2022 Highs and Lows

Another year done. 

Watching the BBC’s ‘2022's biggest stories... in 74 seconds’ it is clear that at a global level, we just lived through another rather depressing year. But luckily we all have our own tiny little lives weaved into this big tapestry, and sometimes despite the global turmoil we have our own wins, our own special moments.

Looking back, 2022 has been a pretty good year in my professional photography career. Teaching photography at UCOL Te Pūkenga delivered some rewarding experiences. I was also active in a number of photography and art competitions, took part in a regional exhibition, and as the world started to open up post-Covid, I’ve been able to work on a range of corporate photography assignments with clients old and new.

Of course there were setbacks too, like losing my social media accounts after being hacked. But more on that later.

Teaching photography at UCOL Te Pūkenga

It has again been inspiring to follow the brief but intense creative journeys of the students doing my Introductory Photography and Intermediate Photography short courses. Having taught these courses for a few years now I remain amazed by the growth of the students, often coming into the Intro course as complete novices, and stepping out of the Intermediate course with strong and creative photography portfolios. Our 2022 Intermediate Photography cohort again punched way above their weight at the NZIPP Iris Photography Awards, bagging many Bronze and Silver awards (no Golds were awarded in the Student category this year). As was the case in 2021, I am proud to have had one of my students named a finalist for Student of the Year. Congratulations Louise!

During 2022 I took a break from teaching on the Bachelor of Creative Media degree - a course I have been teaching on since joining UCOL Te Pūkenga in 2017. This was a very good thing - a change is as good as a holiday, as they say - and teaching on a different set of courses afforded me a fresh perspective.

In particular, I had the opportunity to teach photography to a very young cohort in our Certificate in Art and Design course, which has taught me a few things. Most importantly, I learned that Generation Z seem to relate to photography and visual media in a totally different way to what I have gotten used to with the somewhat older students I’ve taught in the past. The standard cues that trigger older generations (the exposure triangle, composition, technique, equipment) leave Gen Z cold, and I’ve realised that I have to approach things from a completely different angle to engage these youngsters. Worried less about the technical side, the how of creating a photographic image, they are much more interested in the content, the what and the why - an important shift in focus that has certainly impacted (positively, I hope) my own approach to the photographic medium.

Continuing my love/hate relationship with photo competitions

Despite my continued questioning of the worth of photographic competitions, and the style of photography they often engender, 2022 turned out to be my most active year yet in this space. I entered the maximum allotted 10 images into the NZIPP Iris Awards, participated in the Australian Mono Awards, entered the local Fielding Art Awards, submitted images to Capture Magazine’s Annual (best of the year) edition, and as the year drew to a close, tried my hand with a few images submitted to the Asia Pacific Photography Awards.

The 2022 NZIPP Iris Professional Photography Awards went well. I entered six prints and four digital images, and while not achieving any ‘golden highs’, my six prints netted two Silvers and four Bronzes, while my digital entries received one Bronze and three Professional Standard awards. I was particularly proud of my skinscape abstract landscape triptych (the result of an extended exploration into abstract self-portraits, skin close-ups, blurred selfies and more) that got acknowledged with a silver award and some strong debate among the judges. Another personal competition highlight was a set of science images straight from my Sciencelens corporate portfolio, presented as a polyptych, that resulted in some lively discussion among the judges, with a couple of judges pushing for a Silver Distinction. Unfortunately not all the judges were convinced, and my image ended up with a high Bronze.

A Silver award for A landscape of old skin.

My Sciencelens polyptych received positive feedback and a Bronze award at the NZIPP Iris Awards.

I was satisfied with the results from the Australian Mono Awards for black and white photography as well. One of my images, ‘Puha Palace’, made the top 15 in the competition in the Places category, while my other three entries each received a Highly Commended Award, in the Places, People and Animals categories respectively.

My black and white urban landscape, Puha Palace.

I decided at last minute to enter the 2022 Art Awards hosted by the Feilding & District Art Society. The annual Art Awards attracts entries from the region and nationally across a range of artistic disciplines, and I was honoured to take out the Photography Award for ‘Rogue Appliances #1’, one of my two-image Rogue Appliances series. 

Rogue Applications #1, winner of the Photography section of the 2022 Feilding & District Art Awards.

Every year, Australia’s Capture Magazine finishes their year with a special edition entitled The Annual . In the words of Editor Marc Gafen, “The Annual is a celebration of the most wonderful and inspiring imagery captured and produced over the past year.“ For the 2022 edition I submitted images for consideration in the Art, Documentary and Landscape categories, and I was stoked to have my skinscape triptych selected for inclusion in the Art Photography section.

A spread from Capture Magazine’s Best of 2022 collection, featuring my skinscape triptych.

Finally, the Asia Pacific Awards again proved my least successful foray into the photo competition space - I entered six images, all of which got awarded “Highly Commended” (an award that feels to me a bit like a “thanks for entering” nod from the judges), but unfortunately no Silvers or Golds. So I guess it would count as ending the year on a bit of a low, sadly.

I am a little perplexed by the judging in this competition every year, but that is how these things go.

One of my photos submitted into the Black and White category of the Asia-Pacific awards.

Corporate photography with Sciencelens

On the contract photography side, it was definitely a highlight to see work starting to flow in again after the drought of the 2020-21 Covid years. 

Conferences and events started up again, and I managed to cover some high-end events hosted by the Royal Society Te Apārangi, the University of Otago, Rabobank, Massey University and Kiwinet. I always find it an inspiration photographing events such as these, celebrating the cream of the crop in the New Zealand science and industry space.

Photographing the New Zealand science and technology elite at the 2022 Royal Society Te Apārangi Research Honours event.

In terms of my science photography, it was a joy to get my teeth back into some proper laboratory photography. Updating the photographic library of the Malaghan Institute of Medical Research is an annual highlight, and I also had the opportunity to do some cool work for Massey University, AsureQuality and Farmers Weekly.

I look forward to 2023 - fingers crossed for further growth towards a bumper Sciencelens year!

Photographing scientists at work at the Malaghan Institute for Medical Research.

Social Media and online presence

Of course there had to be some lows. In my case this came rather abruptly late last year when I woke up one spring morning to find my Facebook and Instagram accounts hacked. Compromised to such an extent, in fact, that I completely lost access to both accounts and eventually had to witness my accounts being deleted, unable to do anything about it.

Not a good week.

Being on Instagram certainly had its positives, most of all forcing me to photograph more, which is never a bad thing. Since the demise of my Instagram account I have to grudgingly admit that I have been taking less photos - something I am still trying to remedy. 

But, there are always silver linings, and in my case that included finally getting my personal photography website off the ground to augment my Sciencelens site, and getting more active on LinkedIn (a much more thoughtful and sane space than the Meta social environments).

And I no doubt freed up some time by no longer scrolling through endless Instagram feeds, so that’s another win. Now just to put that to more creative use.

Exhibition activity

A final high worth noting was my involvement in the Hastings FotoFest, a community-focussed photography festival that took place in the Hawke’s Bay town of Hastings over a week in early October. While the first edition of the Fest wasn’t all smooth sailing (isn’t that always the case with inaugurals?) it all went pretty well. It was cool to be involved from the start, and provided an opportunity to exhibit my Central and Southern Hawke’s Bay Urban Landscapes series which cast a photographic eye over the settlements of the region - from the tiny villages of Ongaonga, Tikokino, Ōtāne and Ormondville, to the regional hub of Waipukurau and Waipawa. There was some lovely work exhibited, and I look forward to seeiing the event grow in 2023.

A scene in the small central Hawke’s Bay settlement of Ōtāne - part of my Central and Southern Hawke’s Bay Urban Landscapes series exhibited at Hastings FotoFest 2022.

Looking ahead

With the new year already well into its first month, it is clear that this is likely to be another packed year, with big institutional changes at UCOL Te Pūkenga, increased corporate activity, big study plans and more in the pipeline.

But more on that in future posts.