Congratulations to the winners of the New Zealand Geographic Photographer of the Year 2016. From 3500 entries, these are the finest visions of our environment and society, and this year’s contribution to the ever-expanding record of our place, and our people.
For eight years, Kiwi photographers have gathered the best images of our environment and society and submitted them to expert judgment and public scrutiny in the New Zealand Geographic Photographer of the Year competition. It has for some time been the country’s largest photography contest, and certainly the most popular photographic exhibition—thousands of entries, tens of thousands of visitors, tens of thousands of votes cast for the Panasonic People’s Choice award.
Each year the standard improves, both in the quality of photographic craft and also in the technology available to the photographer. This year we have images shot in near total darkness and photographers employing focus-stacking technologies to render every hair of a wasp in perfect detail. There are timelapse videos made from many thousands of individual frames, and in a new category, photographers taking to the sky for the aerial perspective—in helicopters and now a range of drones that look as much like delicate insects as anything in the wildlife category.
As always, however, it was the special relationship with the subject that differentiated the winners—each a startling insight into the lives and landscapes shared by New Zealanders.
PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR 2016: IAIN MCGREGOR
This competition has always sought to celebrate New Zealand without fear or favour—a record of the real New Zealand, rather than the polished and art-directed version that appears in our publicity. Some of the images can be uncomfortable; they challenge our beliefs and our prejudices, they can be confronting and bring us face to face with truths that we may rather ignore.
That’s an attitude reflected in the work of this year’s worthy winner, Iain McGregor. As a photographer for The Press in Christchurch, McGregor was on the spot to cover the bush fires that raged through Canterbury, the evacuation of towns in their path, the terrified residents, and the exhaustion of fire crews battling the blaze. His portfolio also included burn-outs in muscle cars, kapa haka festivals, Prince Harry playfully engaging with a toddler, and tourists dwarfed by Fox Glacier, even as the glacier retreats from view.
The range and quality of his work are extraordinary, but through it runs a compassionate thread that tells a story about the shared values and experiences of New Zealanders.
Images that give us pause, or make us laugh, or bring a tear, are disarming. They cause us to rethink our values, confront our prejudices, or connect with people in circumstances very different from our own. This is the triumph of photojournalism, and it’s at work every time McGregor releases his shutter.
