2021 Nikon/NZIPP Iris Professional Photography Awards // Grand Master of Photography NZIPP
Another year of awards has come and gone and I’m now writing this blog post 2 weeks (or so) into NZ’s August 2021 Delta Covid-19 Lockdown. Fun times! Covid has been with us for over 18 months now and New Zealand got to experience 6 months without it. One good thing that came out of that 6 months though, was being able to travel down to Nelson to collect my Grand Master of Photography Distinction, something I’ve been working towards for years. It was wonderful to be able to receive this award in person along with some other good friends and colleagues in the industry. This is not an award that is easily achievable, as there are currently only 21 Grand Masters of Photography in New Zealand (as of 2021). It is the highest distinction from the NZIPP, and is awarded for showing a commitment to excellence in photography over a number of years through the NZIPP Iris Awards. I’m quite proud about this bad boy.
I needed 1 more Gold award to attain my Grand Masters and thankfully, I got 2! One was a Gold Distinction, that scored 97/100 (the image above) which I was pretty stoked about! The judging for this image (which happened to be the last one judged in the category) was really interesting, as I sat and listened in elation as the starting score came in at 93 - Gold! It was then spoken up to a Gold Distinction with some interesting narrative such as “it says nothing, yet it says everything”. This image was also awarded the Highest Scoring Entry in the Wedding Open Category. I was also named a finalist in this category.
I’m usually left with a strange ambivalence about the awards. Each year I ask myself “who gets to say what art should score and how on earth does one award art?” But at the same time, I love the process of pushing myself creatively, which is exactly what the awards platform does. Spending time with others in the industry is essential for growth and learning too (yes even after all this time, we’re all still learning), and the positive vibes that I get from the camaraderie and friendships, is all so valuable to me.
I’m no stranger to taking risks for the awards, and didn’t break this habit this year either. One in particular was my ‘bride’s eating’ collection. This idea was born at the beginning of the 2020 season after I jokingly photographed a bride while she was taking a bit of her canapé. We joked about sanitising hands before eating (Covid etc.) and I didn’t think much of it until I went to edit the wedding and then the idea was born, that I could possibly make something both humourous and interesting here. So each wedding after that I made an effort to do the same (of course while letting the brides know what my main goal was) and had a bit of fun with it. The whole idea behind it was to outline just how human we all are, brides too. Everyone expects them to be perfect and sparkly on their wedding day but they too need to eat. These are behind the scenes images that other wedding guests don’t get to see. It’s real life. I added the commentary to enhance the narrative and humour. Many people know my work as being quirky and fun, and as usual this was the idea. It’s probably one of the riskiest images I’ve ever created and entered into an awards platform but it paid off for me luckily, with a Gold Award.
Below are the rest of my awarded photographs from the Wedding Categories:
…and awards from the Travel and Documentary Categories:
