Contemporary Auckland captured in new Commissions project
Project launched to capture and diversify Auckland’s visual heritage
Auckland Festival of Photography [Whakaahua Hākari] is proud to announce a new partnership for the 2025 Community Commissions with Auckland Council Libraries | Ngā Pataka Korero o Tāmaki Makaurau. This initiative will support Auckland-based photographers in creating contemporary works that expand and enrich the visual record of Tāmaki Makaurau.
"Auckland Festival of Photography is excited about this new partnership with Auckland Council Libraries," says AFP director and founder, Julia Durkin. “Through these Commissions, we aim to capture diverse perspectives of our communities, ensuring Auckland’s photographic heritage is reflective of the people who live here today.”
AFP is proud to announce the recipients of the 2025 Community Commissions: Edith Amituanai, Tuāfale Tanoa'i - the artist formerly known as Linda T, and Emily Mafile'o.
The 2025 Community Commissions will contribute to and highlight Auckland Council Libraries’ substantial Special Collections, helping to ensure that Auckland’s photographic archives better represent the city’s dynamic and evolving communities. The newly commissioned works will be produced over several months and made available later this year via the Auckland Libraries Research portal – Kura Heritage Collections Online.
“This project is an important step in broadening our photographic collections to be more inclusive of the many cultures, identities, and stories that make up Tāmaki Makaurau,” says Stacey Smith, Research and Heritage Services Manager at Auckland Council Libraries. “We are committed to ensuring our collections remain relevant and representative, providing future generations with a richer, more diverse visual history of our city.”
The new work will be available to research after June 2025.
Ends. 6 March 2025
Edith Amituanai
Edith Amituanai is a New Zealand-born Sāmoan photographer in Tāmaki Makaurau,.
From interiors to driveways to communities, Amituanai’s practice is concerned with environments that shape who we are. Her ongoing study of the Sāmoan transnational community and their homes has taken her across New Zealand, Sāmoa, France, Italy, Canada and the United States of America. In 2008 Amituanai was nominated for the Walters Prize for her series Dejeuner which examined a new diaspora, expatriate New Zealand-Sāmoan rugby players living and working in France and Italy.
Since then, she has literally and politically widened the photographic frame to include the street. Amituanai’s interest in embedding herself in the environment she is working in, means she often takes on different roles in the community from sports team manager, and youth worker to freelance photographer.
As a teaching artist, she has led a variety of workshops for art galleries, community groups, and institutions. In 2017 she undertook a six-week residency at Kimi Ora Community School Flaxmere resulting in the exhibition, Keep on Kimi Ora at Hastings Art Gallery featuring photographs taken by students of the school.
In 2019 Edith held her first major survey exhibition Edith Amituanai: Double Take at Te Pātaka Toi Adam Art Gallery at Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington. In the same year, she became a member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to photography and community. In February 2025 she was included in the Hawaii Triennial. Amituanai has exhibited extensively and her work is held in public collections including Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery and QAGOMA.
Tuāfale Tanoa'i the artist formerly known as Linda T.
Tuāfale Tanoa’i aka Linda T. is an artist raised in Kingsland Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland and is of Samoan descent. Villages affiliated to are Lufilufi, Sa’asa’ai, Leauva’a. Using video, photography and DJ-ing Tuāfale’s practice aims to document and share community stories, generating a living archive. Her kaupapa has been described as one that is based on koha – often made with and gifted back to the communities she is engaged with.
Emily Mafile'o
Emily Mafile'o describes herself as a Tongan, New Zealand European, Maori artist living in South Auckland, Aotearoa, New Zealand. More details here soon.
A NZ/Tongan artist who is using a modern medium is the Ōtara photographer, Emily Mafile‘o. She photographs her own people from a Tongan perspective – a different approach from the European viewpoint in many existing photographs of Tongans
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Annual Commission 2011 - 2020
We are disappointed to announce the 11th Annual Commission was unable to proceed due to changes in the funding support and the extended 2021 Auckland Covid lockdown making it difficult to find sponsorship.
Each year, from 2011 to 2020 through the Auckland Festival of Photography Annual Commission, an Auckland-based photographer is commissioned to create a new body of work for exhibition during the Festival. The commission provides an opportunity to support and promote an Auckland photographer as well as create a cultural and artistic asset for present and future Auckland audiences to enjoy. Since 2011 the Auckland Festival of Photography project has resulted in the creation of 33 artworks in 10 years.
Annual Commission comprises a cash grant to one talented artist, a key part of the Auckland Festival of Photography goals are to support emerging to mid career photographic artists. The exhibition that results, are a combination of the artists vision and the AFP team expertise to the development of the Annual Commission. The commission allows the artists to freely create several new photographic works, the Festival provides a grant, professional support & consulting by an experienced director, curator, exhibition opportunities at a waterfront iconic venue and top-quality promotional support and international exhibition opportunites. To date over $100,000 in invested the Annual Commission and has been a key cultural Award to support photographic artists in New Zealand.
