Five local photographers have captured award-winning photos to add to their album.
Stoke-based Steve Hussey, Nelson-based Francesca Beckett and Victoria Vincent, and Richmond-based Jessica Shirley and Sarah McGregor together won 26 awards at the New Zealand Institute of Professional Photography (NZIPP) Iris Awards in Christchurch last month.
The awards are held so the institute can focus on raising the profile and standard of New Zealand’s professional photography sector.
Steve says his collection of nine awards included one gold which captured a Nelson woman inside her landslide-damaged home in the aftermath of the 2022 Nelson floods.
“I’m a volunteer firefighter as well, and on the night of the floods.
“I was helping neighbours evacuate and this lady we had known since she moved into the neighbourhood, who had put everything into this house, got completely demolished by this landslide,” he says.
“She said ‘would you like to take some photos’, and I was in the garage with her, and the garage wall is completely blown out and it’s full of mud and debris and she just looked up at the camera.
“She had quite a haunted expression on her face, but the judges loved it because they could tell that she was an older lady, and she was still maintaining her dignity and trying to recover from this unrecoverable situation.”
Victoria won a duo of awards including a gold in the animal category for her photo of her family’s rat in her daughter’s hair.
“I wasn’t expecting it at all so the surprise was wonderful,” she says.
“My intention was to tell the story of the relationship between the rat and my daughter, and the judges fully understood it which was an amazing feeling.”
Jessica achieved six awards which included silver distinction, silver and bronze, for her photos of an elderly resident living independently in her twilight years.
“I met with a lovely lady once a week for a few months, listened to her life story and photographed her going about her everyday life,” she says.
“Her husband had died earlier in the year, and she carried his ashes around the house with her, from room to room as she went about her day, she even took his ashes for rides in the car.”
Francesca won three awards including a silver distinction for her maternity photo called ‘Between’.
“It’s a unique take on a maternity photo with the mother perfectly floating half above and below, it’s how I think of pregnancy - not quite a mother yet but not quite childless,” she says.
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“I edited it to show her eyes open above the water and closed in the reflection, which I was a little worried the judges wouldn’t notice, but thankfully one of them did and it’s one of the reasons I was awarded a distinction.
“I was listening to the judging on YouTube as we were driving down to Christchurch, and I sat on the kerb in Murchison as it was being judged in floods of happy tears.”
