Auckland Festival of Photography Art and Contemporary Art, About Us


	CULTURE - The Festival is a cultural event and experience for many people. Photography is a cultural activity that captures the vast diversity of Auckland and its vibrant personality. The Festival aims to present photographic images that reflect the rich cultural landscape of New Zealand's largest city. IDENTITY - The Festival strives to strengthen our sense of Auckland identity. Photography is a master storyteller. Photographs have the ability to support, provoke, challenge, affirm, educate and speak directly to a community about their unique identity. Telling the stories of communities and their people establishes and builds identities. PARTICIPATION - The Auckland Festival of Photography embraces photographers of every kind. The festival offers established, professional, as well as emerging, student, hobby and first-time photographers the opportunity to actively participate. ART - The Festival celebrates artistic excellence in photography by programming exhibitions and events featuring many of New Zealand's most revered photographers. These exhibitions provide larger audiences access to the very finest of photographic art.

A city-wide contemporary art and cultural event which takes place within Auckland's major galleries, project spaces, non-gallery venues and public sites during June each year. The programme includes a mix of emerging and established artists and comprises existing works and creation of new work. The annual Creative Exposure Festival is produced by the Auckland Festival of Photography Trust. The Trust is a not for profit charitable trust working to further the presence and awareness of photography in Auckland through joint programming, audience development and profile raising activities.

The Trust's goals and objectives are:

Supporting and encouraging local emerging photographers to develop and exhibit their work to the public in Auckland
Region-wide community partnerships and participation
Partnerships with relevant arts and cultural organizations and individuals in the art education and private sectors to facilitate the presentation of photography
A wide range of photographic arts stakeholders including public and commercial galleries and mainstream and cutting edge professional, exhibiting artists
Open-access programmes include "A Bit of a Do" and "Auckland Photo Day" and "Auckland Photo Blog" (online digital participation)
Representing cultural diversity through photographic exhibitions
Strengthen regional identity and assisting the development of cultural tourism in the region