Auckland through the lens of a smartphone: unique street photography exhibition opening this Sunday
A unique street photography campaign that has captured the hustle and bustle of Auckland city in a series of stunning
gallery images is set to open to the public this Sunday. Unlike most photography exhibitions, each and every artistic
street shot was taken entirely on a smartphone – the Huawei P10, making it potentially New Zealand’s very first
smartphone photography exhibition. The exhibition will be held at Metro Gallery in Auckland and will run from Sunday
1stOctober until Tuesday 31st October.
The talented multi-award winning Auckland photographer behind the exhibition, Richard Wong, is excited to share the
incredible shots he captured on his Huawei P10 device. “I’m looking forward to Aucklanders experiencing the exhibition –
I anticipate many viewers who aren’t aware of the camera details will assume a high-end professional camera was used for
the photographs,” says Wong.
Wong’s street style photography utilises the Huawei P10 Leica dual lens camera - one lens of which is entirely dedicated
to black and white photography - resulting in sharp, striking shots. Wong has also emphasised natural lighting
throughout the collection, relying on shadowing and streams of natural sunlight to take stunning city shots. “As a
professional photographer, I was amazed by how detailed photographs looked on my Huawei P10 camera. After I started
taking casual photographs on my device and realised how incredible the camera really is, I challenged myself to create
an entire gallery-worthy collection of photographs that could be exhibited in a leading art gallery,” says Wong. “I’m
thrilled that I managed to accomplish this goal and am excited to share my collection.”
Wong is an advocate for smartphone photography. He says he often gets friends, family and followers asking him which
high-end camera they need to purchase to take quality photographs. Wong says that amateur photographers don’t
necessarily need to wait until they can afford expensive equipment when they likely already have a decent camera in
their pocket, and hopes this exhibition will inspire budding photographers to get out and about and start shooting.
“Your smartphone is more than capable of taking stunning photographs, and best of all, it is always on you. Smartphones
give the photographer more flexibility to take spontaneous shots without having to set up elaborate photography
equipment. My exhibition shows that in 2017, everyone can be a photographer,” concludes Wong.
Richard Wong’s smartphone photography tips:
• Hold the phone with two hands for a more steady and sharp photo
• If you find your photo or your subject is too dark, (which usually happens when you are shooting with the sun or
strong light behind your subject), tap on something that is dark in the scene from a similar distance and the photo will
be brighter
• You can plug in headphones and use it as a remote trigger to take a photo
• Shoot in RAW mode if you are preparing to do a bit of photo editing yourself
• The Huawei P10 camera has a manual control (Pro mode), which gives you ‘DSLR style’ manual camera control. You
don’t have to shoot in manual mode all the time as the camera is pretty smart by itself these days, but it’s good when
you want to be more creative or pick the best setting yourself
ENDS