Festival Patron 2008 - Gil Hanly
"I am honoured to be the patron of this amazing Auckland Festival of Photography. I applaud the choice of the Festival's focus on culture, identity, participation and artistic excellence.
With recent developments in technology, photography as a medium has become accessible to the masses. Most people have access to a camera now even if only on a cell phone, thereby contributing to the expansion of this Festival across some forty-three venues.
At this 2008 Festival, some of the many ways that people have chosen to display, comment, or document the world around us are in evidence. You the visitor can judge the effectiveness of those efforts in recording our distinctive culture, society and art."
Festival Patron 2007 - Marti Friedlander
"Photography has played a major role in my life for over 50 years, and will continue to do so. Since working as a studio assistant in London in the 1950s, and producing my first New Zealand photographs in 1960, I have witnessed extraordinary changes in photographic technology and practice.
I am particularly pleased to see that these changes, together with developments in communication, have meant not only that photography is recognised today as a highly collectable art form, but also that it is now possible to present in New Zealand an exciting photographic festival of this scope and scale. I am honoured to be the first of the Auckland Festival of Photography's annual Patrons. And I am especially happy to promote its focus on culture, identity, participation, and artistic excellence".
