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

© Scoop Media