2015


S E L F   P U B L I S H E D   F I N A L I S T S   (view here)

T R A D E   P U B L I S H E D    F I N A L I S T S  (view here)

Self Published 2015
 

C O M M E N D E D

Cascade
Photography by Shelley Jacobson
shelleyjacobson.co.nz
 
Design: Shelley Jacobson
Editon Size: 10
RRP:  P.O.A.
Buy a copy


Artist Description
Shelley Jacobson is an Auckland-based artist. She describes her practice as a series of discrete studies in cultural geography. She completed a Master of Fine Arts at Massey University, Wellington (2009) and a Diploma of Publishing though Whitireia New Zealand (2012).
 
Book Description
In Cascade, Shelley Jacobson pursues artefacts of industrial land use. Its works offer frame-filled views of terrain: forestry tract flora; hydro dam edifices; falling river water; scenic trails and lookouts. Visual studies of physical barriers and free-flowing water act as proxies for themes of stasis and change within an environment. These explorations continue in the book's physical form, with tension and release expressed through the sequencing of different paper stocks.

Judges' Comment
Cascade is a quietly powerful and simply profound book.  The design and image editing are highly considered yet naturally understated. The typography and captioning create visual poetry, so that this publication easily crosses over into artist book territory. This is a photo book with universal appeal.

C O M M E N D E D

The Inbetween
Photography by Georgia Periam
 
Design: Georgia Periam
Edition Size: 7

Artist Description
Third year student at Whitecliffe College of Arts and Design.
 
Book Description
The Inbetween is a dedication to that moment in childhood where innocence is lost and all you have is yourself. It is a reflection of my childhood that finished much too soon. Life was a dark and twisted fairytale, including a wicked stepmother and  twin sisters, without the happy ever after. Each image is a childhood memory. As I relived each moment I played with the concept of memories being fluid and changeable, and created new meaninsg for these rural landscapes. The horizon line is a recurring visual, symbolising an unreachable, idyllic place where anything is possible. 
 
Judges' Comment
The Inbetween presents a nutty and playful engagement with the New Zealand landscape, and its whimsical humour can be appreciated by photography critics and lovers alike. Its embossed red cover is reflects the story that plays out on the pages inside.

F I N A L I S T

Waipureku
Photography by Conor Findlay
instagram.com/conor_j_findlay
 
Design: Conor Findlay
Edition Size: 1
RRP: P.O.A.
Buy a copy

Artist Description
Conor Findlay's photography is heavily inspired by the "New Topographics" movement of the mid-1970s. He uses medium format film to create images that highlight the changing face and social landscape in the small towns of Aotearoa.
 
Book Description
Waipureku highlights the irony of the Hastings District Council's ten-year vision for the small coastal township of Clive, versus the harsh reality that befell it and many other small townships, scattered throughout the islands of New Zealand.

Judges' Comment
This is small town Aotearoa/New Zealand channelled through the lens of a ‘New Topographic’ visionary. The carefully catalogued series of images takes us on a reflective journey through place in a state of flux, looking to the past but also looking to the future.

F I N A L I S T

The Reality Principle
Photography by Yvonne Shaw
 
Design: Yvonne Shaw
Edition Size: 5

Artist Description
Yvonne Shaw is a photographer who lives and works in Auckland. In 2015 she completed a Bachelor of Design and Visual Arts, majoring in Photography, at Unitec. Landscapes, found objects, and portraits have been recurring motifs within her work. Often the subjects of portraits are situated so as to blur boundaries between private and public spaces. Recent projects depict women meditating in parks, strangers in their homes, friends in motels, her own family during a time of grief; all asked to participate in photographs which straddle a line between documentary and staged images.
 
Book Description
In The Reality Principle I photographed my subjects, (all women I knew) in motel rooms. By removing them from normal social context such as home, work and leisure environments, there is an emphasis on the psychological state of the subject. The narrative is ambiguous.
 
Judges' Comment
Something like a series of movie stills constructed in sad motel rooms, The Reality Principle conjures up ambiguous psychological states. The economical design provides room for the reader to negotiate these existential spaces.

F I N A L I S T

Some kind of life in dying
Photography by Shelley Ashford
 
Design: Harrison Sarsfield
Edition Size: 4
RRP: P.O.A.
Buy a copy

Artist Description
Fourth year student at Whitecliffe College of Arts and Design majoring in PhotoMedia.
 
Book Description
Some kind of life in dying documents the journey of a man in his last few months with cancer. You witness the effects of cancer, experience his highs and lows, and gain insight into how one lives with a death sentence and the loss of a life they once knew. I helped with his care, took him to places from his youth, and talked about the frustrations of dying within 'the hospital system'. This project became more than just an observation of a patient but a story about a father and daughter.
 
Judges' Comment
Archival and recent photographs come together to offer a bittersweet meditation on the end game.  Working with translucent images and minimal text, the book deals with the tensions of a troubled relationship in a poetic way.

F I N A L I S T

When the sun sets your eyes change colour (I hope this is true)
Photography by Solomon Mortimer and Zahra Killeen-Chance
solomonmortimer.com

Design: Solomon Mortimer and Zahra Killeen-Chance
Edition Size: 50
RRP:  NZD$80
Buy a copy

Artist Description
Solomon Mortimer is a photographer specialising in social documentary and photobook publishing. Zahra Killeen-Chance is a choreographer and performer for theatre and gallery spaces. They have been collaborating since 2012 creating photographs and video works. This book is their first publication together.
 
Book Description
When the sun sets your eyes change colour (I hope this is true) is a collaboration between Solomon Mortimer and Zahra Killeen-Chance about their relationship. It was made for an exhibition at Peter McLeavey Pop Up Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand, 2014.
 
Judges' Comment
This co-authored work is both the subject of, and the fruit of an intimate relationship.  Portraits, diary notes, correspondence and drawings come together to form a book that is as beautiful and vulnerable as the lives accounted for in its tiny pages.

Trade Published 2015
 

C O M M E N D E D

Creamy Psychology
Photography by Yvonne Todd
ervon.com
 
Publisher: Victoria University Press
Editing: Robert Leonard
Design: Spencer Levine In association with City Gallery Wellington
Editon Size: 1000
RRP: NZD$60
Buy a copy

Artist Description
Todd is best known for her portraits of women, her mostly invented female 'characters'. These portraits are typically contrived, and nostalgically styled and art directed. Many of her characters seem to suffer from some soap-operatic malaise, explicit or implicit. They include cosmeticians, cripples, modest Christians, anorexics, cult members, showgirls and tragic heiresses. Todd incorporates herself into their world, being one of her own favourite models. Her work has a complex relation with feminism. In 2009, Todd produced a portrait series of imagined male corporate executives and in 2014, a series of vegans. She also produces still lifes, landscapes and videos.
 
Book Description
Creamy Psychology surveys Todd's work since the late 1990s, including her recent Gilbert Melrose project and her latest photographic series Ethical Minorities (Vegans). It contains new essays by Todd herself, Robert Leonard, Misha Kavka, Claire Regnault, Megan Dunn, and Anthony Byrt. It also contains an archival section with earlier essays, including key pieces by Leonard, Dunn, Justin Paton, and Justin Clemens. Comprehensively illustrated, Creamy Psychology is the new go-to book on Yvonne Todd. It accompanied a major show at City Gallery Wellington in 2014-2015.
 
Judges’ Comment
Creamy Psychology, the photobook, accompanies Yvonne Todd's exhibition of the same name, enhanced by the addition of critical essays. The book's strong design sustains the strangeness and unease of the photographs, and the text is integrated in a way that doesn't overwhelm the imagery. The paper stock is well chosen, and the beautifully printed cover completes the package.

F I N A L I S T

The Imperial Body
Photography by Fiona Amundsen
fionaamundsen.com

Publisher: split/fountain
Design: Layla Tweedie-Cullen of Narrow Gauge
Edition Size: 750
RRP:  NZD$67.00
Buy a copy

Artist Description
Fiona Amundsen is an artist and lecturer at AUT University, Auckland. Utilising pseudo ethnographic methods, her practice employs photography to articulate philosophical and anthropological objectives concerning the representation of Anglo-American and Japanese pre/post WWII histories, and their established images and corresponding narratives. Her recent projects have focused on the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, the 1941 Japanese initiated Pearl Harbor attack, the American initiated Battle of Okinawa, and the Japanese occupation of Singapore. Her work has been widely exhibited in both New Zealand and internationally.
 
Book Description
The Imperial Body brings together three interrelated series: Operation Magic (2012), Most Honourable Son (2013) and See You at Yasukuni (2014). Each series focuses, on the sites of the 1941 Japanese initiated Pearl Harbour attack; the plight of Ben Kuroki, the only American of Japanese descent permitted to fight in aerial combat in the Asia Pacific Theatre of WWII, and the Tokyo based Yasukuni Shrine, which is dedicated to those who died whilst serving the Emperor. Utilising photography and moving-image these artworks explore how images are able to fracture paradigmatic socio-cultural histories and narratives associated with how the Asia Pacific Theatre is officially memorialised and narrated across parts of Asia and the Pacific: the focus concerns what sits outside of known official narratives and memorialisation. The publication includes four essays, which like the artworks provide counter experiences to historicised narratives of the Asia Pacific Theatre.
 
Judges’ Comment
This image-driven book shows how scholarship and an acute visual sensibility can be harnessed to create an innovative platform for considering trauma and histories, in this case the Pearl Harbour attack of 1941. The complex layering of histories is embodied in the rhythmic shifts in paper stock.

F I N A L I S T

New Zealand Photography Collected
Photography by Te Papa Collection
 
Publisher: Te Papa Press, Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
Editing: Hannah Newport-Watson, Te Papa Press
Design: Alan Deare of Area Design
Curtor: Athol McCredie
Edition Size: 1750
RRP: ND$99.99
Buy a copy

Artist Description
Athol McCredie is Curator Photography at Te Papa, where he has worked since 2001. Prior to that he was curator and acting director at Manawatu Art Gallery (now Te Manawa), and he has been involved with photography as researcher, curator and photographer since the 1970s. His publications include Witness to Change (co-authored with Janet Bayly, PhotoForum, 1985), Fields of Golden Daffodils (National Library, 1991) and Brian Brake: Lens on the world (Te Papa Press, 2010).
 
Book Description
From the sublime to the surreal, the familiar to the forgotten and the 1850s to the present - New Zealand Photography Collected illuminates the history of photography in New Zealand, from the earliest 19th century portraits of Maori and local 'scenic views' to the latest contemporary art photography. It features 400+ photographs drawn from the national collection at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. Author and curator Athol McCredie offers a fresh narrative that foregrounds photography's wide-ranging uses across portraiture, landscape, science, documentary photography and art, and contemplates the way it has been collected - both privately and publicly - through time.  What emerges is also a surprising and powerful portrait of Aotearoa - its landscapes, its people and its changing character as a nation.
 
Judges’ Comment
This beautifully produced volume examines the stories behind the photographic collections of New Zealand’s national museum, Te Papa Tongarewa.  With over 400 images, the book is a rewarding and provocative exploration of the medium, including vernacular, scientific and art photography.

F I N A L I S T

Karakia
Photography by Ben Clement, Sallyann Clement
benclementphoto.com
 
Publisher: Bloom Publishing
Editing & Design: Lloyd Stubber
Edition Size: 500
RRP: NZD$36.00
Buy a copy

Artist Description
Ben Clement is a NZ-born, Melbourne-based photographer who has been forging his style and pushing the envelope as a practicing photo-artist and professional in London, New York, Los Angeles, Tokyo and beyond fo the last 11 years. Ben combines his projects with his lifestyle to make authentic and honest work. He is the editor of Good Sport Magazine, head content producer for Hard Workers Club and& co-coordinator of the Independent Photography Festival.
 
Book Description
Karakia showcases images from New Zealand-born artist Ben Clement alongside his mother, Sallyann Clement's previously unseen photographic archive. The images selected were taken over 5-years during the 1980s and follow her travels through New Zealand's vast national parks, to the cobbled streets of Western Europe. Sallyann's timeless images set the tone for her son Ben, whose contemporary images - selected over the same timeline and trace a similar geographical path - share a familiar quality as he follows his mother's footsteps some 20 years later.

Karakia, means thankful, blessed or prayer, so it is appropriate that the book is Ben's homage to Sallyann's work, her role as mother and as the catalyst for his creative projects, it also pays respect to the areas of Gisborne, Tairawhiti and Te Uruwera.
 
Judges’ Comment
Two generations of photographers respond to each other’s life stories. The result is a mysterious, edgy and seamlessly edited piece of design. Karakia takes the reader into a dream-space where aged images seem new, and fresh images seem like recovered memories.

Judges