Of course, the subject matter depicted in the images are not always fun, per se. Images in the current affairs category (in which features Robin Hammond, who originally hails from NZ) present a more sobering visual message. A gallery of quirky, inventive and compelling finalist's images follows after the jump. The photos in these awards traverse a number of categories: in the 'professional' competition there are 15 categories within the three subject genres, including photojournalism and documentary (current affairs, contemporary issues, people, arts and culture, and sport); commercial (campaign, travel, lifestyle, still life and fashion) and fine art (architecture, portraiture, landscape, still life and conceptual). 

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This handsome book, published to accompany a Te Papa exhibition, chronicles the professional career of New Zealand’s connection to the glamorous world of mid-century photo-journalism. Brian Brake (1927–88) was a talented craftsman — he was suspicious of the appellation ‘art’ as applied to photography — who began his career at a time when any creative person had to leave New Zealand to satisfy his ambition. In the 1950s he headed to London, and a chance encounter at the Leitz camera factory in Germany led to his joining the famous Magnum agency, the cooperative founded by Robert Capa and Henri Cartier-Bresson. ‘Lucky Brake’, as his friends called him, was off and running. For 20 years he travelled the world on assignment for the great pictorial magazines such as Life and Look.

Brake’s most celebrated photographs date from his early years with Magnum: a 1955 series of photos of Pablo Picasso at a bullfight in the South of France, and the much-reproduced staged portrait of an Indian “peasant” girl from his 1960 “Monsoon” photo essay. But, as this book reveals, there was so much more: journeys to Russia and China, Nigeria and Arabia, Thailand and Vietnam. Brake was a pictorialist working in a post-colonial moment, a camera-toting traveller roving a world on the cusp of mass tourism, when exotic places still existed. Brake’s Asian work expresses a latter-day Orientalism, most overtly in shots such as that of a young Arab sultan heading a procession in Yemen. Lacking the hard edge of Capa — who was never happier than when he was near a battle — and the split-second genius of Cartier-Bresson, Brake was a lyrical chronicler of people and places, including his own country. (His 1963 book, New Zealand: Gift of the Sea, was a tremendous commercial success). Later in his career, in projects including his powerful photographs of artefacts from the Te Maori exhibition which toured the United States in the 1980s, Brake revealed his mastery of object photography. With its knowledgeable essays by specialist writers, Brian Brake: Lens on the World is a fine record of a fine photographer’s achievements.

Brian Brake: Lens on the World by Athol McCredie
RRP $100 (Te Papa Press)
338pp, hardback, full-colour and black and white illustrations

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— Michael Barrett

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For the record, here's the blurb: "Verdi’s Macbeth, one of the greatest operas Shakespeare’s work has inspired, is the classic tale of ambition, corruption and bloody revenge. Truthful to the play, it illustrates with shocking clarity the trail of death and destruction caused by an unbridled lust for power, and its tragic dénouement – this is an example of enthralling operatic drama at its very best."

Auckland – Aotea Centre, THE EDGE

Sat 18, Thu 23, Sat 25 September (7.30pm), Tue 21 September (6.30pm)

Wellington – St James Theatre

Sat 9, Thu 14, Sat 16 October (7.30pm), Tue 12 October (6pm)

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Phillip Simpson.

We like a good portrait here at ProDesign, and over the past decade or so Phillip Simpson has shot more than his fair share. Simpson is a professional photographer who gained much of his international experience in the UK, before returning to NZ in 2006. He says he's perhaps best known for creating "contemporary images of people, within carefully considered locations". As you'll see from this line-up, his carefully composed, intriguing and at times quirky images have a cinematic quality. We asked Simpson to curate a gallery of some of his favourite images and write some accompanying notes to give insight into the process of each shot. Enjoy.

Harland Miller, UK author and artist, London. Client: Time Out magazine, UK.

"This was shot on Tottenham Court Rd in London, at the height of the so called 'Cool Brittania' period and has remained one of my favorite portraits, despite England having entered a far more sober era of late. The location is commonly mistaken for New York. It’s something about the illusory impression that those buildings are taller than they are and the ambience of the park-life in the background. Mr Miller sure knows how to strike a pose and comes over as a cross between Bowie and a '30s movie star. He’s often mistaken for Ewan MacGregor in this portrait. Beneath his cool facade he is an intellectual individual with a real passion for art and literature."
http://the-artists.org/artist/Harland-Miller

Dougal Wilson, UK music video director. Location: Auckland, NZ. Client: Creativity magazine, USA.

"I love working collaboratively with other creative professionals, so it was with great relish that I met with leading UK music video director Dougal Wilson, to make a series of photographs of him defying gravity. The images were shot for a feature on the worlds top directors, for New York magazine Creativity and this one made the cover. In order to create as much of the shot in-camera as possible, this deceptively 'spontaneous' moment involved suspending a gleeful Dougal from a crane, using harness and suspension wires, while CO2 was pumped through the jetpack from outside the frame. Who says work can't be fun?"
http://creativity-online.com/
http://www.colonelblimp.com/music/view-work/item197/Dougal-Wilson/

Liam Finn, musician, Wellington, NZ. Client: Spin magazine, USA.

"Shortly after my return to New Zealand from London, I was commissioned by American music magazine Spin to shoot a portrait of Liam Finn in Wellington. I had grown up there and remembered these old World War 2 gun emplacements on the hills overlooking the city. I found that omitting the office buildings below the scene and including just a hint of the surrounding landscape gave the image a slightly surreal feeling, which people often mistakenly assume results from a composite of multiple images. The challenge here was finding a pleasing balance between my flash lighting and the potentially nasty mid-day sun. Liam shoots a lot of imagery himself, which he uses in his music videos etc, so he was very interested in my process and was a great collaborator."
http://liamfinn.tv/blog/

'Digger Mechanic', Bristol, England. Personal work.

"I’d packed away most of my gear at the end of a commercial shoot near this spot, when I noticed the fantastically filthy wall and the equally grubby mechanic working nearby. The lines, random objects and muted colours struck me as perfectly balanced, so I made this fairly spontaneous portrait. Using only available light, which is unusual for me, I shot three frames and was gone. The fact that this guy remains frozen in his slightly self-conscious pose, represents the power of photography for me. I remain intrigued by the little details in the picture, like his curiously white thumbnails and the almost fluorescent hints of red that seem to emerge from all the crap splattered on the wall. The moment of creating a strong visual balance from disparate elements, still has the power to excite me even after working professionally for over 15 years. My ultimate objective is to make very direct portraits, in settings that feel like they belong to a movie you never saw."

Mark Borchardt and Mike Schank, American independent film makers, London. Client: Time Out, London.

"One from deep in my archive — These guys were in the UK promoting their cult film American Movie, so Time Out magazine asked me to choose a location that felt like a scene from an American film. I like the sense of isolation that diner cafes can evoke, so I used the booths as a device to shoot the film-makers together, yet separated. As bona fide 'dudes' they were slightly shell shocked to find themselves out of their home environment of Milwaukee and thrust headlong into the British PR machine. This worked for my purposes because it feels like the viewer has intruded on their space rather than the other way round. At one point I realized Mike had heavy metal blaring from his headphones, rendering conversation virtually impossible. He clearly had no desire to remove them, so I took him by the shoulders and physically moved him into position. As a photographer I find I can sometimes take liberties that would earn most people a punch on the nose."
http://www.americanmovie.com

'Man Walking Dogs', Dungeness, England. Personal work.

"One of the highlights of my career in London, was an invitation by Jonathon Ellery at Browns Design http://brownsdesign.com/  to exhibit my ‘Glow’ series. This project explored the environment and community surrounding the nuclear power station at Dungeness in Southern England and combined portraits of those who lived near the nuclear reactors with landscape images of the unique environment. The creation of this particular image involved a combination of planning and good luck. I loved the bleakness at the end of the street and decided to set up a camera and lighting, on the off-chance that someone interesting might come by. Clearly it’s an underpopulated area, but despite the odds, my patience and conviction were rewarded when this man emerged from the house on the left and agreed to stand for a portrait with his lapdogs."
http://brownsdesign.com/

Julia Deans, New Zealand musician, Auckland, NZ. Client: Pulp magazine, NZ.

"In 2009 I approached Pulp magazine with the idea of shooting a series of fashion portraits of iconic New Zealand musicians. Julia is a bit of a no-nonsense rock chick, so when I told her I had a pink location in mind, she was none too impressed… until she saw it. The success of this picture lies simply in finding a great background that compliments the subject, carefully controlled lighting and good hair and makeup. Striking the right balance between reality and artifice is what I'm constantly striving to achieve, whether I'm working for magazines, designers, advertising agencies or shooting personal work."
http://www.myspace.com/juliadeans

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While working largely within the realm of traditional architectural photography (as seen on the pages of Urbis, Architecture NZ and ProDesign), Devitt's images exploit the physical features of his subjects in often unpredictable ways.  By highlighting their formal elements he creates elegant compositions that can seem at odds with the true function of the space portrayed.

Image from Simon Devitt's upcoming exhibition, 'Nature is a Maybe'.

In Drop, for example, dramatic lighting accentuates the shadows of folded fabric resulting in an effect not unlike a minimalist painting.  Similarly, in I'm Not at the Bottom, the reduced colour palette and subtle tonal variations imbue the depicted stairwell with a warm, almost romantic quality, drawing our attention away from the ordinariness of the stairs themselves towards the angles and rhythms that they create.

Other works move beyond an exploration of form, line and light to offer more direct interpretations of living spaces and environments. In some, Devitt places prosaic locations and objects alongside the glamorous interiors of high end living environments, a juxtaposition that both connects and disconnects the subjects.  In others, Devitt delights in the imperfections of daily life. With items such as rubbish bins and scuffed walls, dated bathtubs and empty rooms, he reinforces our awareness that the objects we are seeing are of the utmost ordinariness.  Yet it is just this banality that allows us to move beyond recognition of the facts of the composition to an almost illogical emotive response, where the most familiar of objects and surroundings seem somehow mysterious, intriguing or forbidding.

The efficacy of Devitt's series 'I See You There', from which 'Nature is a Maybe' is drawn, is the way in which even the most recognisable can cause us to look twice, and the smallest of details are capable of conveying the largest of ideas.

Nature is a Maybe
Gow Langsford Gallery
1– 5 June 2010
Preview: Tuesday 1 June, 5 — 7 pm

Image from Simon Devitt's upcoming exhibition, 'Nature is a Maybe'.

Image from Simon Devitt's upcoming exhibition, 'Nature is a Maybe'.

Image from Simon Devitt's upcoming exhibition, 'Nature is a Maybe'.

Image from Simon Devitt's upcoming exhibition, 'Nature is a Maybe'.

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New Zealander Scott Barbour, winner of the sport category. ©Scott Barbour courtesy of Sony World Photography Awards 2010.

Sport. ©Scott Barbour, courtesy of Sony World Photography Awards 2010.

Scott Barbour was born in Christchurch, New Zealand and has worked for Getty Images for over ten years as a staff photographer. Based in their Sydney and London offices, Barbour has covered events ranging from the Olympic Games to the Asian Tsunami. He is now a freelance photographer in Melbourne, Australia photographing corporate and editorial work.  Barbour has previously been recognised with numerous honours and awards including a World Press Photo award, Pictures of the Year International, NPPA, China International Press Photo, the British Picture Editors Awards, British Sports Journalists Awards and the IOC Best of Sport awards.

This series of winning images was shot at the 2009 Australian Open in Melbourne which is the first of the four Grand Slam tennis tournaments held each year.

Barbour says that “The Open takes place at the height of the Australian summer and is famous for its extremely hot days. Rafael Nadal defeated Roger Federer to win the men’s singles title in 2009. This was Nadal's first hard-court Grand Slam, having previously only won on clay at Roland Garros and grass at Wimbledon. He also became the first Spaniard ever to win the Australian Open.”

Barbour was one of 12 professional category winners announced in Cannes.  The full list is:

Photojournalism and Documentary

• Walter Astrada (Argentina) for Current Affairs
• Scott Barbour (New Zealand) for Sport
• Tommaso Ausili (Italy) for Contemporary Issues
• Paolo Pellegrin (Italy) for Arts and Entertainment

Commercial

• Martin Brent (United Kingdom) for Advertising
• David Handley (United Kingdom) for Fashion
• Mohammad Golchin (Iran) for Music

Fine Art

• Philipp Lohöefener (Germany)for Architecture
• Tommaso Bonaventura (Italy) for Portraiture
• Renhui Zhao (Singapore) for Conceptual and Constructed
• Pere Pascual (Spain) for Natural History
• Peter Franck (Germany) for Landscape

The prestigious L’Iris d’Or/Sony World Photography Awards Photographer of the Year award was presented to Italian photographer Tommaso Ausili.

Music. ©Mohammad Golchin, courtesy of Sony World Photography Awards 2010.

Tommaso Ausili (Italy), contemporary issues category winner. © Tommaso Bonaventura courtesy of Sony World Photography Awards 2010.

Tommaso Ausili (Italy), contemporary issues category winner. © Tommaso Bonaventura courtesy of Sony World Photography Awards 2010.

David Handley (United Kingdom) winner of the fashion category. © David Handley courtesy of Sony World Photography Awards 2010.

©Philipp Lohoefener, winner of the architecture category. Courtesy of Sony World Photography Awards 2010.

Architecture. ©Philipp Lohoefener, courtesy of Sony World Photography Awards 2010.

©Renhui Zhao winner of the conceptual and constructed category. Courtesy of Sony World Photography Awards 2010.

©Renhui Zhao winner of the conceptual and constructed category. Courtesy of Sony World Photography Awards 2010.

Arts and Entertainment. ©Paolo Pellegrin, courtesy of Sony World Photography Awards 2010.

Arts and Entertainment. ©Paolo Pellegrin Courtesy of Sony World Photography Awards 2010.

Natural History. ©Pere Pascual Courtesy of Sony World Photography Awards 2010.

Natural History. ©Pere Pascual Courtesy of Sony World Photography Awards 2010.

© Martin Brent courtesy of Sony World Photography Awards 2010. Winner of the advertising category.

Advertising. ©Martin Brent, courtesy of Sony World Photography Awards 2010.

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Photo gallery time. Here are two series of images that were recently brought to my attention. The photographer, Elam-graduate Hilary Upton, used some interesting techniques to achieve quite different results.

St Paul's Cathedral. Photo: Hilary Upton.

The first series of images is comprised of textured landscape shots of iconic buildings. The shots, variously entitled Find me in New York, Monday in Paris and London were tweaked in Photoshop, recreating methods that traditionally would have taken place in the dark room.

Upton says that pre-Photoshop she would have undertaken this process with an enlarger in the dark room by exposing two sets of film to paper. "Photoshop is basically the new dark room the only difference is you can see what you are doing – however I do feel it can sometimes be too easy to take modifications too far, and it's a shame to lose something in the process of taking the photo."

Big Ben. Photo: Hilary Upton.

Tower of London. Photo: Hilary Upton.

New York. Photo: Hilary Upton.

The second series, 'Tea', was taken using a process called TtV ( Through the Viewfinder), a technique that gives photographs a vintage feel, with soft focus, dust and scratches adding to the overall effect.

Lemon – taken using a Through the Viewfinder (TtV) technique. Photo: Hilary Upton.

"Through the Viewfinder photography is defined as taking a picture of any subject through the viewfinder of any camera with another camera," says Upton. "In this case I used the viewfinder of a vintage Argus and a Canon digital SLR with a macro lens. To block out any light or reflections I created and used a black card like sleeve over the Argus. Once you have captured the shot you are left with an image among a sea of black to which you then crop in Photoshop leaving the curved black frame of the photograph. I tend to print the image with an additional white border so you don't  loose anything when framing as such."

Soup. Photo: Hilary Upton.

String. Photo: Hilary Upton.

- Michael Barrett

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Photographer Simon Devitt covers a fair bit of ground in the pursuit of his architectural subject matter. Many readers will have seen his work on the pages of Architecture NZ, Urbis, landscape Architecture NZ and, indeed,  ProDesign. To be fair, those mags are all from the same AGM stable, but what the heck, a little self-promotion never killed anybody.

From 'I See You There', Simon Devitt's upcoming exhibition at the McNamara Gallery.

Anyway, Mr Devitt is a busy guy, with a couple of exhibitions in the pipeline, both upcoming at Whanganui's McNamara Gallery. The first, which runs, from 5–6 February is entitled 'I See You There'. Devitt says this body of work comes from his commercial work as a photographer of architecture.

"These are pictures that stand by themselves outside of the story they originated from. They have seductive, sometimes surreal qualities. These pictures reveal a sense of place, a sense of belonging; how it felt for me to be there in that moment."

From 'I See You There', Simon Devitt's upcoming exhibition at the McNamara Gallery.

From 'I See You There', Simon Devitt's upcoming exhibition at the McNamara Gallery.

From 'I See You There', Simon Devitt's upcoming exhibition at the McNamara Gallery.

The second exhibition Devitt is involved in isn't a solo outing, and it only has a week to run in Whanganui before it moves cross country to Aratoi: The Wairarapa Museum of Art and History. This exhibition, 'A Serious Kind of Beauty: The Heroic Landscape' also features works from Wayne Barrar, Peter Evans, Derek Henderson, William Partington, Arthur Iles and others. Fans of epic, unusual and historical landscape photography shouldn't be disappointed.

- Michael Barrett

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A selection of images from the CIWEM Environmental Photographer of the Year.

'Solitary Soul' by Anindya Majumdar, from India. Highly commended in the Natural World category.

'Talking About Stars', the competition-winning image by Moldova's Bolucevschi Vitali Nicolai

Moldova's Bolucevschi Vitali Nicolai was selected as Environmental Photographer of the Year 2009 and Natural World categoory winner. Describing Nicolai's photo, Talking About Stars, competition judge Lord Smith, Chairman of the Environment Agency, who said: “This is a compelling image that conveys the beauty, the fragility, and the delicacy of nature in an extraordinary way. It reminds us that the environment, in its smallest detail as well as its grandest sweep, needs care and stewardship from us all.”

'Fog Arising' by Singapore's Daniel Sin Gim San.

'Glacier' by England's Carlotta Maitland Smith.

Quality of Life category winner. 'Living Stone, A Community Losing its Life' by Khaled Hasan, Bangladesh.

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