Reuben Price's NZ Flora photographic prints

Pohutukawa Portrait Flora Print

New prints just released by Auckland photographer Reuben Price are truly breathtaking.  His game changing new series of "NZ Flora" art prints have an incredibly life-like three dimensional effect that is completely unlike any other photography prints currently available in New Zealand.

We asked Reuben how he managed to achieve these remarkable images of New Zealand plants such as the Silver Fern, Pohutukawa and Kowhai.

He told us that a custom built flower press was the first step in a long and painstaking process to create this series of artworks.  Reuben then placed the plants in a completely light controlled environment of his own design so that all visible shadows were removed.

The next step was to capture the detail of the subject using ultra high resolution photography.

Printing the finished photograph was done by Reuben in house, the series are printed using lightfast inks and offer incredibly good value at $69.95 each.

Every print from the NZ flora series is finished with a hand embossed emblem on the bottom left hand corner.  This series deserves to be very popular with print buyers and we hope that the five initial prints are followed up soon with an extended range of subjects, we would love to see Kakabeak (both white and red), Kowhai flowers and the Chatham Islands Lily given the same high tech meets fine art photography treatment.

NZ Photographer's "Winery Doors" poster series takes off

Nelson & Marlborough Winery Doors Poster

"Winery Doors" photographer Renee Dale

One of the things that perplexes us here at NZ Fine Prints is the comparatively small number of photography posters and prints by NZ photographers that are for sale in the New Zealand art market and the generally lacklustre level of sales - apart from the top selling poster of NZ tramping huts! New Zealand's other top selling photographic posters are the iconic view of Auckland's One Tree Hill (before the loss of the lone pine) and Rangitoto Island by Paolo Koch but apart from posters by Nelson nature photographer Craig Potton there is not yet a large number of well known (what we sometimes call "brand name") NZ photographers whose work is popular in a fine art print or poster format. The interest in collecting historic and contemporay NZ fine art photography that has led to some astonishingly high prices at auction over recent years has not yet translated into sales of posters of work by NZ photographers.

Recently however a young NZ photographer called Renee Dale (pictured above left on location) has put together a series of winery door posters that are chalking up an impressively large numbers of sales with over 100 retailers now carrying her posters across Australasia.  Renee Dale's "Winery Doors" concept has taken her from her first poster of cellar doors in Hawkes Bay and Wairarapa, through Central Otago and Canterbury and she has just released her newest poster in the series, this time of wineries in Nelson and Marlborough (pictured above right). Dale has also completed posters in this series showing doors of wineries in the winegrowing regions of the US and Australia.  We have been amazed at the popularity of these posters after sending them all around the world over the past few months - we agree with the sentiments of a Hawkes Bay winery owner who told Renee recently that he had "bought a box and thought I would just see how they went.  Well, I was completely wrong to be worried.  The first 10 sold out within the first week or so, so I ordered another 2 boxes.  Then they sold out, and so on... People just love these cellar door posters...".  It's a great concept and we look forward to the next project from this enterprising young NZ photographer.

Photographer Fiona Pardington says Inkjet prints are exciting, powerful and extending her artistic practice

Fiona Pardington is at the forefront of New Zealand's current generation of fine art photographers.  Much has been written about her use of "pure" analogue darkroom techniques such as hand printing and toning so it was a revelation to hear the following excerpt from her interview with Kim Hill on National Radio's "Saturday Morning with Kim Hill Show" on Saturday.

Kim Hill asks, "A couple of technical questions, what's Hahnemule cotton rag paper?"

Fiona Pardington: "It's a beautiful, you know if I was a watercolourist or someone like [NZ Painter] John Reynolds I'd be using that."

Kim Hill: "What is it?"

Fiona Pardington: "It's this lovely rag paper, it's just a paper a big thick chunky beautiful watercolourly looking paper and it's archival and, ahhh, inkiets great. It's for me, I kind of treat it like its a kind of historical photolithography process."

Kim Hill: "And is this what you are using?"

Fiona Pardington: "Yes, I have sold my soul to the digital world. "

Kim Hill: "...and you are using inkjet on cotton rag paper?"

Fiona Pardington: "Yes, it's sexy, I am. It is beautiful."

Kim Hill: "…and would I, if I knew about these things, would I look at your photographs and say yes, they are made by inkjet prints?"

Fiona Pardington: "No, well actually a few people haven't really known how I'd done it."

Kim Hill: "So what difference does it make?"

Fiona Pardington: "So it ranges, to me its a kind of… when you can find a new material that extends your practice and takes all of the qualities that you have had with them but they are transformed through another substance in a new unique way that has your aesthetic integrity intact in that transformation - that's when you move materials and for me I'm just like a pig in mud, it's so exciting. It has allowed me to think and see differently and to experience a lot of the qualities and talents that I have in a new and more powerful way."

With one of New Zealand's leading contemporary photographers in both the academic and artistic worlds embracing the new world of digital printing  as not only preserving her artistic integrity but also being so excited with the possibilities that she is like a "pig in mud" we think that serious collectors of New Zealand photography can embrace digital editions by photographers like Craig Potton with total confidence.

Photography Prints & Posters by New Zealand Photographers

As I catalogue new prints that come in I am continually surprised by how little New Zealand photography is available for sale. Some of our top selling photographic prints and posters were published last century!

To remedy this we are working with some well known photographers like David Kerr to develop (no pun intended) an initial range of good contemporary New Zealand landscape photography. We are starting with a series of limited edition photographic prints of David's favourite photographs from several decades of work - like his famous photograph of the Four Square store on Waiheke Island pictured at right.

I would love to hear readers of New Zealand Art Print News what kind of NZ photography you would like to have available as large format prints. Special places or typical NZ scenes? Famous New Zealand photographers like Marti Friedlander or Peter Peyer? Leave me a comment...