Richard Robinson
Photographer of the Year 2013
Congratulations to the winners of the New Zealand Geographic Photographer of the Year 2013. From 3400 entries, these are the finest visions of our environment and society, and this year’s contribution to the ever-expanding record of our place, and our people.
Aoraki Mt Cook National Park contains more than 140 peaks standing over 2000 metres high, and includes some 72 named glaciers which cover 40 per cent of the park’s area. Among them is Tasman Glacier, New Zealand’s longest, where Jason Hosking was attracted to the soft, glowing quality of light, and the subtle tones of blue inside an ice cave. This picture was an abstract detail from a wider series he was shooting in the region as part of a book project that took him through 14 national parks over a period of four months. In all he captured several thousand frames, but the simplicity and tranquility of this picture made it his pick for this competition.
The finalists in the 2013 Photographer of the Year competition each offer a unique insight into who we are as a people, and where we live. They were shot entirely within New Zealand territory, by amateurs and professionals alike, young and old. The pictures come from locations familiar to all of us, and other places few have the opportunity to visit.
And this year, like no other, many of the finalists feature the ocean realm. Some 96 per cent of our Exclusive Economic Zone is covered by salt water, and 80 per cent of our nation’s biodiversity lives in the seas around us, so it should be little surprise that many of the finalists have turned their lenses upon the marine subjects in 2013, despite the enormous technical challenges of working in that environment.
New Zealand Geographic would like to congratulate Richard Robinson, supreme winner and New Zealand Geographic Photographer of the Year 2013.
PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR 2013: RICHARD ROBINSON
The photographer with the best portfolio of images is selected from all of the entries to be awarded the highest prize and the title New Zealand Geographic Photographer of the Year 2013. They must demonstrate technical excellence, but most of all, an exceptional and original approach to the craft of photography; at once journalism and art. This year, the photographer who rose to the top was Richard Robinson, a press photographer for the New Zealand Herald, long-time contributing photographer to New Zealand Geographic, and winner of this award back in 2010. Robinson’s images are exceptional by any measure. From a juvenile green turtle recuperating at Kelly Tarlton’s Underwater World to the extraordinarily rare sight of a leopard anemone adrift in the blue during a little-understood and rarely documented part of its life cycle, these are images that communicate the essential qualities of life in New Zealand—unusual, fragile and often poorly understood. It’s hard to appreciate the difficulty involved in capturing images of this quality and gaining proximity to wild animals in their natural realm; a never-ending battle against salt water, limited light, and the tyranny of odds involved in drawing close enough to rare and retiring creatures. In this Robinson excels, and draws us all closer to understanding and appreciating that world.
ALL AWARDS:
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- The Young Photographer of the Year award is selected across all entrants under the age of 21 and evaluated against the same standards of technical proficiency and approach. Oxana Repina’s photographs showed her enormous potential to visualise a great picture, particularly of avian subjects. From birds preening in a river after a downpour, to original conceptions of birdlife from the foreshore and offshore island sanctuaries of the greater Auckland region, they are well-composed, carefully exposed studies that demonstrate Repina’s potential as a photographer.
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- Ian Harrison and his partner Megan were at a Ratana church on a peaceful evening in Raetihi. Harrision says that as his partner approached the church, a horse in the neighboring paddock came over to greet her. He waited for the moment when the horse touched Megan’s outstretched hand to take the photo. Tahupotiki Wiremu Ratana founded the Ratana Movement in the early 20th century at the settlement of Ratana, near Whanganui. Initially known as a healer, many people flocked to hear his teachings which led to the establishment of his own church in 1925 with it’s distinctive bell towers.
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- Robert Kitchin, chief photographer at the Manawatu Standard, was photographing at a Massey University Orientation toga party where hundreds of first-year students gathered to take part in what has become something of a student institution. Kitchin captured the students reveling in their own world, oblivious to what was around them, event the presence of the photographer.
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- Auckland’s population is estimated to grow from 1.5 million citizens to over 2.5 million by mid-century. Carolyn Archer’s photograph was taken from her hotel room on an overnight trip to Auckland, and expresses the best of urban living. It is a picture of people going about their everyday lives, says Archer, but also appears to reflect a deeper human connection between otherwise disparate lives in the big city.
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- Peter Graney, a member of the Rotorua Camera Club, made this picture of a speedway bicycle rider concentrating as he comes into the turn. Young riders look on in awe. The UCI BMX World Championships were held in New Zealand for the first time in Auckland this year. BMX is a sport on the rise, thanks largely to its debut as an Olympic sport at the Beijing Games in 2008.
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- A keen amateur photographer, Cherie Palmer says that this candid photograph made of a couple having a picnic tea on a summer’s day in Rarangi spoke to her of Kiwi culture and life’s simple pleasures. Palmer says that she loves to create images that connect the viewer with the moment, capturing small instances of time from the sometimes hectic pace of life.
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- When the family home was washed away by a flood in the Waimana River, Maui Te Pou (pictured left) built a whare high on the side of the Matahi Valley, which is now a sleep-out for his 12-year-old granddaughter Taonga Freedom Teaonui. Taonga, whose first name means ‘treasure’, is being raised by her grandparents after her father died in an accident.
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- Aoraki Mt Cook National Park contains more than 140 peaks standing over 2000 metres high, and includes some 72 named glaciers which cover 40 per cent of the park’s area. Among them is Tasman Glacier, New Zealand’s longest, where Jason Hosking was attracted to the soft, glowing quality of light, and the subtle tones of blue inside an ice cave. This picture was an abstract detail from a wider series he was shooting in the region as part of a book project that took him through 14 national parks over a period of four months. In all he captured several thousand frames, but the simplicity and tranquility of this picture made it his pick for this competition.
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- Derek Morrison’s photographic work is focused on adventure sports and recreation; mountain biking, running, cycling, mountain sports and surfing. When making this image Morrison says he was drawn to the contrast between the peacefulness and beauty of the ocean at dusk, and the adrenaline and frenzy of a breaking wave at this popular surf spot in Dunedin. Just a few kilometres south of the city the beach is nonetheless pounded by the swells from storms that swirl about Southern Ocean and propagate up the Otago coast.
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- A super-moon rises over New Brighton Pier. The Moon’s elliptical orbit around Earth means that once in every 14 cycles it passes close, appearing substantially larger and also resulting in ‘perigean’ spring tides. Sharon Brophy used the opportunity to photograph at the pier, where a large swell was rolling in. The coincidence of the frail dusk light and thin loom of the super-moon leant a ghostly quality to the long exposure. The moon will not be so close again until August 10, 2014.
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- Dramatic and unusual lighting on clouds was reflected in the almost-perfect mirror formed by a fine film of saltwater over dark sand. Chris Morton has been collecting imagery around Great Barrier Island to produce a book. His best landscape work occurs at the intersection of changing weather, he says. This photograph, more than any he had made of the complex clouds and showers to the east of Great Barrier, appealed to Morton as it best captured the magic of what he had witnessed.
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- A rare lenticular cloud hangs above the eastern slopes of Mt Ruapehu in the Rangipo Desert during a northwesterly weather pattern. The distinctive lens-shaped formations are almost stationary and are normally aligned perpendicularly to the wind direction. Bevan Percival was captivated by the unusual shape of the cloud and the way in which it appeared to hover over the large boulder—a volcanic projectile—in the foreground. He spent several hours with his son watching the cloud develop and searching for the right angle and an interesting foreground.
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- A leopard anemone floats into the deep blue at Oculina Point, Poor Knights Islands Marine Reserve. These anemones generally inhabit black coral and gorgonian fans on deep reefs out of recreational diving range. Robinson says he stumbled across an unusual phenomenon in which 15–20 specimens had detached from the reef and were drifting out into the blue, a migration presumably part of their life cycle.
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- A white-capped albatross chases fishing scraps off South East Bay, Great Island during the Three Kings Islands Marine Expedition, a project led by Auckland Museum. The largest of the smaller albatrosses, it is also the most abundant in the New Zealand region, with 70–80,000 breeding pairs in chilly subantarctic waters of the Auckland Islands thousands of kilometres to the south. How and why the colony became established in a subtropical environment as far north as the Three Kings Group is not well understood.
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- Whitebait are the juvenile or larval form of five different species of native freshwater fish. They grow up to become inanga, koaro, banded kokopu, giant kokopu and short-jawed kokopu. These native fish are known as galaxiids, due to constellation patterns found on the adult fish, in particular the giant kokopu. New Zealand whitebait are caught in the lower reaches of rivers using small open-mouthed hand-held nets. Whitebaiters tend the nets constantly in order to lift them as soon as a school enters. The ‘bait, however, are sensitive to objects in the river and adept at dodging the nets or swimming back out. Cherie Palmer made this photograph when the Nelson season was in full swing.
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- Darryl Torckler captured this image of a bright red male pigfish among hundreds of blue maomao when snorkeling with his children Blue Maomao. After many years of seeing his underwater imagery, it was the first time Torckler’s children had observed him engaged in his craft first-hand. Maomao prefer rocky shores about headlands and offshore islands, frequently moving in schools which, when near the surface, impart a bright blue coloration to the water. By contrast, the pigfish are territorial and usually solitary. (Unusually, pigfish are all born as females and the most dominant become males as they mature.)
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- Tania Warbrick, a keen amateur photographer, says she initially intended to photograph a flock of ducks when she was composing an image at the Virginia Lake in Whanganui. However a lone scaup commanded her attention with its beautiful yellow eye. The endemic scaup, or black teal, is New Zealand’s only true diving duck—it can stay underwater for 30 seconds up to three metres below the surface searching for aquatic plants, small fish, water snails, mussels and insects.
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- Craig Simcox, a photographer for the Dominion Post, made this photo story over the course of two and a half days aboard a fishing trawler crewed by skipper George Imlach and deck hand Craig Cox. Simcox says that although large-scale commercial fishing has come to dominate the fishing scene in New Zealand, smaller operators such as Imlach fish around the clock in Cook Strait and remain an important part of the industry.
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- During the summer, the dining hall at Uwhiarae marae swells with the presence of locals and out-of-towners who come to take part in kapa haka training, try out for the kapa haka team and refresh their Tuhoetanga connection. Some drive from as far afield as Rotorua, Taupo and Wellington each weekend to try for selection. The final team will compete at the kapa haka national championships and at Tuhoe’s own Ahurei festival, held every second Easter long weekend. Photographer Peter James Quinn says it was reassuring to see how strong those cultural ties were and to witness the liveliness of the marae when it was in full use.
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- Robinson’s photo-story includes examples of turtles that had swallowed rope and fishing hooks from a long line. One success story Robinson photographed was that of Tiny, a green turtle which weighed only 657 grams when it washed up on the September 26, 2010, at Muriwai Beach on Auckland’s rugged West Coast. At the last measurement it weighed in at 4.44 kilograms and almost three times the size.
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- The Oamaru Victorian Heritage Celebrations is one of the Waitaki region’s biggest annual events. Taking course over a week, the historic quarter of Oamaru sees an influx of craftsfolk, artists, shopkeepers and musicians. Photographer Colin Monteath says the festival is a spirited occasion that attracts visitors from all over the country, many making the effort to dress in period costume. For Monteath, it was an opportunity to observe as much as partake, moving through the visitors with lightweight camera and a single lens to photograph his subjects without imposing on the moment himself.
