We’ve assembled twenty of New Zealand’s leading
creatives for the 2021 CPotY judging panel.
Get to know the people making the tough decisions. Click here to see their judging criteria.
Sean Aickin
Born into a photographic family Sean has always been around photography. Combined with his love of live music he has spent many years shooting bands that have travelled through New Zealand. After opening his own analogue photo shop a couple years ago he is now living the dream as managing director of Splendid Photo.
Janet Bayly
Janet is Director Curator of Mahara Gallery, the district gallery for the Kāpiti Coast. Upon graduating from Elam School of Fine Arts in 1979, she has been an independent curator with specialisations in photography and moving image. Janet has lectured in photographic histories, design, and critical theory at Massey University and UCOL, and worked in numerous gallery and museum spaces.
Bonny Beattie
Bonny is a stylist and photographer in Wellington, New Zealand. She works with product and interior designers, craftspeople, small businesses and large, using photography to tell stories and inspire. Bonnie’s clients include Whittakers, Flybuys, Allbirds and Acme and she regularly contributes to Homestyle, Haven, and NZ House and Garden magazines.
Steve Boniface
Steve is a freelance photographer and cinematographer, with work throughout New Zealand and internationally. Steve studied photography at Massey University before moving to London, where he worked as an assistant and later a photographer. His main focus is portraiture across advertising, design and personal projects. He has been included in Lürzer’s Archive best international ad photographers for the past six years and has exhibited in Auckland several times.
Joyce Campbell
Joyce is an interdisciplinary artist. Her work in historical and contemporary photography, video, and sculpture has been displayed in exhibitions around the world, from Auckland to Los Angeles. After residencies in Southern California and Antarctica, and a shortlist spot for the Walters Prize in 2016, she is currently an Associate Professor at Elam School of Fine Arts.
Conor Clarke
Conor is of Ngāi Tahu, Irish and Welsh descent, and since graduating from Elam School of Fine Arts in 2005 has exhibited regularly throughout New Zealand. Conor has been the recipient of several residencies, including Tylee Cottage Residency (2017) and Waitawa Park (2015), and has recently returned to Aotearoa to take up an academic position as Lecturer in Photography at Ilam School of Fine Arts, University of Canterbury.
Russ Flatt
Russ (Ngāti Kahugnunu) is a renowned photographer, with his work held in collections at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki, James Wallace Arts Trust, Auckland Council and the University of Auckland. He is a graduate of Auckland University’s Elam School of Fine Arts, and last year he was the recipient of the Wallace Arts Trust Paramount Award for his image, Kōruru (knucklebones).
Mark Gee
Mark is a world-renowned photographer known for his work on Oscar award-winning films, time-lapses, and supervision on digital visual effect projects. He received international acclaim for his viral short film Full Moon Silhouettes. In 2013, he won the RMS’s Overall Astronomy Photographer of the Year for his stellar capture at Cape Palliser, also winning the competition’s Space and Earth categories. His self-taught work has since produced a TEDx Talk, and his book The Art of Night.
Henry Hargreaves
Henry is a New Zealand photographer and food artist based in New York. His work looks at the stories, rituals and habits we form around food with a nod to the playful, cheeky, nostalgic and colourful. His work has been exhibited all over the world, from the Venice Biennale and Art Basel, to his grandma’s nursing home. His clients include Ralph Lauren, NY Magazine, GQ, National Geographic, Boucheron, the New York Times, and Sagmeister.
Gavin Hipkins
Gavin is currently an Associate Professor at Elam School of Fine Arts at the University of Auckland. He has exhibited extensively throughout New Zealand and internationally. Gavin represented New Zealand at the 1998 Sydney Biennale and the 2002 Sao Paulo Biennale. In 2006 he completed an artist’s residency at the International Studio and Curatorial Program in New York. His work is included in major public and private collections internationally.
Rebecca Kempton
Rebecca is a multi award-winning professional photographer who lives in Greytown, Wairarapa where she runs a successful photography business. She holds a Master of Photography with Distinction with the New Zealand Institute of Professional Photography and is President of the Wairarapa Camera Club. She mainly shoots commercial work and family portraiture for local businesses and families. Rebecca has a real passion for documentary style photography.
Jacqui Kenny
Jacqui, a London-based Kiwi, is better known as the Agoraphobic Traveller. She turned her fear of the outside world into art by virtually exploring unique locations on Google Street View and posting screenshots on her popular Instagram account, The Agoraphobic Traveller @streetview.portraits. Jacqui’s work has since featured in a solo gallery show in Manhattan. Her art book, Many Nights, is launching this year.
Grant Maiden
Grant is a Wellington commercial and advertising photographer whose clients last year included ACC, The Royal Society of New Zealand, Kāinga Ora, VMLY&R, and Insight Creative. His most recent project was photographing 24 portraits of Māori academics for Ngā Kete Mātauranga, published by Otago University Press. Given the opportunity, he loves travelling off the beaten track and his most recent trip was through the desert regions of Namibia.
Jeff McEwan
Jeff began his career as press photographer and illustrations editor at the Evening Post and Dominion Post, after completing a Bachelor of Design, majoring in Photography at Victoria University. In 2008, he established Capture Photography (now Capture Studios). He says there’s never a dull moment as a photographer in Wellington, with our never-ending supply of events, adventures, and interesting people.
Marcia Page
Marcia is one of New Zealand’s longest standing art dealers. Her gallery opened its doors in 1987 on Tinakori Road, and today Page Galleries is sat at Victoria Street. She specialises in mid-career and senior New Zealand artists, and has sold some of Wellington’s most expensive and impressive art collections.
Anne Noble
Anne is one of New Zealand’s most widely recognised contemporary photographers. Her work spans across landscape, installations, documentary, and has taken her all across the world, including extensive work in Antarctica. She is Professor of Fine Arts (Photography) at Massey University Wellington, and in 2003 she was awarded New Zealand Order of Merit for her services to photography.
Neil Pardington
Neil’s practice has been described as “straight photography with a twist” – he works in the space between documentary photography and conceptual photography. Neil is of Ngāi Tahu, Ngāti Mamoe, Ngāti Kahugnunu and Pākehā descent and is a graduate of Elam School of Fine Arts. He was the 2011 recipient of the Marti Friedlander Photographic Award and is a founding trustee of the Paemanu Ngāi Tahu Contemporary Visual Arts trust.
Jono Rotman
Jono is an artist working between Aotearoa New Zealand and the United States, with his work exhibited and represented in collections across the US, Europe, and Australasia. Rotman’s work is predicated on the idea that civilisation is a delicate fiction. His practice focuses on the point at which different power structures meet, often drawing him to subjects on the edges of society. He is the recipient of the Prix du Livre Images Vevey (2018), and The Marti Friedlander Photographic Award (2013).
Matariki Williams
Matariki (Ngāi Tūhoe, Ngāti Hauiti, Taranaki, Ngāti Whakaue) is co-founder and co-editor of ATE Journal of Māori Art and co-author of the award-winning Protest Tautohetohe: Objects of Resistance, Persistence and Defiance. She has a Masters in Museums and Heritage Studies, and is currently the Senior Curator Mātauranga Māori at Te Papa Tongarewa.
Virginia Woods-Jack
Virginia is a British-born photographic artist, advocate and curator living and working in Aotearoa. She is the founder and curator of Women in Photography NZ & AU. Her work has been widely exhibited internationally and published in the Guardian, the Observer, Harper’s Magazine, and Time Magazine. In 2010 she was also a finalist in the New Zealand Contemporary Art Award. Her photobook None of this was done with us in mind will be published by Bad News Books this year.
Judging criteria
Judges will be looking for:
• Natural talent over digital editing skills.
• Photographs with a strong narrative that evokes a feeling, or an original perspective.
• Photographers who represent their entered category brief well.
• Photographs that fit the CPotY 2021 criteria (taken within the wider Wellington region between 1 January 2020 and 27 April 2021).
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