Auckland Photo Wins NZ Prize
News Release
For Immediate Release
The winner of the landscape category in the newest and richest photography awards in the country couldn’t believe he won, as his photo was taken in a small Auckland park and featured an Australian tree.
Auckland photographer Alex Wallace
took the BioPaints Landscape category prize In the New
Zealand Geographic Magazine Photographer of the Year
competition for a photo of a sculptural fig tree in a
relatively unknown Auckland Park called Premier Park.
The photo can be viewed at: http://www.nzgeographic.co.nz/photocomp/winners_landscape.htm
Alex
says he wasn’t at all sure his entry would even be
accepted because the photo was taken in the middle of a city
and it features an Australian tree.
“But what made
this image special to me is that New Zealand spends so much
time and money trying to eradicate external species but I
wanted to show that not everything that comes into the
country is bad and in the case of these fig trees I think
the country would be poorer without them.”
Alex is a
professional photographer from the UK who’s worked in
advertising and who has lived in Auckland for a year. His
inspiration came from seeing the fig trees in Cornwall Park
near his home.
“They were like nothing I’d seen
before. I was always trying to get a good shot of them, and
one morning there was a late bank of fog coming through so I
went to Cornwall Park hoping to get a good shot of the fig
trees. It turned out the fog was further across the valley
at Premier Park – I’d never been there before just seen
it on a map and there I stumbled across this tree with the
light just right and the fog and I took the photo. I
normally take a long time to take a photo and several visits
and planning to get it right, so it was unusual but really
rewarding for that to happen and then to win this award for
it.”
NZ Geographic Competition judge Andris Apse
says of Alex’s work that he seldom sees such carefully
crafted landscape photographs.
“The subdued and
simple palette, exquisite composition I would find it
difficult if not impossible to improve this image. Its
simplicity and subtlety gives it a timeless, classic
quality.”
BioPaints Business Manager Kathryn Barlow says the team at BioPaints was stunned when they saw Alex’s photo.
“It’s simply beautiful. Because this was
the first time the competition had been held we had no idea
what to expect but the quality of the entries was amazing.
Alex has captured the essence of nature and we love it.
BioPaints will be extremely proud to have this print
prominently in our showroom so that we can share it.”
Alex Wallace says he’s captivated by the New
Zealand landscape.
“It is a so much more varied
landscape here than in the UK. You don’t have to look as
hard to find great pictures because the landscape is so
stirring. Even in Auckland you go the West Coast beaches and
they’re entirely different from the East Coast beaches.
Everywhere you turn there are landscapes that take your
breath away. I’m just pleased to have captured some of
them on camera to share.”
Sponsor of the Landscape
category BioPaints will blow up the image and display the
print in their Nelson showroom from the end of November. Six
of Alex’s photographs, including the fig tree, will also
be on display at a new gallery in Nelson called Art in the
Valley, in Teal Valley from mid-December.
Alex says
he’s thrilled BioPaints will be showing his
work.
“I’ve been selling landscape pictures for
years and it’s so hard to represent the quality of an
image online because you’re limited to 700 or 800 pixels,
whereas when you blow it up to 30 or 40 inches you really
resolve all the detail, the colours and tones and that’s
when a picture is represented at its best. It’s much
better for people to see a print. And so that’s why it’s
good for me that they’re having it in their
showroom.”
ENDS