clyne, Anastazia Bobis @ 62, Sakura Matches @ 62, Anmari Botha @ Red 11
Photography Assistant: Kirsty Norton | Styling Assistant: Elisha Stewart

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Our possessions are a major contributor to and reflection of our identities.”
R.W. Belk, Possessions and the Extended Self

Self is a project that aims to explore the way in which a person’s belongings are an extension of themselves. The intention of this series is to convey a sense of character and identity, and to communicate the idea that, to a degree, we are what we have and possess.

I wanted the objects I was shooting to be personal things that the subjects have a close relationship with: belongings they have a deep personal connection with or things they frequently use. For this reason I chose to focus on dressing tables and bedside tables, and by using the overhead shot, the viewer gets a sense of both the objects present and they way in which they are arranged. It is the combination of these things that help build up a sense of identity and character without the subject being present in the photograph.

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© Kezia Stephenson

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In 1995 I embarked on a project photographing my mother at her dressing table – an image I was familiar with since I was a child. This was her ritual of putting on her make-up, curling her hair, smoking her cigarettes and now maintaining her beauty in its fading stages. I later extended the notion of women and make-up beyond my own family. So, during one of my visits to Iran, my country of birth, I started to photograph women in the process of putting on make-up.

After the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran, strict restrictions were put upon both men and women; pop music was prohibited, boys and girls not related to each other were not allowed to be seen together in public, girls as young as the age of 9 had to wear the Islamic ‘hijab’ at school and the use of make-up was banned. After these new rules were established, women started to push back against the strict restrictions imposed upon them and heavy use of make-up became a reaction to living under the clerical rules of an Islamic regime. For some, it became a symbol of defiance and a means of empowerment.

Rules are more lenient now since the early days of the revolution, but the underlying law of covering one’s hair and modesty still apply.  Make-up still plays a big part in daily life, and the image of the Iranian woman in a hijab, all made up, is embedded deeply into the country’s cultural psyche.

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© Parisa Taghizadeh | www.parisatag.com

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I like the dramatic quality of the lighting at night. There are often strong shadows, and that relates to hiding things. It is as if the shadows invite the observer in to share their secrets. One can bring one’s own experiences and thoughts into these areas of shadow.”
Micheal Kenna, Night Walk

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I am interested in the notion of fear. This photographic essay is informed by the feeling of fear, or more so the feeling of unease. These feelings are both my own and also my interpretation of the experiences in the unconscious of other individuals.

The focus of this series was to gain an understanding of others fears. As a starting point I created a survey to gather information from people of all ages and races to see if there was a commonality between them. There was a very broad range of fears that started from one end of the spectrum and veered off in all sorts of directions. At one end were the everyday aspects that we all have to deal with such as loneliness and darkness. Then there were more obscure and unrealistic phobias such as clowns, long drive ways or the monster that creeps out from the wardrobe as we sleep. Having such a diverse range I then had to decide which aspects of fear I needed to explore in order to successfully present my ideas. My first instinct was to steer away from the everyday fears, but as I researched further into this area I realised that the scope of everyday life, especially in urban spaces, is never completely unimportant. So I went with the urban space I know best, West Auckland.

I have lived in West Auckland my entire life so it just seemed to click. With the concept now planted in my head, going about my life in the usual fashion I started to see these public everyday places in a completely new light. It Is not just me who inhabits these spaces on a daily basis, it is everyone around me. Everyone is somehow involved. Can I make others see these places in this new way that I am now seeing them? This is what I have set out to do – to convey the feeling of abandonment and loneliness.

The title comes from a piece of writing where the artist Michael Kenna shares his thoughts on his own works. I feel this quote fits quite strongly as shadows have always made their presence known in my past works and are very prominent even now.

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© Jenna-Leigh Anderson

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I don’t just want to be seen as ‘Māori’ when I am doing something Māori like the ‘pūkana’ or holding Māori weaponry. These aspects of Māori life are not what make me Māori. I am Māori inside out.”
Jess, Kahu, Maioha, Amber, Ramari, Eden
Ngā Tūmanako o Kahurangi, Auckland Girls’ Grammar School

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Set within the context of historical Māori portraiture, the work addresses surface understandings of cultural identities. Challenging various stereotypes or categories developed within historical commercial photographic imagery, Māori represents Māori from a Māori perspective. Influenced by the apparent aesthetics of historical Māori portraiture, with particular reference to posing and styling, it was decided to explore these visually in the company of contemporary Māori identities. Confining these subjects to the format of an oval was a clear reference to the formal aesthetics specific to the paintings of Charles Goldie and the introduction of a Victorian style.

Te Ao Māori is central to the work investigating the development of traditional concepts of ihi and wehi through evolution of contemporary Maori identities. Ihi refers to the total personality of a person and their quality of excellence. Wehi is the effect that one person’s influence has on another. Together, they generate individuality. The subjects express pūkana in their formal portraits, a form of cultural and self-expression and assertion.

The evolution of cultural representation is examined in the investigation of the way biculturalism exists within their lives. How does one achieve a bicultural ‘surface’ or sense of representation? Is it a consequence of being one or the other? Represented in their school uniform, adorned with Māori taonga (treasures), styled in the manner of their ancestors, replica Huia feathers in their hair, the subjects communicate their contemporary identities. Demonstrating both confidence and pride, they appear comfortable with their current clothing, context and setting.

The work intends to remind us that these individuals are indeed individuals. They are real people who exist within this urban reality of both Māori and Pākehā. They are who they are, as we see them. Expressing what we understand as obviously Māori – pūkana. Jess, Kahu, Maioha, Amber, Ramari and Eden remind the viewer of the diversity of this urban reality – that their Māoritanga is underlying. The subtitled quote is evidence of a collaborative engagement and provides insight into the subjects’ voices. Whether or not they are what may be understood as ‘obviously Māori’, they still identify as Māori.

A Reality.

Māori.

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© Deane-Rose Ngatai