It’s been a great time to pick up a camera again because I’m finding no end of inspiration out there. In addition to getting fired up by working with the passionate crew on D-Photo and The Photographer’s Mail and dealing with the industry in general, I’ve been taking in the Auckland Festival of Photography 2009.

With my fellow photo nut about town, Mr. Tim Grey, I’ve been to seven exhibitions across the city, starting with the Gravity Festival on Tuesday, where we were shuttled around in a small fleet of even smaller Minis, including one driven by a lovely young South Island lass in a Cooper cabriolet who thought barreling around the city in Winter with the top down was a fun idea. Apparently people from down South don’t consider Auckland cold. Still, despite my frozen ears, the five exhibitions were hot (or is that cool?) and well worth attending.

Being able to see a variety of exhibitions dotted around town in one night was a real pleasure and I particularly enjoyed As a Hero of Nippon by Mark Leonard Watts at the Satellite Gallery in Newton . What I initially assumed was an exercise in Photoshop turned out to be a blend of technical expertise and clever post production work – well worth a look. Harvey Benge’s BIG WORK small works at the Bath Street Gallery in Parnell was also very, very cool.

On Wednesday, we got around to the opening night of the Epson/NZIPP Iris Professional Photography Awards, which is a marvelous showcase of some of best photography that NZ has to offer. There are 150 images from the 2008 awards on show until June the 26th in the Vero Center Foyer on Shortland Street (7AM to 6PM Mon to Fri). The landscapes alone are worth the visit.

Last night we trekked to the last night of the outdoor show – The Big Little City Light Nights, where the images of five Magnum photographers were projected on the wall of the New Auckland Art Gallery. Very atmospheric and very enjoyable indeed. I had a long chat with festival director Julia Durkin, who told me that the festival has more than quadrupled in size since it started in 2004, which bodes well for photography in NZ as a whole.

There are shows running until the 21st of June and Auckland Photo Day is tomorrow – Saturday 6th of June (with prizes to be won), check out the details at www.photographyfestival.org.nz

There’s inspiration in the form of great photos secreted all over Auckland, so forget the cold, get out there, see what Kiwi’s are shooting and do some shooting yourself.

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