Last night we attended the NZ Geographic Awards Night 2018 as Edin had again been selected as a finalist in the Wildlife category. We have had a good run with invitations in 2014 when Edin was Young Photographer of the year, 2016 when we were both finalists, (Edin achieving a Highly Commended in Wildlife and I was runner-up in Landscape) and 2017 when I was again a finalist in the Landscape category.
2018 was Edin’s turn to shine again with a well conceived and executed image of Grey-faced Petrels returning to Burgess Island in the dark. These birds have a special significance as they were her study species for her Masters research last year and we shared a number of long nights catching and sampling from these lovely birds that few get to see.
The format of the awards this year was quite different with no exhibition of photos which was strange and not ideal. It was hosted at Q Theatre in Queen Street and the first part comprised a keynote presentation by Robin Hammond on his documentary photography. Robin has an impressive resume including, National Geographic covers and articles, winner of the Eugene W Smith Memorial Fund, Pulitzer finalist, Amnesty International award winner and World Press awards. He presented images from a number of his projects and gave a great insight into the difficulties in pursing this genre. His images were powerful and some quite confronting in what they conveyed. He shared how W. Eugene Smith’s book Minamata had been an inspiration to him as a student. Smith’s Minamata and Life essay on an American country doctor were ground breaking and are iconic. It was clear from Robin’s images that he has taken this baton and carried it forward impressively. Smith would be proud to see the quality of the work that he inspired.
After a meal break the awards returned to the usual format with James Frankham leading the presentations in his inimitable way. As always the quality of work was inspiring. Having Edin come in as runner-up in the Wildlife category to the eventual overall winner of NZ Geographic Photographer of the Year 2018, Derek Morrison was a real thrill. The wildlife category is always very competitive with more finalists than any other category. The challenge is always illustrating something interesting in a new way and Edin achieved this well by photographing a pelagic bird that only returns to land in the dark. See Edin’s blog post for the story behind her photo.
Photos of the NZ Geographic Awards night 2018 with Fuji X100F
