MEDIA RELEASE
29 May 2008
Stop the holiday traffic – it’s Manukau Light Night
Manukau City hosts a spectacular photographic projection event to start the Queen’s Birthday weekend launch for the 5th
Auckland Festival of Photography 2008. “Manukau Light Night” - the first event of its kind in New Zealand. “Manukau Light Night” will project work by ten of New Zealand’s foremost contemporary photographers onto Manukau City’s Civic Centre and
Kotuku House, viewable by the public from Manukau Square. It is first of 56 events and exhibitions in the annual June
Festival.
Manukau Light Night will begin at 7pm on Friday 30 May and run until 9.30pm with the event’s projection programme shown
on 3 screens at 7pm.
Christopher Johnstone, “Manukau Light Night” curator and producer says “Projecting work to such an extreme size gives it
a dramatically vivid and powerful effect, providing each photographer a unique opportunity to produce a series of images
rising to that challenge.”
The artists in “Manukau Light Night” are Edith Amituanai, Amber de Boer, Bruce Connew, Derek Henderson, Glenn Jowitt,
Anne Noble, Fiona Pardington, Patrick Reynolds, Harvey Benge, and Wayne Wilson Wong.
Auckland Festival of Photography organiser Julia Durkin says “It’s the start of the biggest visual arts Festival in the
Auckland region and we are proud to deliver an innovative event that puts photography and Manukau centre stage with an
outdoor nighttime event – it’s a visual feast, which combines diverse urban landscapes, people and accessible fine art.”
“Manukau Light Night” will be a combined programme with images of Manukau taken by photographers from the region,
including Manukau School of Visual Arts students, as well as a preview of photography in the Festival 2008 exhibitions.
It is sponsored by Manukau City Council, Westfield Manukau, The Lion Foundation and the South Auckland Charitable Trust.
The Auckland Festival of Photography runs from 30 May to 22 June 2008 and includes hundreds of photographers and
artists’ work to see at 43 participating galleries and venues presenting over 56 exhibitions and events in June.
ENDS