Alice Connew, Michael Itkoff (Daylight Books), Wendy Brandon and MC Alasdair Foster

Central City Library
44/46 Lorne St, Auckland Central

Sunday 1 June 2025, 12-2.30 pm

Auckland Festival of Photography presents Talking Culture - Photobook Panel.

The festival is pleased to bring to Auckland, for the 8th annual Photobook event - come along to see presentations from NZ artists/photographers, who have published or are in the planning/design phase for their photography books, while viewing a selection of these books in person.

This is an in-person onsite event, no online participation available.

Presentations - 25 mins + Q&A

Michael Itkoff, USA is a publisher, consultant, and former Chief Content Officer at Britelite Immersive. Michael Co-founded the internationally-celebrated art book publishing house, Daylight as well as content experience platform, Fabl. For over twenty years Michael has been a leader in publishing both digital and print media.

Michael will be sharing details of the Daylight Books portfolio as well as their collaboration with Chris Corson-Scott, NZ.

THE AFTERGLOW OF INDUSTRY: NEW ZEALAND PHOTOGRAPHS 2012-2022. ChrisCorson-Scott. Daylight Books, 2025.
The Afterglow of Industry collects photographs and texts made during a 10-year project in which the artist repeatedly traveled the length of New Zealand, from its urban centers to its most remote landscapes.

Dr Wendy Brandon will discuss a series of photobooks she made in the course of her Doctor of Fine Arts degree completed at Elam, University of Auckland, in 2024. Wendy will discuss the use of photobooks to document artists' projects and as an archive.

Alice Connew is a photographer and publisher whose work is exhibited regularly in Europe and Oceania. Her recent photobook Still Looking Good won the People’s Choice Award at the Australia and New Zealand Photobook Awards 2019 and was listed as the Best Antipodean Photobook 2019. She studied at the Ilam School of Fine Arts in Ōtautahi, New Zealand and relocated to Bristol, UK in 2021 after almost a decade in Berlin. Alice is the co-founder of GLORIA Books, an award-winning independent art publisher.

An exquisite portrait of trailblazing women motorcyclists, photographed by artist Alice Connew. When artist Alice Connew set out to photograph the Petrolettes women motorcycle group four years ago, she had never been on a bike. The result of her journey riding pillion is a rich and surprising portrait of those who own the road — and the photo frame. In Joyriders, women unite under the banner of the Petrolettes and move through industrial ports, iron graveyards and tree-lined roads; they gather in front of genteel cultural landmarks for festivals and protests. Atop their bikes or careening down the road, their physical presence and inventive fashion affirms the role of the woman rider. In the context of a patriarchal gaze that omits women’s contributions to motoring culture, this selection of photographs shows their ongoing resistance with subtlety and strength.

MC Alasdair Foster is a regular keynote speaker, portfolio reviewer at Festivals around the world, he publishes regularly interviews with photographers for his Talking Pictures project, he writes for international publications on trends in cultural development. He has curated internationally acclaimed photography exhibitions in Festivals all over the world. He is based in Brisbane.

Photobook Sunday